Jim Schlossnagle tabs Tanner Jones as Game 1 starter

Texas A&M will throw out the first pitch in their Bryan-College Station Regional at 1 p.m. ET today against Grambling State. With that time almost arriving at the start of the postseason, Jim Schlossnagle has revealed who will be making that throw on the mound to start things off in Blue-Bell Park.

In a press conference on Thursday prior to the start of the regional, Schlossnagle revealed that Tanner Jones would be making the start for Texas A&M. It will be the 14th appearance for the right-handed junior who transferred in from Jacksonville State ahead of this season.

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“Yeah, Tanner Jones will be the starting pitcher tomorrow,” Schlossnagle said.

The Aggies have won 10 of the 13 outings that Jones has appeared in this year. Over 43 innings of work with nearly 750 pitches, he has posted a 6.7 ERA with 42 strikeouts. Those numbers naturally took a hit at times in conference play but he showed to be a serviceable arm for Texas A&M.

As for his strategy regarding pitching in the 2024 NCAA Baseball Tournament, Schlossnagle isn’t complicating anything too far. He’s going to put the pitcher out there that he feels gives them the best opportunity to win their games and, therefore, win the entire field in Omaha.

“The formula is to try to give our team the best chance to win the tournament. Plain and simple. That’s it,” said Schlossnagle. “A lot goes into that – matchups, does the other team have somebody that can be real tough that you have to pitch against.”

“Just basically that,” Schlossnagle said. “Give us the best chance to win the entire tournament.”

Pitching will be a constant evaluation for Texas A&M, as it would be for every team. For now, though, Jones is who the Aggies are beginning with later today against the Tigers.

“That’ll be a day-to-day thing. But, right now, Tanner is going to throw the first game, start the first game,” said Schlossnagle.

Schlossnagle shares initial impressions of regional

The Texas A&M Aggies landed the third overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. With that, the Aggies are hosting a regional in College Station and welcoming Grambling, Louisiana, and Texas for the NCAA Tournament.

Ahead of the College Station Regional, Jim Schlossnagle shared his initial impressions on those opponents, acknowledging that he doesn’t know a ton about two of them.

“Don’t know much about Grambling or Louisiana, simply because we haven’t played them,” Schlossnagle said. “I mean, I know Grambling won their tournament. We know, obviously, Coach [Matt] Deggs really well and know the quality program and toughness and level of competitiveness that his teams always have. We played Texas so we have a little bit better idea on them. But we’ll spend the rest of the week getting ready for that.”

The one team that Texas A&M has seen before this season that they’ll see in College Station are the Longhorns. The two played earlier this season in Austin with the Aggies taking the game at 9-2. However, that was back in early March.