Everything Texas A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle said after No. 1 Tennessee rallied for a 4-1 win over the third-seeded Aggies in Game 2 of the College World Series Sunday afternoon at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha:
Opening Statement
JIM SCHLOSSNAGLE: I thought it was a great ball game. I guess the difference in the game, two two-out homers. They got the big swings at the right time.
But we battled back. Combs obviously settled down the game really well for them. And I thought Chris battled. I thought I was proud of Kaiden WIlson. Two pitches got him. Dreiling was on the fastball. And he hung a breaking ball to the catcher.
So close ball game. Just exactly what you’d expect with these two teams. To think you’re going to roll right through it in two games would be, that would have been nice but it’s obviously — we get to play. We don’t have to play. We get to play the last college baseball game of the season. And that’s awesome.
Q. How is Caden Sorrell doing after the collision at second? And how would you assess the base running and the errors there?
JIM SCHLOSSNAGLE: As far as Sorrell, I don’t even know. I think he probably just got tagged and maybe his helmet cut him or something. We were too busy in the moment trying to win the game. So I’ll check with the trainer after.
The pick-off, I don’t know if they’re necessarily base-running errors as they are great plays. In our scouting report, we’re very aware that Drew’s got an awesome pick-off move. We weren’t running there. And he picked him off. Can’t stand next to the base, but we didn’t have a big lead and we weren’t running.
And then the same thing on the back picks. They’re always searching for outs. Burke is like Cags for Florida. Those guys are super quick. They’re really good with the tag being left-handed. Stark — we talked about it, we showed the video. No one was running anywhere.
So, yeah, those are big outs. No question. Can’t make outs on the bases, especially when you’re not running.
Q. What did you see from Zane today? And when you brought Chris into the game, I know he was getting loose in the first inning, second inning. Was that part of we don’t want having him get loose for two, three innings —
JIM SCHLOSSNAGLE: We were just trying to squeeze a few outs out of Zane, take, as Chris admitted, he has some anxiety with starting the game. He’s awesome — or he feels better once he can just get ready quick and jump in the game. Felt that Zane was the best choice to get us maybe the first three outs, and he did.
And we’re going to go one batter at a time after that. And I think he gave up a lead-off single to Amick, no, to Ensley, whatever. We just had to go right that was the plan to get as many outs out of Zane as we could, get Cortez in the game and hope we could score.
The story of the game was how they pitched. Combs, to me, is the story of the game. Two big swings and Combs shut us down. He did a great job. Give him a lot of credit.
Q. Not having to use Evan today, is there some comfort having that in your back pocket?
JIM SCHLOSSNAGLE: Sure, we took a risk. Obviously Evan was on my mind when Dreiling hit the homer. Just thought it was a lot to ask for him to get seven outs after last night.
I thought we didn’t bring him in — I thought Kaiden was throwing really well. I thought Amick had the best at-bat against Aschenbeck last night before Ensley popped out. I felt good about Ensley at that moment.
We tried to get a fastball. After those two breaking balls we tried to get a fastball up and it wasn’t up enough.
We’re going into the last game of the season and Lamkin is ready to roll. And Stewart now has a day and Aschenbeck has a day. I’ll take that. And obviously we’re playing a great team. So we’ll see.
Q. Bridging the gap between Cortez and potentially Aschenbeck was going to be huge. Was that something you deliberated over a lot last night? Or was it something that you did a feel-of-the-moment kind of thing?
JIM SCHLOSSNAGLE: No, you’re always playing out every scenario. We talked about it last night. Just feel like what the match-ups are, we really like Kaiden Wilson, we think he’s a super talented guy. Thought he threw well except two pitches. He made two mistakes against a great team and they got him.
We felt like if we could — again, the difference is we didn’t score. If it’s a 3-0 game instead of a 1-0 game, I probably, to win a national title, I’d probably run Evan out there. But in a 1-0 game, it was just a lot to ask.
I felt like tomorrow would be a different story. But we had to take a chance. I said yesterday, somebody else is going to have to help us get these outs, other than the four guys that have mostly pitched in the tournament.
Q. Is it a special moment to tell a guy like Zane that he’s going to get the ball to start it out in the College World Series?
JIM SCHLOSSNAGLE: I’m not the one that told him. But yeah, I think anytime you get a guy in the chance to play in Omaha, it’s an awesome experience.
Q. Similar question to the one I asked Jace about the back-to-back hits to begin the ninth and the confidence that can be carried over into game three, and also how important is it that the team has seen Nate Snead going into the winner-take-all?
JIM SCHLOSSNAGLE: Nate’s a good pitcher. I mean, I think we had some momentum going there, but how that affects tomorrow, I don’t know. I mean, just like if you get your doors blown in in a game, I don’t think it hurts you for the next day.
But we brought the tying run to home plate. Targo put a good swing on it. Didn’t get out. On a different day maybe it gets out. Tomorrow I think the wind is blowing in a lot so that will play a role in the game.
Our guys are confident. We get to play the last game of the season. And that’s awesome.
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