Jim Schlossnagle hopes CWS appearance speeds up process ballpark renovations

Ending your season in the semifinals of the College World Series is a bitter way of going out – but it isn’t all for nothing. For Texas A&M, their deep NCAA Tournament run won’t be for nothing.

Aggies head coach Jim Schlossnagle has a few ideas in mind, including renovations to their home stadium, Blue Bell Park as well as a facility makeover.

“I think the biggest thing this year does is reignites the fan base,” Schlossnagle said following the Aggies’ CWS exit. “I hope it spurs some people to want to speed up the process on renovating our ballpark. We have work to do to get our facility the right way.”

If the Aggies can make a run this deep in Omaha, with improved facilities comes improved performance on the field – and certainly doesn’t hurt when trying to wow recruits on their visits.

“But I think the greatest thing it does is now you have a group of players that will be back next year that have been through this, and so instead of listening to Nate Yeskie or myself or Nolan Cain, a coach talk about Omaha and what’s it like and how do you get there and how important is every single game, which, therefore, how important is every single practice, every single weight workout, because you’re trying to stack good days on top of good days so that you earn the right to be here. Instead of hearing that from a coach, now you’re going to hear it from players.”

For now, Schlossnagle and his Aggies will head back to College Station with their heads held high and an eye toward next season when they can make the trek back to Omaha for another shot to win the College World Series.

“The best way that the younger players on our team can honor the guys that were just up here and the other older players that will be gone is to work their tails off to get us back here,” Schlossnagle said. “Then hopefully we play just a little bit better. Got to find some starting pitching that’s a little more consistent.

Dettmer, obviously, is a good building block for us, and we’re super fired up to have him back, but we have a lot of work to do in recruiting. I think all in all, Aggies are pretty proud today.”

Sure, Texas A&M is disappointed to leave Omaha without an NCAA Championship – Schlossnagle anticipates his Aggies will return to the Mecca of college baseball in the near future.