Jim Schlossnagle shares importance of win for Texas A&M pitching staff

Texas A&M has one more game left to decide who moves on from the Stanford Regional between them and the hosts. The Aggies and the Cardinal have already faced off twice over the weekend, with A&M nabbing the first contest 8-5 to take control of the bracket; but Stanford battled back to meet the Aggies again in regional final play and exacted revenge to force a winner-take-all showdown on Monday night that will also serve as the finale for regional play in the NCAA Tournament.

To get to this point, Texas A&M was powered by their offense, scoring 20 combined runs in their first two wins over Cal State Fullerton and Stanford before adding five more but losing in Sunday’s game. At over eight runs a game, it’s been all you could ask for plus more from the batter’s box. It’s the pitching that’s left a little, or maybe a lot, to be desired. The Aggies let up seven runs against Fullerton, five in a strong outing from the bullpen vs. Stanford the first time before they got busted up for 13 the second go-around.

Head coach Jim Schlossnagle did have praise for how A&M finished the game at the mound on Saturday vs. Stanford. He was frustrated by starter Justin Lamkin’s poor day but credited his relievers for coming in and stopping the bleeding to provide the smokin’ hot Aggie offense to take care of business.

“Yeah, I mean it’s good, obviously,” Schlossnagle said of the pitching staff on Saturday. “I mean, hopefully I can just play one game tomorrow. We know that there could potentially be more than that. But yeah, you put yourself in a little bit more of a driver’s seat, but we expended a lot to win this game, too.”

He then commented on the individual pitchers’ performances.

“Justin had a rough, super rough start. He looked tired from the get-go for some reason. (Evan) Aschenbeck about the same. Brandyn (Garcia) did a nice job and so did (Matt) Dillard. But there’s no such thing as a sore arm at this kind of time of year. So it’s going to take the whole pitching staff’s help get through it.”

At the time, A&M had yet to play Stanford in game No. 2, but as of then, Schlossnagle revealed he still didn’t know who would start if the Cardinal forced a Monday night game.

“Not sure yet. I’m gonna wait and see how the first game goes, but yeah, then we’ll make a decision.”

What we do know is that the Aggie head coach said Will Johnston and Troy Wansing would be the only two arms likely to be unavailable given that they’ve both started games and appeared as relievers this weekend. Otherwise, it’s anyone’s guess who starts with the ball in their palm Monday evening.