Schlossnagle focused on playing 'clean baseball' in back half of season

Ryan Targac's series-clinching walk-off home run against Ole Miss claimed Texas A&M's first series dub in conference play. Jim Schlossnagle joined Monday's edition of TexAgs Radio to detail his team's resiliency, his pitching staff and more.

Key notes from Jim Schlossnagle interview

• We are a game off of last year’s pace. I think the league is a lot better than last year, which is crazy to say, especially when you had four of eight teams in the College World Series last year. There are teams that are significantly better. I don’t think you can count on finishing 19-11 or whatever we were last year.
   
• From this standpoint, considering the injuries, poor play and issues on the mound, to be 3-6 after playing Tennessee, LSU and Ole Miss, I don’t want to say I will take it because it's below expectations. Winning an SEC series is never a bad thing. We need to keep our heads down and pay attention to whatever is next. Right now, it's Texas State, and then we move on from there.
   
• Sunday was huge. Saturday was like the Saturday game against LSU. It was defeating for me. I evaluate the team on the mound, throwing strikes and playing clean baseball. The offense will come and go, and I pride our team on throwing strikes.
   
• Brad Rudis has been nothing but reliable since he’s been in college. He won’t be as impressive on the radar gun. I don’t want to hurt him because he is pitching two to three times a week. Shane Sdao did fine. He’s a strike-thrower. He gets after it with his fastball. He gives up hits on his off-speed pitches. He will get there. He will only get bigger and stronger. Nathan Dettmer, I thought, had a pretty good night on Friday.
   
• You saw Brett Minnich’s power. We don’t hit a lot of batting practice home runs anyway, and we try to stay on the baseball. Those were big homers that came at great times. Putting him in the four-hole takes pressure off of Jace LaViolette. It lengthens our lineup.
   
• Ryan Targac is better. He’s going in the right direction. We tried to change some things in his mentality alone. Sometimes, hitters get caught in between, behind the fastball and ahead of the breaking ball. Trevor Werner had some big hits yesterday, but he still misses pitches.
   
• No disrespect to anyone off the bench, but once you show me you can do it, I believe in all of our players. I certainly believe in Ryan Targac.
   
• Evan Aschenbeck has been a big part of all of our wins. He’s super competitive. Troy Wansing will start tomorrow night. It’s a big night for us. I told Evan to not even put his uniform on. I don’t want to use Will Johnston, either. We need Wansing, Chris Cortez, Wyatt Tucker and maybe Josh Stewart. We have to turn right around on Thursday against Auburn.
   
• We met as a staff and had a come-to-Jesus meeting. Jordan Thompson has proved he can change the game with one swing with the wind blowing out. He gets on base a lot. But in that instance, Mason Nichols on Ole Miss pitched his breaking ball, and it's not as good as last year. With Tab Tracy, I was taking a shot. JT is a good center fielder, but Tab is a special center fielder, along with Stanley Tucker. A tab is progressing nicely.
   
• We have to play well tomorrow night. You have to start stringing together some wins. It doesn’t have to be seven straight. Play clean baseball. I truly believe the game begins and ends with starting pitching. We have to get this program, and we will, where it used to be with elite starting pitching. A&M in 2015-16 was so good. It’s growing up our own pitchers. We are going to figure it out. I can promise you that.