Aggie baseball skipper Jim Schlossnagle recaps Opening Weekend sweep

In his first weekend at the helm, Jim Schlossnagle guided the Maroon & White to a series sweep over the Fordham Rams in Aggieland. On Monday morning, Schlossnagle joined TexAgs Radio to recap the weekend that was and share his thoughts on his team's performance.

Key notes from Jim Schlossnagle interview

• It was great. The three victories were the highlight, but I thought we had good weather and great crowds. My children and parents were in town, and we capped it off with a walk-off homer. It was great.
   
• If Kole Kaler had been up in the ninth, we probably would have bunted. If Kole's swinging the bat the way he's capable, I might not have. We were also playing with a time limit. We couldn't start an inning past 4 p.m. I wasn't playing for a tie. If you bunt there, you have Austin Bost up, which probably would have been an intentional walk to bring up Jack Moss, a serious double-play candidate. The way Kole was swinging up to that point, it most likely would have been a bunt. I was never bunting with Logan Britt up and the wind was blowing out.
   
• Those guys — Trevor Werner, Logan Britt, Taylor Smith, Ryan Targac — are some of the most physically gifted guys on our team and guys I've coached in my career. There are a lot of great athletes but not good baseball players. We're trying to turn these guys into players. For me, it's watching Logan Britt, and Taylor Smith swing at strikes and take balls. If they do that over the course of the season, they'll give themselves a better chance to get hits and get on base. The pureness of Britt's bat plane is fine. It's the timing. That's the tough part of hitting because if you're not on time, it doesn't matter what your swing looks like.
   
• With those guys, Taylor caught well. Targac played an outstanding first base, which is a position he hasn't played before. I thought we played good defense. We only walked three guys on the weekend, but we hit seven, which was not good. To me, the highlight was how well we played defense.
   
• I thought Nathan Dettmer was great. That's a really good sign for us. He has always been a fastball-change-up pitcher. Nate Yeskie has done a great job with Dettmer, and his breaking ball has really come on. His change-up is still one of his best pitches, if not his best. We might have something that can go on a Friday night.
   
• Micah Dallas did a great job, and when he's at his best, he has sink in his fastball. He has the tendency to get a lot of ground balls. He did a really, really good job.
   
• For Ryan Prager's first start at home in front of a good crowd, he did a nice job. He didn't command his fastball the way he is capable. His defense gave him a chance. If we don't make those plays, it's a different first four innings. Ryan will have to be better, and hopefully, he will be as we get deeper into the season.
   
• There isn't a whole lot to say. I know I said I don't have a drill for the Robert Hogan situation. I can't do anything to remind you how many outs there are. He's a freshman that is really talented. He's a new guy, and he got sped up in the moment. The key was that he made the pitches he needed to make and went back out in the ninth to finish the game off. If we're going to have any amount of success, we need him to be good.
   
• For now, Jacob Palisch is the guy that is most experienced and has proven he's the best strike-thrower. You can only go with the guys who have proven it to you in practice at this point. We get to see how he responds to throwing multiple times in a weekend as well. You just have to run him out there and see what happens. We'll do it again. He got up and played catch on Saturday but never got hot. Maybe that caused him to be not nearly as fresh as he needed to be.
   
• Chris Cortez coming in and throwing nothing but strikes is impressive. Now that he has his first outing under his belt is key. Maybe next time in that bases-loaded situation, you can role Cortez out there now that he has that first performance under his belt.
   
• The first thing we want to see on Tuesday night vs. Lamar is Khristian Curtis being in the starting pitcher. He was highly recruited. He had Tommy John surgery and was rusty in the fall. His last couple of outings were really good. He's our best option, and he's a guy we have to keep running out there because you could catch lightning in a bottle. Just throw strikes and give us a chance. We're hoping for good weather and for our starting pitcher to throw strikes.
   
• This is a high level for Trevor Werner to keep up, but you saw everything he's capable of doing. You saw speed on the bases; you saw power and athleticism on defense. He was playing with confidence and having fun. He's playing one position right now and can focus on being a better defender. Without worrying about pitching, I think it has cleared his mind some.