Jim Schlossnagle addresses pitching plan for national championship series

Texas A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle has his ideal pitching plan ready for Tennessee as the College World Series is upon us on Saturday.

In a potential three-game series, there are plenty of possibilities. Whatever he does, it’ll have to count considering the talent of the Volunteer bats.

While there’s an ideal scenario, Schlossnagle might just let it fly with the pitching staff.

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“Good question. If I knew, I’d tell you,” Schlossnagle said. “Without Sdao, we’ve had to get creative. We had to get creative in the first game with Lamkin. When Sorrell hit the home run to make it 5-0, that made the decision to get him out a little easier in the game against Florida. Because every pitch he threw, I was thinking that’s one less pitch he might be as effective within this upcoming weekend. So we’ll see how he feels. 

“We’ll see how tomorrow goes. We’ll do everything we can within reason to give ourselves the best chance to win tomorrow and then see what happens on Sunday afternoon.”

With the way Tennessee plays, Texas A&M knows it might need all three games to claim a national championship. In Schlossnagle’s eyes, it’s going to be a dogfight.

“So the pitchers, the other pitchers have been prepped over and over and over again that this is going to fall to more than just the three or four guys that have pitched to this point,” Schlossnagle said. “So it’s going to take a village to get through the next two or three days.”

If pitching is important, then so is defense. Schlossnagle knows the old school cliche is “defense wins championships.”

“I think all phases of the game are important — pitching, defense, timely hitting. If you get all three you’ll win. If you get two of the three, you’ve got a great chance,” Schlossnagle said. “Outfield defense is incredibly important in this ballpark. We’re banged up in the outfield. And you saw — shoot, we had a chance to score 10 runs the other day if it wasn’t for Michael Robertson, the center fielder. He ran down, made some really nice plays out there on Teddy Burton and a couple other guys. The entire thing is important.

“I know Tennessee has played awesome defense. I think anybody who has made it to this point has done that. We’ve caught the baseball and pitched well. That’s really been the recipe with some timely hits, because — I think we’ve hit one homer, by a freshman, in this tournament. And the home run most of the season has been a big part of our offense. Awesome part of — it’s why you have a great season, you can win games different ways.”