What a dandy for you this week as Outside The Chute had the pleasure of having past guest, Blair Setford and head play by play announcer for the Men's WBSC's, Kyle Smith, join the podcast to do a deep dive and preview the upcoming Men’s 2025 season in the ISC’s, Canadian Senior Men’s Nationals and the WBSC World Cup taking place, on Canadian soil, in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan from July 7th to the 14th.

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Outside The Chute had the pleasure of sitting down with 2023 Home Run Sports umpire of the year, Newfoundland’s own, Kearney O’Keefe.

This is such a great episode.  Kearney tells us how she got involved in the game of fastpitch growing up, her time playing south of the border in North Carolina at Louisbourg College, coming back home to Newfoundland and playing in the Senior Women’s league, a fantastic story on how and why she got involved in umpiring and so much more.

Kearney was an absolute pleasure to chat with.  We 100% need more people like her in the game giving back like she does.

One last thing, don’t forget, snap a screen shot, let us know that you’re listening, tag us.  Kearney’s at kmokeefe13 on Instagram, we’re at outsidethechute on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

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Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with 2024 Allstar in the WPF with the Texas Monarchs, Duke University alum, host of the Softball Speakeasy Podcast, and current Graduate Assistant with the Clemson Tigers, the one and only, Kelly Torres.

Kelly is coming off her first professional season with the Texas Monarchs of the WPF after having a fantastic 4 year career at Duke University, where she was on the ACC Honor Roll three of those seasons and then capped it off with an NFCA All-Region 3rd Team selection in her Senior season.

She also is the host, along with former guest of the show Raine Wilson, of the Softball Speakeasy Podcast which will be coming back for season 3 in 2025.

We’re gonna talk to Kel about getting her start in the game, her awesome parents and how they helped her through her journey, why Duke was always the destination, turning pro, and so much more.

Kelly was an absolute pleasure to chat with and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for down the road for her.

With that being said, don’t forget, snap a screen shot, let us know that you’re listening, tag us.  Kel’s at kellytorres8 on Instagram, and kellyytorress on Twitter, we’re at outsidethechute on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

Athletes Unlimited pro and Marshall Assistant Coach, the one and only, Sydney McKinney

What a career Syd has had to date and its still going strong!   I mean, I just mentioned a couple of her accolades but the list she has from what she accomplished at Wichita State is just ridiculous. Listen to this!

She was a five-year letter winner and started all 244 games from 2019-23. She had a career batting average of .451 with 28 home runs and 132 runs batted in. She finished her career ranked fifth in NCAA Division I history with a school-record 378 career hits. She was a Top 10 Finalist for the 2023 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Award, and she was also a four-time All-AAC First Team selection and a member of the 2019 AAC All-Rookie Team. Just crazy!

We’re gonna talk to Syd about getting her start in the game, her journey to Wichita State, getting drafted 1st overall in the Athletes Unlimited 2023 College Draft, jumping into the coaching ranks at Marshall University, we talk Ted Lasso and so much more!

Syd was an absolute pleasure to chat with.  I have no doubt there are big things in store down the road, both on and off the field for her and I cannot wait to watch it.

Listen, snap a screen shot, let us know that you’re listening, tag us.  Syd’s at sydneymck00 on Instagram, and sydneyrmckinney on Twitter, we’re at outsidethechute on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

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Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with 2-time AAC Player of the Year, 3 time NFCA All-American, Wichita State Alum and current Athletes Unlimited pro and Marshall Assistant Coach, the one and only, Sydney McKinney

What a career Syd has had to date and its still going strong!   I mean, I just mentioned a couple of her accolades but the list she has from what she accomplished at Wichita State is just ridiculous. Listen to this!

She was a five-year letter winner and started all 244 games from 2019-23. She had a career batting average of .451 with 28 home runs and 132 runs batted in. She finished her career ranked fifth in NCAA Division I history with a school-record 378 career hits. She was a Top 10 Finalist for the 2023 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Award, and she was also a four-time All-AAC First Team selection and a member of the 2019 AAC All-Rookie Team. Just crazy!

We’re gonna talk to Syd about getting her start in the game, her journey to Wichita State, getting drafted 1st overall in the Athletes Unlimited 2023 College Draft, jumping into the coaching ranks at Marshall University, we talk Ted Lasso and so much more!

Syd was an absolute pleasure to chat with.  I have no doubt there are big things in store down the road, both on and off the field for her and I cannot wait to watch it.

Listen, snap a screen shot, let us know that you’re listening, tag us.  Syd’s at sydneymck00 on Instagram, and sydneyrmckinney on Twitter, we’re at outsidethechute on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

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What an episode we have for you this week, as we had the pleasure of sitting down and chatting with easily one of, if not, the best men’s softball pitcher in the world, the one and only, Jack Besgrove.

