Jim Schlossnagle discusses Texas A&M's weekend in Baton Rouge

No. 3 Texas A&M baseball dropped its second series of the year on the road at LSU. Head skipper Jim Schlossnagle joined Monday's edition of TexAgs Radio to offer his thoughts on the three-game set and A&M's final midweek game, hosting Rice on Tuesday evening.

Key notes from Jim Schlossnagle interview

• Thought it was great when we battled back. We needed it. Three to four innings in on Sunday, it was not a good feeling in the dugout.
   
• I thought Chris Cortez gave us a shot of life. We had Caden Sorrell’s triple. That got everyone fired up and then the Gavin Grahovac homer. Baseball can eat you up. You can feel the greatest for a while. A couple of negative things happen, and you have to be careful not to let it steamroll. 
   
• I don't like postgame talks or speeches, but that was mine on Saturday night. “Just chill out.” The game ended, and we had one of the best pitchers in the country hanging his body over the front rail of the dugout like the season was over.
   
• We played bad for two days. You deserved to get your rear end kicked when you don't play well. Our guys care too much sometimes. If you have that level of care, it can snowball, especially in the sport of baseball. 
   
• I think we have played poorly and pitched poorly before. We just swung the bat enough to cover it up. We had full control of the game with Ryan Prager pitching. He walked two guys. They bunt. They got a little flare that is just out of Ali Camarillo’s reach. Tommy White was up. This was the double play that we wanted, and a bad throw was made.
   
• We will not be perfect. They are human beings. We have to find ways to overcome it. There will be days we do. Those two days, we didn't.
   
• You have to give credit to the team we faced. Gage Jump and Luke Holman are two of the best starters we will see all year. The numbers don't accurately reflect those to guys. Griffin Herring is awesome. We knew going into the weekend their left-handed pitching would be an issue for us. 
   
• My question to the fans is: What constitutes a good season? Can you have a brutal regular season, be the 64^th team in and win the national championship... Is that the best team in program history? It’s tournament sports. I am not saying I am right and you are wrong or vice versa.
   
• At the end of the day, we want to get in a regional and do well there. I would love to host. Awesome. Right now, I will take the No. 4 seed in Anchorage with our team healthy. I will take our chances. There will be ups and downs. We could have more downs ahead of us. Who knows? 
   
• First time, we have lost back-to-back games. If we do that a month from now, our season is over. Yeah, I reminded them of that.
   
• Guess who had a winning record against the teams who played for a national championship last year? Texas A&M. We had the most brutal pitching staff in school history. We had awesome kids. Austin Bost has the most unlucky year that I have ever seen. We were 4-3 against Florida and LSU. 
   
• This upper echelon of college baseball, I am telling you, you just have to survive it and be healthy. We have to get to the point where we get to our regional, and our team is healthy. 
   
• We, as a staff, have proven we can develop players here. Everyone develops at different stages.
   
• It’s how each individual at-bat happens. When a guy strikes out, everyone looks at the last pitch. It’s the pitches in the AB. “Gah-lee, you missed two fastballs. Are you in between thinking? Are you thinking about the fastball and breaking ball cause if you are thinking about both... If you are trying to guess what Nate Yeskie is going to call over there in that dugout, good luck.”
   
• It’s the way the strikeouts happen. We have hitters that get frustrated, and the first thing they do is swing. As you start hacking, it will lead to strikeouts. 
   
• The goal of an offense is to score runs. Do I like the strikeouts? Of course not. The players don’t like them either. The goal is also to get on base. You have to get deep in counts. When you do that, you can strike out or walk.
   
• Greg Maddux would also say the more pitches you see, the more information you get. Dylan Rock would see the shape of the pitch. He may chase it early in the count, but he wouldn’t again. If he saw the shape going in the strike zone, he would hammer it. Come stand in the box, and see how tough it is.
   
• I'm super proud of Cortez. He usually pitches at his best when we're behind. Yesterday, we put him in. We were losing, then took the lead. That’s a great sign for us. He and Shane Sdao, by far, were the highlights on the mound. Brad Rudis did a great job and kept us in the ballgame.
   
• Even though we played as poorly as we did those two days, on Saturday, we still brought the go-ahead run to the plate in the hands of Braden Montgomery and Jackson Appel. That’s awesome. The character of our club can’t be questioned.
   
• One of our guys said this weekend, “Gah-lee, I have to figure out how to not hit it at somebody.” Buddy, as soon as you figure that out, tell me because we are going to make a trillion dollars. What can you do, man?
   
• Tomorrow, I would be shocked if Ted Burton played. He can hit and probably play first, what got him was the stretch on the Tommy White ground ball that we threw away. It wasn’t a running injury. Nothing popped. He really wanted to play yesterday. There’s just no way.
   
• It could be Kaeden Kent starting at first. He had a good AB yesterday. Blake Binderup was also good yesterday. I dont know who Rice will throw. We have left and right-handed option.