Schlossnagle goes inside Arkansas series win, Palisch's dominant weekend

During Monday morning's edition of TexAgs Radio, Aggie baseball head coach Jim Schlossnagle joined to discuss his team's series win over the Arkansas Razorbacks, Jacob Palisch's stellar weekend on the mound and more.

Key notes from Jim Schlossnagle interview

• I'm super proud of our team, and I'm super proud of everybody, including our fan base. We set another three-game attendance record, and they didn't just sit on their hands. They were a huge part of the ballgames.
   
• You have to be able to win games in different ways, and we did that this weekend. Even in the game we lost; we gave ourselves opportunities but didn't get the big hit. Arkansas is certainly a benchmark in our league along with Tennessee, and we played them toe-to-toe.
   
• A lot of credit goes to Nate Yeskie because Jacob Palisch didn't have that pitch when he came here. He had a pretty pedestrian career at Stanford, but now he's deserving of a professional baseball chance. The old saying is to not pitch in with the game on the line, but we had to. I hated that we had to use him so much, and we didn't plan on using him yesterday. He was not on my list of available pitchers yesterday, but he came to me.
   
• What Palisch did kind of covers up what Brad Rudis did in his first career start. Brad has been super consistent the entire year, as has Nathan Dettmer lately.
   
• On this particular team, Rudis may pitch his way into the rotation. We may have to do the TBA thing. The first step is getting Micah Dallas right. Every player, pitcher or hitter, goes through slumps, and Micah is not commanding his fastball very well right now. Our goal is to not be our best in April but in late May and deep into June.
   
• For Rudis, he needs to stay who he is. He just needs to continue his physical development this summer, but I don't want him to be a 94-95 mph guy that can't throw his breaking ball. I think he is proving that his stuff is plenty good enough. His best tool is his heart, his guts and his mentality. He's a real pitcher, and true pitchers certainly have a spot on this staff.
   
• All of the credit should go to the players and Michael Earley from a hitting standpoint. Nolan Cain works with hitters as well. Earley spends a lot of time with scouting reports, and he is a superstar of a coach. The game plan was to be a nightmare for Connor Noland and to not chase pitches. We were going to make it tough for him, and we did that. We had him on the ropes, but we only got two runs against him. You have to give Noland credit for a second wind that he got. Outside of one or two spots, the lineup is pretty relentless, and we're tough to pitch to. The goal is not to draw walks. The goal is to get your pitch to hit, and then when you get it, do damage with it. On-base percentage and slugging percentage is what we're looking for. When you get into deep counts and aren't afraid to hit with two strikes, that can be a tough offense to handle.
   
• The crowd was awesome. Friday night was better than they have been all year, and it's probably public knowledge that I made some comments about it at our Dugout Club lunch last week. The worst thing a coach can do is criticize his own fans, and I wasn't criticizing them. I wanted them to understand that noise is important, and noise means that you're rooting for us. I spoke to one of the leaders of 203, and we're finding some middle ground about what a great atmosphere looks like from the first pitch to the last pitch. I know it's my job to put a product on the field that is worth cheering for, but when you go to other places in this league, you can't hear yourself think. This weekend, that's the way it was. We're really, really thankful.
   
• I'm on my way into the office now, and I'll see Trevor Werner at some point today. His grip strength is getting better in that injured hand. He doesn't take batting practice, but he takes swings in the cage right until the game starts. It gets stiff on him between at-bats, so we've set up a toss net behind the dugout. We're getting through it, and he's getting confidence back in his swing. I'd like to think he's only going to get better.
   
• If I start talking about this group, I'll start crying because I really love these kids. I'm a big fan of players, and when you get to see how hard they work, it's special. They have bought in. From day one, whether it be the new players or the returning players. You have to give credit to these returning players; they had to swallow their pride a little bit. When some guys left, they may have thought it was their time. Then all these new guys come in. Taylor Smith had as big of a role as any yesterday because he was picking pitches from the dugout and had figured out something in the dugout. The game will reward him. When you're in the first year at a new place, those first teams are special. We will look back, and I promise you, at this team as the group that set the standard of the culture for Aggie baseball. It's a joy to be around them.