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Speaker 1: Alrighty, welcome to another episode of On the Clock, part of the Just Baseball media.
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Speaker 2: My name is Jared.
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Speaker 1: We got Mark, but we have a very special guest with us today, Ryan McPherson out of Mississippi State. One of the aces on the, I say aces because you got multiple guys that just absolutely show up. One of the aces on the Mississippi State pitching staff. Ryan, man, welcome to the show.
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Speaker 3: Thank you guys for having me.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, excited to have you on.
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Speaker 1: The first question we always ask, guys, so just give us a little bit of background on your amateur journey, kind of how you've gotten to where you are today and who you are on the field, off the field.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I started playing baseball when I was about nine years old.
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Speaker 4: I really only started playing because I wanted to play with my friends, you know, just some of my best friends.
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Speaker 3: I played basketball or whatever, and they played baseball. I'm like, why not?
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Speaker 4: You know, and I just fell in love with it from there, you know, started pitching around like 10 or 11 years old. but really got serious after my injury my freshman year, sort of like ticked up in Velo, and then committed to Mississippi State my sophomore year.
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Speaker 3: And of course had a UCL injury, and then we're here. I love it.
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Speaker 5: Love that, man. Tell me just a little bit about what the choice was to go to Mississippi State. This is a great ballpark, unbelievable fan base, but just the journey to get to Mississippi State and be a part of this huge culture.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, I had a lot of guidance from my coaches. You know, they've said such amazing things about Mississippi State. And then actually coming here, seeing the stadium, seeing the fans, interactions with the fans, it really made me feel like home.
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Speaker 3: And I feel like if you want to play at the next level, you have to play here.
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Speaker 4: You know, it's the best, like, it's the closest thing to the next level, I feel like, with the fans, the intensity, and it's SEC baseball.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I love it. Talk a little bit about just kind of the coaching staff change.
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Speaker 4: Right.
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Speaker 1: Last year, you had your first year under Brian O'Connor. I cover Virginia baseball quite a bit and got to see firsthand what he did with that program over a very long period of time and the winning success and just the kind of person that he is. And what's it like to be able to play for Coach O'Connor and that coaching staff?
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Speaker 2: That's just absolutely.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, first of all, Coach O'Connor is unbelievable.
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Speaker 3: I mean, it's the best head coach ever.
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Speaker 4: Best coach I've ever had in my life and the way that he carries himself, the way that he tries to preach his things, the way how he tries to make you a better man and the way that his first priority is you to make you a better player and a better man. And he makes it known that like, it's not his team, it's our team. And he's just here to help us guide us, you know, kind of down the way. And then, you know, I've, I'm not as like close with the other coaches because I'm not really involved with them, but coach Mack or all of them, you know, they're all like, just great guys, you know, it was just checking up on you. Just, they're almost like father figures in a way. And then, you know, of course, coach Parker, you know, I love him, man. He's great coach.
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Speaker 2: I love it.
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Speaker 5: Yeah. You know, Ryan, you talked a little bit about this fan base and 24 of the 25 biggest crowds ever in the history of college baseball has been at this ballpark. Talk a little bit about their traditions and what those fans really bring to you guys as a team out there on that.
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Speaker 3: Field, man.
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Speaker 4: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: You know, when they're out there, you just want to play for them.
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Speaker 4: It's, when you're out on the mound, you're in the baddest box, whatever it is, it's, it's almost at ease because you have all 15,000 or however many fans are out there behind you trying to like root for you and get you better. And, you know, it's just like unbelievable support, you know, even if like, I just got into like a little car crash thing and I have the fans reaching out to me trying to tell me where to go, you know, it's just very home, like very, like close knitted, like group of like people.
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Speaker 3: And it's, it's just unbelievable.
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Speaker 4: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: I love that.
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Speaker 1: For you personally, kind of what are some of the goals? We're somehow almost wrapped up with the fall. It feels like we just finished the season last year, but what are some of the goals for you going into 27 as you kind of look to build on your success from 26?
