Jim Schlossnagle gives assessment of Texas A&M starter Nathan Dettmer
Texas A&M has been on the verge of elimination throughout the entire NCAA Tournament, dating back to their hosted regional. After losing Game 1 of the College World Series, the Aggies and head coach Jim Schlossnagle are playing their second do-or-die game in as many days.
Pressure was put on Nathan Dettmer as the starting pitcher, needing a good start for Texas A&M to have success. Thus far, he has delivered, throwing four scoreless innings with only one hit and four strikeouts. Schlossnagle assessed his performance during a mid-game interview.
“Just throwing more strikes,” Schlossnagle said. “He’s committed to the strike zone, got a good little breaking ball going. They’re swinging early in the count, which is helpful and with the exception of one instance, we’ve made plays behind him. Hopefully, he can keep it going.”
Schlossnagle was then asked what kind of “fight” his team has, playing in all of these intense elimination games. He said it’s nothing new from the Aggies and even said Notre Dame has the same mentality as his ball club.
“I think you’ve seen it all year long,” said Schlossngale. “Any team that makes it this far has great resilience and competitive grit, fight. Notre Dame is the same as us. We’re all fighting for our lives now.”
Jim Schlossnagle jokes about rally bananas in dugout
Of course, Texas A&M is a school of tradition, even if it’s picked up on the fly. Schlossnagle has been eating bananas for good luck and at the point of the interview, had only eaten two. He was pondering having another to expand on the early lead.
“I’ve had two but I think I may need a rally banana shortly if we don’t stretch the lead a little bit,” Schlossnagle said.
Assuming Schlossnagle had his rally banana, it worked just a half-inning later. Texas A&M hit a solo home run out to left field to kick off the inning and added another with a Dylan Rock RBI single. The Aggies now lead 5-0.
Maybe the head coach can get a couple of Pringles in there as well.