Kendall Rogers previews this weekend's Shriner Classic in Houston

Key notes from Kendall Rogers interview

• A&M is facing three teams this weekend that are playing a consistent brand of baseball. I was able to see Baylor this past Sunday against South Alabama. They played a really impressive brand of baseball all weekend. They hit the ball consistently and they got strong starts. A&M will probably see Cody Bradford, that’s the talented left handed freshman. They don’t have near the amount of talent as some of the other teams in the tournament but Steve Rodriguez in his second season has done a really nice job of bringing all these kids together. Baylor is making progress, but they still have a long way to go compared to the other teams that A&M will face this weekend.
  
  
• I know everyone will talk about the TCU matchup, but I’m excited for the opening matchup against Tech. It’s going to be very similar styles when you look at Texas Tech and Texas A&M on Friday. These teams are very hard nosed and are going to try to make things happen. On Saturday, A&M and TCU will square off. This is an interesting match up.
  
  
• Besides the obvious narrative against TCU, is Stephen Kolek. This will be a tough line up for him to go against. He’s a guy that has shown improvement from the Fall. He’s got solid stuff and is a tough minded kid. I’ll be interested to see how he pitches against TCU. This is a really telling situation for him to see if he can handle that role moving forward towards SEC play. If you look at all of these teams, they have key freshmen getting off to good starts in big positions. If there’s one thing that Rob Childress can enter the weekend knowing, it’s that he’s not the only team there with some young guys that need to step up.
  
  
• A&M will more than likely face Nick Lodolo on Saturday against TCU unless Jim Schlossnagle changes up the rotation yet again. I don’t think he will because I think he likes him in that position. I think if you’re the Frogs, you like the rotation of putting Jared Janczak on the front end. If you look at Janczak last year in that opening game against A&M, I think he handled that stage exceptionally well. Bryan Howard to me is more of a Sunday starter and of course Luken Baker will not pitch this year. He’ll probably have to have surgery after this year but it won’t affect his hitting, just his pitching.
  
  
• A&M was up 11-3 last night and Joel Davis hit a triple when the game was already over. I feel like that’s kind of been the reoccurring theme of this program. There’s a lot of guys with pretty selfless character. Jonathan Moroney was a guy that was pretty low on the depth charts for a few years but gets an opportunity and goes out there and makes the most of it. Davis was obviously a contributor last year but coming into this year they needed big things from him. He’s a key guy, so when you have him producing like that and being such a selfless player alongside the talented freshmen, that really helps. When other guys see that a veteran player is performing like that, they feel like they should too.
  
  
• I think if you look at the hottest teams in the tournament this weekend, A&M is probably 4th on the list. If you look at Ole Miss, they’ve already won two top-25 series this season, and that’s pretty impressive. I think that as the season goes on, A&M is probably a step ahead of Ole Miss. I think that they’re stronger and have more quality depth on the mound, so I think that A&M will end up being better than Ole Miss. Ole Miss is a little bit hotter right now. Jim Schlossnagle said that one of these teams in the tournament will end up in Omaha but will have a losing record in this tournament. I think when you look at this tournament overall and if you’re A&M especially, with all the youth you have, if you can go into this weekend and have two really good games, beat Baylor, or win two games, I think that’s a great weekend.