During Monday morning's edition of TexAgs Radio, Texas A&M baseball head coach Jim Schlossnagle joined to look back on the series at Olsen Field against Auburn and where his team goes for a starter on Tuesday against Texas.
Key notes from Jim Schlossnagle interview
- We're still searching for answers in the bullpen. I think Rawley Hector and Walker Zander were serviceable yesterday. We will have to start going to them more and keep looking for more answers. Micah Dallas was the highlight of the weekend. We will need more outings like that from our starting pitching to have a chance. Through six conference games, five one-run games, and yesterday. We're competing. We just need to throw more strikes out of the bullpen.
- If we execute in the ninth and tenth innings on Friday, we win the series. That is more disappointing in my mind than Prager's outing on Sunday. Ryan Prager is a good young pitcher. He's just working through some things and learning from these experiences. Chris Cortez did a good job of throwing strikes, but Auburn was able to square him up a few times. Credit to them.
- Yesterday was more of a challenge than trying to make you feel better about things. The one thing you have to do as a college baseball pitcher at this level is to throw strikes. There is no drill for throwing strikes. There is just no excuse for it. You have to stand for something or you'll fall for anything. That's our message to the pitchers right now. You have to be a competitive strike thrower. Whether you throw 88 or 94 mph, you have to be able to throw strikes. We'll see how they rebound on Tuesday. A big occasion to go show what you're made of in Austin.
- I think you're going to see more of Chanden Scamardo moving forward. I think once he got settled in, he has been playing better. He earned his first hit on Sunday. He just needs to get the butterflies out and go play like we saw him do all fall.
- I think we're putting together good at-bats at the plate. I still think the strikeouts are too high. I think we need to get some guys back from injury. Trevor Werner is still unlikely to swing the bat this week. In the field, he is ready to go right now. For the most part, yes, we're getting competitive at-bats up and down the lineup.
- Jack Moss got hit on the hand on Friday night at the plate. He also got pitched to really well this weekend. I think for him, he just came back to earth a little bit. We'll just credit baseball and Auburn's pitching staff for his struggles this weekend.
- Trey Dillard will be out for the year. He's in Houston as we speak, meeting with the doctor. We should learn more about Khristian Curtis today. Robert Hogan is getting some things looked at as well. That's part of the problem we're having right now is you can't throw the guys who are pitching well every single day. I have to get them some rest as well. I think this is an already thin pitching staff overall, and the injuries are not helping. At Texas A&M, we should be able to sustain these injuries, however. Every day we're not playing, Nolan Cain is hitting the recruiting trail, checking out prospects, and looking in on the guys we've signed.
- The message has been great and received well on the recruiting trail from players and their families. Lots of top players want to come to play at a high-class university like Texas A&M and compete against the very best in the Southeastern Conference. I would not be surprised to see us dip into the transfer portal.
- Against Texas tomorrow... the first nine guys on the bus get to pitch. I'll talk with Nate Yeskie, and we will decide on a starter soon. This will be a good opportunity to find some things out about guys in a big situation. We can't, however, sacrifice our staff for the weekend and SEC play.
