Schlossnagle recaps sweep of Auburn ahead of four-game road stretch

Walking off Saturday's contest in 12 innings, No. 3 Texas A&M swept the Auburn Tigers in exciting fashion. On Monday's edition of TexAgs Radio, head skipper Jim Schlossnagle discussed the weekend's display of high-powered offense and the road stretch ahead. 

Key notes from Jim Schlossnagle interview

• Auburn is good. The last game could have gone to anybody. They beat Arkansas once. Anything can happen on any weekend. A couple of bad days against the wrong hitters, a couple of bad pitchers, an injury, and your season can go in a different direction really fast.
   
• That is why the whole “Opening Day” mentality is important. You have to keep playing and keep your head down, then look up at the end of the year and hope you've got a chance at the post-season. 
   
• Evan Aschenbeck has been a luxury because, with most amateur pitchers, you don't know what you are going to get. They are talented, but that is why they are amateurs and not major-league players. They are still trying to figure themselves out. 
   
• Isaac Morton, there are times when he is electric and as good of a right-handed pitcher as anyone else on the team. Then, he’ll lose the strike zone a little bit, and he’ll grow out of that.
   
• Aschenbeck, Shane Sdao or Josh Stewart are super consistent off the field in their habits, which fans don't get to see. Because they are consistent off the field, trustworthy and know how they work, then you can put them in the game and know that you can win with this guy, and then if we go down, I feel good about it.
   
• I never feel good about losing, but you do know what you're getting: You're getting a strike thrower. That doesn't mean Aschenbeck can't make a bad pitch or a good hitter can't get him. But he is just consistent, and you know what you are getting. Then my job is to manage how to use him.
   
• In the first game of that series, I felt that was the time to pull the trigger on Aschenbeck and hopefully, we’ll be in a position where we could use him in shorter stents two times throughout the weekend. We have six wins in the league, and he's pitched in every single one. He hasn't pitched in the losses. 
   
• Braden Montgomery is the same guy every day. That is why he'll play for a long time, if he stays healthy. He gets excited in the moment but gets right back to zero.
   
• We had a chance to win the game the other day we got in the 3-0 count, and we got to 3-1, he just missed the fastball and flew out to right field.  He’ll come by me on the way to the bat rack and say, “Dang it,” but he’ll be on the top step rooting for his teammates 20 seconds later. 
   
• Most college players wear that for minutes, hours and days. He doesn't come from just his family. You have to give credit to Stanford’s coach, also. He did a great job developing him. Braden’s super positive and fun to be around. He’s really invested in everybody in this building, and that means a lot. 
   
• It sets the tone. If your most talented players are jerks, that is going to set the tone negatively. We've all seen teams like that. When your best players are your hardest working players like Brayden, Jace LaViolette, Jackson Appel and Aschenbeck, then that sets a standard if I wanna be like them, then I need to act like them. It really makes your team.
   
• We talk about the transfer portal and NIL. If one guy has this and the other gets this, then how is that going to affect the locker room? It depends on the makeup of the players. If the players are good dudes, it's like in professional baseball. Shohei Otani is a seven-million-dollar player, but I bet no one cares in the locker room because they are just trying to win. If he's a jerk, it will be a problem, but Braden is not, and none of those guys are. 
   
• Caden Sorrell is doing a good job. He's getting in deep counts as a hitter. For instance, Braden or Jace with that really tough 3-2 or two-strike pitch, and Brayden and Jace will just start to swing or check their swing and lay off of it. That's experience. Sorrell has had a few of those and has laid off and has gotten his walk. He's also had some where he's been chased out of the strike zone, and that is just repetition.
   
• The only way Sorrell's going to get better is to play. We don't have that many right-handed hitting outfielders, so I have to leave him in there against the lefties. He's hit homers against the lefties, like against Mississippi State. He's great for us defensively. He can really run. Not like Travis Chestnut but he’s a runner we can do things on the bases with. He's a really good player. I think we've done a good job of nurturing him along the first 40 percent of the season to where he's not coming out unless we have an injury.
   
• Weston Moss did a great job the other night. He took a hard ball on his wrist that probably didn't feel great. Just to come in those moments with the game on the line and make great pitches against great hitters.
   
• You simply don't strike out Ike Irish. You don't. When I went to change pitchers and walked by the third base coach for Auburn, I looked at him and said, “How is Irish only hitting .370? It feels like it's .670 against us. Moss punched him out on a borderline pitch, which was a fastball, but he kept making pitches for us. So he's climbing up that list from the bullpen. He's going to be a great starting pitcher one day. 
   
• Tanner Jones pitched well with his fastball and had a good cutter going. I thought he did a nice job. His starts, for the most part, have been better than the last one. If we get that effort from him each weekend, we’ll be fine.
   
• They are all interrelated. Ryan Prager didn't have a great night, so we used Aschenbeck early. In the eighth inning of the first game, I pulled Tanner Jones to the back of the dugout and said, “You better have your A-game tomorrow because there won't be any Aschenbeck bailing you out or anybody. At least give us a solid four or five.” It can't be three and die because then we are scrambling the rest of the game. You need at least two of those a weekend, and when you have had one against Mississippi State with Prager and Justin Lamkin, then that shortened your bullpen and gave you the chance to play your better pitchers more. 
   
• Brad Rudis has always been a confident pitcher, even when his stuff has been less than the SEC average. He always filled his position well so we trusted him with that. Now, with dropping his arm angle, Max Weiner is just doing a great job with him and giving him weapons and a strategy to get the righties out and the lefties, too. 
   
• Rudis is one of those trustworthy guys like Aschenbeck. You know what you're getting. It's going to be strikes. It may not be 97 but it's going to be strikes. I brought him in that one game in the first or second, and I brought him in because I thought they were going to bunt, and I needed one of my best fielding pitchers in the game. So I trust Brad and using him twice back-to-back days. His stuff the second day wasn't as good but he got us the outs we needed. 
   
• Ted Burton has had good at-bats. I think there is another level he can get to, and I think he can get there when he starts shooting balls the other way, which is his strength. Then, eventually, someone is going to leave a breaking ball up in the zone, and he’ll hit his homers.
   
• Burton can hit them out to right field, but he has enough power to pull them out. He puts together good at-bats. It's all related. If you are not going to pitch to Jace or Braden then Appel and facing a lefty that gives Appel some protection having that right-handed hitter behind him. They all kind of protect each other, and I think Hayden Schott is putting together great bats now, as well.
   
• Burton has also made a great first baseman which is not his natural position. He has been a second baseman and played other infield spots, but he moves around and does a great job on his pop-ups and is a great runner, which gives us some athleticism at that position where you might not always have that. 
   
• Texas State’s coach Steven Trout played for me at TCU. He was a captain-like player for me. He's successful, and Texas State plays within extreme edge. I know they had a rough weekend against Louisiana Lafayette. That can happen to anyone now when you have to go to Louisiana and play baseball for three days.
   
• Texas State is a tough place to play. It is a unique stadium with some of the toughest dugouts to be in college baseball. Playing on turf and very talented players that can run. I think the wind will be blowing in so that will affect the game.
   
• When I first started at TCU, some of the bigger schools like Texas A&M, Texas and Oklahoma, when you get those schools in your ballpark, it electrifies everything. It will be good preparation for South Carolina. This will be a tough game to win. We'll show up, and it'll be great for us one way or another.