A&M skipper Jim Schlossnagle discusses an undefeated 10-day stretch

Texas A&M posted a 5-0 week, capped off by a come-from-behind effort on Sunday afternoon to complete the week of Northern Kentucky. With SEC play on deck, head coach Jim Schlossnagle joined TexAgs Radio to recap the week that was and look ahead to league action.

Key notes from Jim Schlossnagle interview

• I get the reason to rant, believe me. I was watching the NCAA Tournament Selection Show yesterday. I thought there was a chance we could be a No. 3 seed in this thing. To see us there, oh well. Got to go play the games.
   
• There have been several times I've been upset with selection committees. The year A&M and TCU should have both been national seeds comes to mind. One year we were at TCU, and we had to go to Texas despite being in the top 10 all season. In baseball, they won't spend money to ship teams. Even though it's not supposed to be regional, it ends up being regional, which is not fair. If you're in Texas, California or the Carolinas, there are places you just have to go through to get to the Men's College World Series.
   
• Guys are swinging the bat with more confidence, mainly Austin Bost. Some of the younger players, Kaeden Kent, Kasen Wells and Tab Tracy, have gotten at-bats to cover up the injuries of Brett Minnich and Trevor Werner. We're catching good enough with JD Gregson and Hank Bard.
   
• The thing that has most pleased me over the last 10-day stretch is that the game of baseball is not designed for you to beat the same team three days in a row. We played 16 innings last Sunday. We played on Tuesday and then went to Rice before playing this weekend. The depth of our pitching staff got tested and also gained experience. Are we the team we want to be? Absolutely not, but there are signs. We need Justin Lamkin to have a good start on Tuesday. Moving forward, we need our offensive players to play and prove that they are who we think they are. My goal is to keep cheering them on because the pitching certainly isn't going to get any better.
   
• I thought Nathan Dettmer did a great job on Friday night. I thought he pitched deep enough into the game. If your starter on Friday can get six innings, that sets you up for the weekend. Troy Wansing was outstanding, and that allowed us to have a lot of arms available for Sunday when things got dicey. Dettmer showed his breaking ball, and this weekend, he'll have his work cut out for him against the No. 1 team in the country.
   
• If we come through this weekend in a positive way, that gives us some confidence, but it doesn't guarantee anything. If we get beat up, there are countless examples of teams that come through this conference. If you can find your way to 15 conference wins and a .500 record, you will get to a regional. Obviously, that's not the goal. We have a good team. We have a young team on the field, and everything is a learning experience for those guys. We need some older guys to cover us up as much as they can, and they've got to be on the field to do it.
   
• We need Dettmer and Wansing to continue giving us what they've given us. Chris Cortez needs to bounce back from a tough Sunday. I need to get Brandyn Garcia into the game, and he needs to figure things out when the fire is on. He has elite stuff. He is 93-96 with a big-time breaking ball. With his size and arm coming from the Connecticut-New York area, he hadn't thrown enough strikes. So far, he has punched out nine and hasn't walked on. We need someone with swing-and-miss stuff other than Will Johnston to come out of that bullpen. Garcia is a weapon, and I just need to roll him out there and see what happens. If he catches fire, then we'd have some serious weapons. That's a big key, and it's on me to put him out there.