Aggies hunting for championship formula after coming close in 2022
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle calls it “the Boy Scout versus the bounty hunter” in trying to find the right mix of players to win championships.
In an ideal world, players would conduct themselves as Boy Scouts off the field and bounty hunters between the lines, Schlossnagle said, but of course, the world is far from ideal.
“There are some guys who have that in them, and are bounty hunters all the time, and we have to coach the Boy Scout into them, and make sure they make the right decisions away from the field or in the classroom or out at night,” Schlossnagle said. “And then you have the guys who make all the right decisions away from the field and it’s, ‘C’mon, man, we need a little more bounty hunter in you between the lines.’”
The Aggies and their Boy Scouts and bounty hunters crank up their second season under Schlossnagle with a threegame series starting Friday night at Blue Bell Park against Seattle University. A&M already has enjoyed its most successful season in program history in Schlossnagle’s first year, as the Aggies finished just shy of the College World Series championship round in Omaha, Neb.
The Aggies’ No. 3 finish in the final Baseball America poll, the Houston Chronicle’s poll of record in college baseball, marked A&M’s first top three finish in any of the men’s big three sports — football, basketball and baseball — since the football team won a national title in 1939.
“Nobody has any higher expectations for our program than the players and the coaching staff,” said Schlossnagle, who led TCU to five College World Series berths during 18 seasons in Fort Worth. “The very best players and the very best coaches run toward expectations, you don’t run away from them. You come to a place like A&M because you should be good at baseball.
“Now, we need to keep up and we have a lot of work to do on this facility and we have a lot of growth to do in this program — it’s definitely not where it needs to be. But everybody knows that, and we’re working like crazy toward it.”
Schlossnagle’s initial series rotation is righthander Nathan Dettmer, lefthander Troy Wansing and righthander Chris Cortez. Wansing is a transfer from Purdue, where he made the All-Big Ten freshman team a year ago.
A&M, 44-20 a year ago including 19-11 in SEC play, also returns four position players who competed in at least 60 games in 2022: outfielder Brett Minnich and infielders Jack Moss, Austin Bost and Ryan Targac. Trevor Werner and Jordan Thompson also were key components of last year’s unprecedented run that included eliminating old rival Texas from the CWS.
“People say pressure is a privilege … and a lot of the older guys who were on last year’s team know what it takes,” said Minnich, who hit .306 last season with six home runs. “So we’re trying to preach that to the younger guys and transfer guys who are coming in.”
One of those younger guys for fans to keep an eye on is slugger Jace Laviolette, who’s 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds and hit .591 with 11 home runs last season for Tompkins High School. In a scrimmage last fall at Blue Bell Park, LaViolette hit three home runs, including one sailing more than 500 feet and over the railroad tracks beyond the rightfield fence.
“One through nine in this lineup is going to be a reckoning for other people to face,” Minnich vowed of the Aggies’ overall attack.
In addition, the SEC has adopted a couple of measures to try and speed up games in league play. The No. 7 Aggies open SEC action at home on March 17 against topranked LSU.
The SEC plans to place pitchers and batters on a 30-second timer at the end of each play, and the batter must be set 10 seconds into the timer. The pitcher must begin his motion prior to the expiration of the 30 seconds. Coaches will also have 30 seconds for mound visits.
“The pace of play is definitely faster,” Schlossnagle said of his early impressions of the changes. “(But) the beauty of baseball is there (usually) is no clock. You have to get them out 27 times and they’ve got to get you out 27 times … but I’m more of a purist than most people. But I get it … I get it.
“(Now) if you really want to speed the game up play with wood bats, but in college baseball that would be pretty boring if you like offense.”