The Texas A&M Aggies are up 3-0 on the Florida Gators with a trip to the College World Series finale on the line. Heading into the bottom of the fifth inning, ESPN’s Kris Budden caught up with Aggies baseball head coach Jim Schlossnagle, getting his thoughts on his team’s first five innings of play. First on the docket was the play of Texas A&M starting pitcher for Wednesday night’s game, Justin Lamkin.
“I think he’s got that good ride to his fastball and is throwing it close enough to this strike zone where they have to respect it and then allows this all speed pitches to be effective,” Schlossnagle said.
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Lamkin has been lights out on the mound against the Gators in this deciding game. So far, through the first five innings, the sophomore lefty pitcher has held Florida scoreless, allowing just three hits. He has nine strikeouts on 70 pitches, with 54 confirmed strikes thrown thus far. The Gators’ big bats, such as star first baseman Jac Caglianone, have had little to no answer for Lamkin’s arm.
While Lamkin is playing excellent for Texas A&M, the Aggies are dealing with a rash of injuries late in the postseason. Texas A&M is already without star rightfielder Braden Montgomery and is now dealing with an injury to its other star outfielder Jace Laviolette. So how has Schlossnagle’s Aggies been able to overcome the injury bug down the stretch of this year? According to the Texas A&M skipper; it’s all about resiliency
“I think that this resilient club,” said Schlossnagle. “Any team that’s made it this far in the College World Series is had to overcome some level of adversity; that’s what the game is about. Whether it be poor play, bad luck, or injuries. So for ours, it’s been injuries as of late. Hopefully we can get better throughout the course of the rest of the week, if we can keep playing.”
With Texas A&M still hanging on to their 3-0 lead entering into the 6th inning, the Aggies are just 12 hours away from punching their ticket to the College World Series Finale, where they would face another SEC foe in the Tennessee Volunteers. Now, all the Aggies have to do is continue their solid play despite the injuries and ride the arm of Lamkin as long as they possibly can to victory.
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