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Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, team goals, you know, just win. You know, we want to make it to Omaha. We want the last game of the season to be a win and not a loss. And personal goals to really refine the slider that I've been working on. I think it's getting close to it. And then just throwing more strikes with everything and not having as big of misses. Yeah.
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Speaker 5: Speaking on that a little bit, like who do you emulate your game around? Like, I know that we all look at guys. We're like, Hey man, this is the guy I want to be, or this is the guy that I kind of take some little things from. Is there somebody that stands out to you or some people that you're like, Hey, I would really like to be that at the next level.
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Speaker 4: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: I mean, right now I wouldn't say as much.
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Speaker 4: Definitely when I was younger, I really tried to emulate my game around like
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Kershaw, you know, I had the low, like, like kick of that, the same as him when I was younger, but now it's just really like, I feel like I'm myself. I can't, I shouldn't want to be like other people and I'm just trying to refine myself to the best I can.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: And you kind of talked about Kershaw.
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Speaker 1: I think one of the things that always impressed me about Kershaw is kind of the mindset he took into each start. I think you have somewhat of that bulldog mentality on the mound, right? You go out there kind of with no fear and, And that's hard to do through like the grueling.
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Speaker 2: Schedule of an SEC schedule.
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Speaker 1: So how do you kind of stay level-headed through those weeks of the grind of the SEC schedule and just kind of through the bad performances, the good performances, kind of stay steady?
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Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a learning process. You know, last year was my first time starting. So I would say going into this year and towards the end of last year, I guess, is staying present. Don't try to look ahead of things. Take it game by game. pitch by pitch, inning by inning, however you want to look at it, but you can't look too far ahead because then the president's just going to go all wrong and that's going to mess with the future. So you just need to stay clear headed level and just start with pitch one. Yeah.
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Speaker 5: That makes a lot of sense there. I mean, team goals, obviously getting back to Omaha. So how do you guys start this thing now and get yourselves in a position where you're ready to get back to Omaha here in 2027?
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Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's, it comes down with like a lot of the older guys, like really teaching the younger kids, like, This is what we need to do. Like this isn't like really high school anymore. Like it's a lot what's about to happen and try to prepare them the best they can.
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Speaker 3: Along with, you.
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Speaker 4: Know, other people that are coming from other schools use their knowledge like Stump. He's been to Omaha like he knows how and like what you need. And a big thing for him is team chemistry and just trying to get the team as close as we can and have people rely on each.
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Speaker 3: Other instead of just having to rely on yourself.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that.
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Speaker 1: Kind of going back to the mindset thing, too, you kind of battled some injuries last year. So for you, what did that kind of teach you, just kind of going through that process and having to overcome that process? Because sometimes, like, those things happen throughout a season, right? It can kind of be kind of a mental toll for you. But how did you kind of take that learning experience for you to kind of help develop you a little bit more?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it sucks.
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Speaker 4: You know, you want to be out there for your team. You want to perform. You want to, you know, win for your brothers. But definitely a learning curve. for me is just not taking for granted and something with my throwing program that I've fixed this year that I think is going to help me out in the long run of baseball longevity is with your throws have it more quality than quantity you know I would go out there try to throw as hard as I can pretty pretty much every day and just like trying to work on my stuff throw spin through this and I realize I don't need to be throwing 100% all the time to be working on my stuff I could be going like 50 to 70% and just save my arm and, you know, just be really mindful of each throw.
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Speaker 3: Love that.
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Speaker 5: You know, Hey, this is your third season now here. You're like, you're getting ready for a big one here. You've kind of taken a role now from where you were, you know, coming on and now you learned how to be a starter last year. And now you're going to be in this leadership role. How do you kind of graduate through that.
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Speaker 3: And kind of take that on?
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Speaker 5: And like you said, kind of take those young guys on your wing and kind of build them up and get them ready for an SEC.
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Speaker 4: Season, man.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I like leading by example, to be honest.