Jack is already a WBSC Men’s World Cup Champion, an ISC World Champion and a two time Leroy Zimmerman award winner as the most outstanding pitcher at the ISC’s and he’s only 20 years old, that’s just crazy.

We talk to Jack about getting his start in the game down in Australia, his rise up the ranks through the early years, bursting upon the scene at the 2022 Men’s World Cup, coming over to North America joining the New York Gremlins and much, much more.

Jack was a absolute pleasure to chat with, we were so happy we were finally able to line this up and have this chat.

Snap a screen shot, let us know that you’re listening, tag us.  Jack’s is @jbesgrove_ on Instagram, we’re @outsidethechute on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

What an episode we have for you this week!!  I’m telling you right now, be prepared to hear some fantastic stories by one of the best recollections of players and happenings in the men’s game that you will ever hear, cause we had the pleasure of sitting down and chatting with the one and only, Doug Roberts.

When I say Doug’s memory is unreal, trust me it is!

Doug’s love for the game of men’s fastpitch goes unmatched as far as I’m concerned.

Its one thing to hear his stories from years past and his memory of players from all over the world, but its also his incredible memorabilia collection that is just as impressive.

Hopey and I get to hear how Doug’s love for the game all started, the stories of all the ISC’s he’s been too and Doug gives us a run down of his best team ever for every position, which is really cool.

Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with Team Netherlands National Team member, the one and only Suka Van Gurp.

Suka has had a decorated career to date and is still going strong.  She is a 2 time WBSC European Champion, 2019 SSC Player of the Year and a member of the 2024 WBSC World Cup All World Team just to name a few.

We’re gonna talk to Suka about getting her start in the game in her home country of Curacao, moving to Florida to play high school ball, the journey to college, of course, her time with the Netherlands National Team where they finished 4th at this past summers World Cup in Italy and much, much more.

What a great chat this was, I gotta thank Norman Ames for getting this one set up. Thanks again Norm. Suka was an absolute pleasure to chat with and I cannot wait to see whats in store down the line for her.

Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with a guy with close ties to us.  Hopey has the pleasure of coaching this guy with the East Hants Mastodons Senior Team and I had the pleasure of serving up homeruns to him over the last few years, 2024 ISC World Champion with the Hill United Chiefs and 2022 Canada Games Silver Medalist with our home province of Nova Scotia, the one and only Nick White.

Whitey is starting to make a name for himself in the softball world with his ridiculous speed on the base paths and incredible defence in the outfield, which has landed him a spot on both the U23 Canadian National Team, as well as, the 40 man roster for the Men’s National Team.

We’re gonna talk to Whitey about getting his start in the game up in Trenton, Ontario while his father Rob was stationed up there, moving back to Nova Scotia and moving up the ranks here, that incredible run at the Canada Games in Niagara Falls and of course winning the ISC World Title this past season with the Chiefs.

Whitey was an absolute beauty to chat with and we definitely can’t wait to see whats in store down the road for this amazing talent.

Well, its been a bit but we’re happy to be back and showcasing the best we have from our amazing game of fastpitch.

A couple things before we get to this week’s episode, first we mention during Hopey and mines opening segment, a big congrats to friend of the show, Dean Holoien’s Softball Canada’s Hall of Fame induction, but we also need to throw a big congrats out to another friend of the show, Tosh, Keith MacIntosh, as well as, Trevor Ethier, Don Bates, Bryan Kosteroski, and Gary Skjerven who were also inducted.   Awesome stuff, congrats again to all.

As far as the state of the podcast goes, trust me, you’ll hear all about it in this episode.  Just know, I love this game and I love being able to talk to the greats that’s this game has produced and keeps producing. We’re gonna talk to past guest Bill Hillhouse in this episode and he played a big part in us continuing on.  House has a huge passion for this game that honestly goes unmeasured.  He is an encyclopedia when it comes to our game and its always a pleasure to sit down and chat ball with him.

Before we get to the episode, if you haven’t hit that follow button, why not just do it now, seriously, it takes one second, do it now lol

Seriously, it goes a long way, also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube while you’re at it.

Outside The Chute sat down and chatted with University of Oregon and UCLA alum, as well as, Athletes Unlimited member, the one and only, Brooke Yanez.

Brooke has had a fantastic career to date and she’s still going strong.  She was the 2018 Big West Freshman Pitcher of the Year and the 2019 Big West Pitcher of the Year during her time at UC Davis. She then transferred to Oregon where she became an NFCA All-American in 2021. Brooke would finish her college career up as a Bruin with UCLA where she would be named a 2nd team All-Pac 12 Honoree. She would go on to play last summer at Athletes Unlimited where she totaled 960 points.

We’re gonna talk to Brooke about how she got her start in the game, her days in travel ball and high school, her time at UC Davis, Oregon and UCLA, over coming injury to get back to the game she loves and much, much more.

Brooke was such a pleasure to chat with and I can’t wait to see whats in store for her going forward.  I’m sure whatever it is, it will no doubt be great.

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