Jim Schlossnagle knows Texas A&M has to deal with a star in Florida’s Jac Caglianone in the College World Series.
One of the best players in all of college baseball, Caglianone might try and carry the Gators to a title himself if he could. So, Schlossnagle has to prepare.
Ultimately no matter how much you prepare, sometimes you just leave it up to fate.
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“Yeah, first of all, he’s a great player, right? It is what it is,” Schlossnagle said. “I think the key — one of our coaches was talking about how we’re going to try X or Y to pitch with him. I said, just make sure there’s nobody on base. That’s the key is to make sure there’s nobody on base.”
Schlossnagle even revealed some strategies that were attempted to deal with Caglianone.
“We tried — we went four outfielders. It really doesn’t matter,” Schlossnagle said. “If he hits it in the air, it’s going to go over the fence most of the time. The thing about Jac that — I don’t know Jac, and I have a lot of admiration for him. The thing that — he’s the best defensive first baseman I’ve ever seen in college baseball. It’s not close. I’ve coached some good ones and coached two USA Teams that had good ones. He’s an unbelievable defender that can also — I think he can go to the outfield.
“He made catches against us in Gainesville where he ran all the way down — up against the fence and dodged the ballboy and caught one up against the fence and then did the exact same thing in the SEC tournament.”
Heck, it’s not just the offense for Caglianone.
“He changes the game with his glove,” Schlossnagle said. “Not as much as he does with his bat, but he’s a complete player. He’s looking to do damage from the first pitch, so you can’t go slowly into the at-bat. You have to be super intentional. But I can tell you this. He’s a great player, but when we went down there and lost two out of three the beginning of the conference play, it was the other guys that beat us.
“I went into it thinking about Cags and Colby Shelton and those guys, and then it was Heyman and the other dudes, the right-handed hitters that were smoking the ball all over the field.”
It’s not all about one player such as Caglianone, but he can certainly make the biggest difference for a great team.
“They’re a great team, as I just told Sully,” Schlossnagle said. “Death, taxes, and Florida in Omaha. Those are three things you can pretty much count on. Hopefully we can get our program to that point, but Cags is — you can only control so much, so just try to have him hit with nobody on.”
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