Texas baseball gets its first real challenge of the season when it faces Coastal Carolina Friday evening.
Sure, the Chanticleers top two pitchers, ace Cameron Flukey and left-hander Hayden Johnson, are expected to miss at least eight weeks because of injuries. But this is still a team that played for a national championship last season.
“They still have great pitchers,” Texas head coach Jim Schlossngale said this week. “I mean, we’re preparing for the guy that we’re going to face right now (RHP Luke Jones), and he’s got outstanding stuff as well. I don’t think there’s another pitcher in the country, you know, similar to Flukey. So that’s, you know, that’s definitely going to be different, but we’re still facing a great team, and still have to go play the game.”
Then there’s Baylor and Ohio State in the tournament as well.
“You’re playing three different teams, you’re playing a team that tomorrow night that played for the national title, but you’re mainly playing a big league ballpark,” Texas baseball head coach Jim Schlossnagle said.
Schlossnagle pointed out that the start of last season didn’t go so well for his Horns when they travelled to Arlington to open the season in the home of the Texas Rangers.
“You have the season opening, you have the new coach thing going and and then you’re in a big league Stadium against great teams,” Schlossnagle said. “So there was a lot of sped up heart rates last year. But that’s always things you’re always dealing with in competitive sports, adrenaline and adversity. That’s why we spend so much time on the mind game.”
The Longhorns got off to a much better start this season, riding a wave of elite pitching to start a perfect 8-0. When you include this weekend’s games, the Horns have eight more non-conference games before starting SEC play against Ole Miss on March 13th.
Anything can happen in baseball (four of the top six teams all lost on Tuesday night), but I fully expect UT to be undefeated by the time Ole Miss rolls into Disch-Falk Field.
“Every single game brings something,” Schlossnagle said. “I hope we continue to win all the games, but it’s probably not going to happen. Everybody has a plan until you get punched. So I’m sure we’ll take some punches this weekend, and I’m looking forward to seeing how guys handle the different environment.”
I’ve spent the past couple of years chronicling how winning 40 games (prior to the College World Series field selection) will almost guarantee a team hosts the regional round of the tournament. If a team gets to 45 wins, they’re basically a lock to be a top-8 seed which would guarantee they host a super regional as well if they get past the opening weekend.
If UT is 16-0 by the start of conference play then they will need to go 24-16 the rest of the way to get to that 40 game win mark or 29-11 to get to 45 wins. And that is before the SEC conference tournament. Those games would count towards that total as well.
Schlossnagle may be secretly hoping his boys pick up a loss at some point. He’s living up to a deal he made with Casey Borba that he would start growing a moustache if they won five straight games. He won’t shave until UT loses a game.
Not that Schloss would ever admit he’d be a little relieved with a loss.
“I’ll be glad to end up looking like, you know, Magnum PI,” Schlossnagle said while talking to the sadly too young press corps. “If you guys know who that is.”
Sure Schloss doesn’t want to win … but if his wife is anything like mine, she may be openly rooting for UT’s opponents.
My wife went on a two-month work trip about ten years ago. It was a long time away from each other and we were both missing each other. But when she facetimed me just before packing up to come back and saw this …
She threatened to stay gone until I shaved.
Will Schloss have to get a new razor this weekend? I’m not banking on it. I think we’re seeing a special season unfolding and it may be a while before he has to shave.