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Speaker 4: I'm not, like, the hugest, like, speaker or, like, raw guy to get everybody behind me. I feel like that's more Tomas. He uses more words. And I feel like I use lead by example. Like, I try to teach as much as I can. If somebody has a problem, I teach.
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Speaker 3: Them right away. Or if I'm doing my own work and.
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Speaker 4: I make sure I don't take days off when I'm doing my work so people see what I'm doing, they're like, if he's doing it, I have to do it also.
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Speaker 2: I love it.
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Speaker 4: I love it.
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Speaker 1: So we like to wrap up with a few rapid fire fun questions here to kind of, to wrap things up. So for you, what is the go-to food spot either in Starkville or back home?
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Speaker 4: Man, I've been on a big Zaxby's like, you know, I've been going Zaxby's a lot recently. I wish we had a Kava down here though. If we had a Kava down here, I'd be probably at Kava like every day.
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Speaker 2: That was like my go-to in college. Yeah.
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Speaker 4: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: Love that.
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Speaker 5: Outside of baseball, what do you do for fun? Is it hunting, fishing, golfing, something out there with the friends, family?
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Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I'm trying to get into hunting. I'm going to go with some of my roommates. Duke Stone is one of my roommates. I'm going to try to go with him. Golf, I suck at, but I go every once in a while. I mean, it's really bad. I'm trying to go more often, but it's pretty hard for me to keep going because it's like just lose a bunch of balls and I don't want to buy more. um and then i like video games a lot i'm a big video gamer you know i like i like doing that and i'm watching the whole marvel like universe like series with my like girlfriend right now so uh.
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Speaker 1: If you could face one mlb hitter right now who would you want to face just to see what that– having that attempt on the mound and facing them.
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Speaker 2: In an at-bat?
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Speaker 3: I mean, I feel like you've got to pick Otani, you know? Yeah. I mean, Otani's the guy. Or maybe Mike Trout. I don't know. One of those.
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Speaker 4: I mean, Mike Trout was probably the first, like, role model MLB player I had, like, growing up.
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Speaker 3: So him or Otani. I love it. I like that. I like that.
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Speaker 5: Any rituals on game day? Like you're like, Hey, I have to do this every single game day outside of like the normal routine that you would for pitching.
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Speaker 4: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
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Speaker 3: A bunch.
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Speaker 4: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: I have a whole bunch of superstitions.
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Speaker 4: I got to shave my face before like the night before got to just a bunch of stuff I got to do, you know, just, I got to feel clean.
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Speaker 3: I don't know. It's a weird thing, but I got to feel clean.
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Speaker 4: And then I do four of everything, like four of every drill that I do for every rep that I do.
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Speaker 3: Just a weird like superstition. I don't know why, but the number four.
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Speaker 5: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: Uh, last one I got for you. So, uh, what was the 2026 walkout song? Is it coming back in 2027?
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Speaker 4: You know, as of right now it is, I've been trying to like play around with different, different songs. Um, but right now superstar, I think it's, it's staying, it's staying for the fall at least.
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Speaker 3: We're trying to figure out what we're going to do for the spring. But I like it so far.
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Speaker 2: I dig it.
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Speaker 5: Last one I got for you here. Who's the most fun in the locker room? Who's the guy that you're like, man, that guy's having a good time, even when it's not good?
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Speaker 4: I mean, Tomas is definitely up there for one of them. I would say JT Schnoor. He's on the team. I mean, he's been with me for the past three years. He's had a lot of injuries, and it's a really sad story. But he's– I mean, for what he's gone through, he's always, like, on top of the room, like the funniest guy, like you'll ever meet the greatest guy, you know, it's definitely him.
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Speaker 2: I love it.
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Speaker 1: Ryan, we can't thank you enough for taking the time to join us on the college baseball show and on the clock.
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Speaker 2: We will follow in your journey.
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Speaker 1: It's been awesome just to sit down and chat with you for a few minutes, wishing you all nothing but the success in 2027. And we'll definitely be watching.
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Speaker 3: Thank you guys so much. Thanks for coming on, man.