Jim Schlossnagle reveals what Stanford win says about his team
Texas A&M took down regional host Stanford 8-5 at the Sunken Diamond Saturday night, putting the Aggies in the driver’s seat to advance to the Super Regional round of the NCAA Tournament.
After taking down the Cardinal’s, Aggies head coach Jim Schlossnagle reflected on the past few weeks and how his team has been defined by late-inning heroics lately.
“We’ve been in those [situations]. Over the last week in the SEC Tournament, before that in two out of three games at Mississippi State that went down to the ninth inning — first one went into the 10th inning,” Schlossnagle said postgame. “I know Stanford has played in those games in the Pac-12, but we’ve just played in a lot of them recently. [Two] out of our four games in the SEC Tournament were 5-4 games.”
The Aggies are 4-2 in those games Schlossnagle mentioned — including the Stanford win on Saturday night. In fact, Texas A&M had to overcome some early adversity to even make it to Saturday’s championship round in the first palce. Overcoming a three-run top of the second inning from Cal State Fullerton, Texas A&M scored 11 runs between the second and fourth innings to secure their spot against the regional hosts.
Early woes were once against a problem form Schlossnagle’s squad against the Cardinal. After the Aggies scored the opening run, Stanford went on to bat four runners in over the next three innings. Their lead wouldn’t last, and Texas A&M scored four runs in the final two innings to secure the win over the regional host.
“We’ve been in there. There’s no environment, no pitcher that we haven’t been prepared for,” Schlossnagle said. “I’m super confident in our team. I love them, I believe in them, I’ve told them that all season long.
“I told them there’s a special story for this club. That doesn’t mean the story is over. It doesn’t mean that we haven’t accomplished anything. We haven’t won any championship — we did not win the regular season, the tournament and we certainly haven’t won the regional yet. We still have a lot of work to do.”
Texas A&M will face the winner of Stanford and Cal State Fullerton — both teams that the Aggies defeated this tournament already — in the regional final. First pitch for the title game is set for 9 p.m. ET live on ESPN+. One win for Texas A&M will advance the unranked Aggies to the Super Regional.