Jim Schlossnagle & Co. prepared for challenges, weather on The Plains

A&M begins a three-game set at Auburn on Thursday, and weather might play a factor in getting the entire series in. On Thursday's edition of TexAgs Radio, Jim Schlossnagle spoke about the latest with his ball club and provided an up-to-the-second weather update.

Key notes from Jim Schlossnagle interview

• It's very overcast here. The temperature is changing, and you can tell rain is coming in. As of right now, I think it's going to be fine. It's nice being the visiting team. You just show up and play. You don’t have to make those decisions.
   
• It's a tale of two teams. When we throw strikes and limit bases, we can beat anyone on our schedule. With Brett Minnich back, it’s great. Every team has an issue. Ours is there's at least one game every weekend when we struggle on the mound, but we've been more competitive.
   
• Tuesday night may have been my favorite game of the year. The guys played great out of the bullpen. Matt Dillard and Josh Stewart, I thought they did a really nice job. We battled and won the ball game. Brad Rudis did fine, but I was really excited about how the guys played. Obviously, Chris Cortez was a huge highlight. He completely changed our team. I saw Cortez do something on a baseball field I've never seen him do, and that's smile. He's so conscious, and he demands perfection. He cares so much. He cares about his teammates and A&M. I asked him not to be careless but to care less. If you can have that guy pitch maybe twice in a weekend, that's a huge threat on the team. Let's just see if he can do it again and do it more than once before we move him anywhere.
   
• I am a fan of A&M sports too as well as a fan of major league team sports, but what you don't know as a fan is the makeup of the player. The physical part is the easy part to coach. It's the mental part that's hard. It's keeping them challenged, and there is a fine line between that. Very often on social media players identify themselves with what they do, which is a huge problem. If they aren't doing well athletically, then they are anxious and depressed, and they can't leave that on the field. But that's what I have to do. Keep these guys confident through adversity.
   
• Jack Moss is super consistent. He's consistent on the field because he's consistent away from the field. He does everything with intention. He is very intentional with everything he does, and he's really good. Cool story from the other day is when Moss called for a ball, and Trevor Werner tried to call him off. They ended up colliding, and Werner stepped on Jack's hand. Jack came off with a huge gash on his hand, and he ran to the training, wrapped it up. I had told Kaeden Kent to be ready to hit, but here he comes Moss, sprinting out saying he’s still hitting even with blood running down his hand. That just goes to show his competitiveness.
   
• For a left-handed hitter, one of the toughest things is really good left-handed hitters haven't faced good left-handed pitchers in high school. You look at Jace LaViolette, he has made a physical adjustment and mentally in the dugout. He is verbal and vocal. He’s encouraging guys that are 2-3 years older than him. He's going to be a leader in the program, and he's very talented.
   
• The number one thing for me as an offense is we don't want to be just a power or just a speed or just a bunting team. We want to be able to win all kinds of games. Base running is important, and stealing is important. However, it's not something we want to force. Secondly, it's not about the number of bases you steal. It's the percentage you steal successfully. We have a good percentage right now that puts pressure on the other team by letting them know we will run if we get that opportunity. If they are going to give us a base, we are going to take it. We are going to be aggressive.
   
• Our challenges are about the same as Auburn's. On their end, they've had some injuries for their pitchers as well. They've used nine different starting pitchers over nine different conference games. But we will just have to compete our way through it.