Jim Schlossnagle shares initial impressions of Stanford
Texas A&M advanced to face regional host Stanford Saturday night at the Sunken Diamond — and things aren’t getting any easier for the Aggies.
A win on Saturday night would put Texas A&M in the driver’s seat to win the regional on the road. A loss would put them back to square one in the round-robin. Having avoided Stanford on their regular season schedule, Aggies head coach Jim Schlossnagle revealed his initial scouting report on the Cardinal following their game one victory.
“Stanford’s got a great team. They are playing with incredible confidence. A lot of power. Not your typical West Coast club,” Schlossnagle said postgame. “They are more of an SEC-type team where it is not as much of the bunt game. I am sure they can win games in a variety of ways. But you better make pitches, or they are going to bloody you pretty quick. So we will show up and try to hang with them.”
San Jose State posed no threat for the Cardinal in their game one victory on Friday. The Spartans went on top of Stanford 2-1 after a single brought in two runners. The Cardinal would go on to score the next 12 runs and ended the game in seven innings via run rule after scoring two more runs in the final inning.
CF Eddie Park and 3B Tommy Troy both went 3-for-4 at the plate and combined for seven runs, batted in five runners and each hit a home run as the top two batters in the order. Starting pitcher Quinn Matthews pitched seven innings for the Cardinal where threw seven strikeouts and allowed five hits on 114 total pitches.
The Aggies had to fight to make it to Saturday’s championship rounds. 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.
RF Jordan Thompson, LF Ryan Targac and Austin Bost all knocked in three runs a piece to open things up for the Aggies’ postseason. Another team-wide hitting performance like the one displayed on Friday, and eighth-seeded Stanford could be in some trouble at the Sunken Diamond.
First pitch of game two is set for 8 p.m. ET live on ESPN+. A win for Texas A&M over Stanford would put the Aggies one victory away from advancing to the Super Regional round of the NCAA Tournament, and vice versa.