Coach Slosh Full Interview (2-20)

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Mark Henry on your home for the Horns, thirteen hundred
to song.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
It is Thursday, and that can only be one thing
at AAM, and that is we are joined by the
Texas baseball coach, Jim Slasneggel, the head coach of your
Texas Longhorns, who went to Shiner and got a big
time win up in Arlington. Coach, this is something that
hadn't happened at the University of Texas in quite some time,

(00:30):
going into a major league ballpark in getting some dubs.
You ended up coming up short on Friday night four
to three, but then on Saturday, your team showed some resilience,
came back and beat Old Miss ten to zero, and
then finished out the weekend on Sunday beating Oklahoma State
fourteen to eight. Congratulations on your first dub as a

(00:52):
Texas Longhorn head baseball coach.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
All right, congratulations, I appreciate it. Guys.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Certainly wish would happened Friday night, and we were one
one out away from having that happen and and have
a have a have a shutout and potentially back to
back shutouts. But given the fact that we lost the
tough one on Friday, the next best result would be
to win the next two. And that's what our guys did.
So yeah, they were They showed some resilience, good response

(01:20):
to adversity, and uh, played really really well against some
you know, really good teams.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
Coach, we we got to see not only uh, the
pitching looked really good, but the hitting, Like what what
is uh what is the thing that you feel like
y'all need to improve on?

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Uh, Well, there's a lot of things we need to
improve on. And one weekend is not a seed as banked, right, So, uh,
you know, Friday night didn't mean we were a bad
offensive team, and Saturday and Sunday doesn't doesn't mean more great,
but it does. I think that the beauty of playing
really good teams this early in the season, and is it.

(02:02):
It does give you hope on the things you did well,
and it exposes the things you have to get better at.
We got to pitch better out of the bullpen. We
walk too many guys in moments, especially on Sunday, gave
up a lot of free bases. Both teams were doing that,
with the exception of a couple of tough plays. I

(02:23):
thought we played. I thought we played pretty good defense.
But you know when when you don't play a good team,
when you play maybe a bad team, you're not quite
If you pitch really well and you hit really well,
you're not quite sure if it's real right. So you
and so at least when you play you know, Oklahoma

(02:45):
States who will contend for the Big twelve championship. Louisville
I think maybe have the best team they've had in
a couple of years. And Ole Missus certainly will improved
on what they've been the last two years at SEC school.
And you come out of it with with some confidence
and and but you know it doesn't guarantee you anything.
So we can't. We can't rest with our laurels or

(03:07):
anything like that. We got to be ready to play
this weekend and take it from there.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Coach, We'll get to the offensive side of the barn,
because I really like the offense. Well, let's get onto
that pitch and stuff. I know you were talking a
little bit about it, but you got to be impressed
with what you saw from Jared Spencer and Luke Harrison,
two lefties that got their chances to start off the season.
Jared was just rolling five and two thirds and then
Luke goes out, gets Picture of the Week and does

(03:33):
some unbelievable things on the mound. You definitely got to
be impressed with what you saw from your two Friday
and Saturday starters.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Yeah, I'm very impressed. I thought Spence was was outstanding.
You know, he's obviously got a good arm and can
run that basketball up. They're pretty quick ninety five ninety six,
sometimes better with a really good you've got a good sinker,
but you know, some really good change ups. He threw
the left on the left change up. His breaking ball

(04:03):
has been his best pitch prior to getting here, and
so for a guy that only had nine career starts
over three years, I thought he did a great job.
And then Luke, Uh, Luke was outstanding. Uh you know,
through multiple pitches for strikes, h ole miss. You know,
was on swing and and they were aggressive, which is good.

(04:24):
So feel really good about that. I thought Ruby Riojas
was really good out of the bullpen. I thought that
that Will Mercer did great. You know, he was one
pitch away from getting a save in a really tough situation.
And then we may have asked a little bit too
much of him. The rest of the game, but and
then he got some big out, some big outs for

(04:45):
us on Sunday. So him being able to come back,
you know, two times in a weekend and be somewhat effective,
that's a good time. Coach.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
You had the young guys playing, Like, what kind of
grade would you give the young guys?

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Uh, Well, I mean I think I'd give him a
solid a minus as a group. Maybe I thought, you know,
Rodriguez started off rough but did great. Yeah, I thought
Cole Chamberlain. Uh, Cole Chamberlain. Uh, I think he had
four at bats and three walks maybe uh tied or

(05:20):
led the team and walks on the weekend, so you know,
he he controlled the strike zone. I thought Dylan Balanis
was outstanding out of the bullpen. First time he's ever pitched,
you know, been a long time since the guy that
got pitched out of the bullpen, So just getting ready
and coming in those scenarios, and he punched out one
of the best leaders in the country. And Schubart from

(05:41):
Oklahoma State, who's you know, got at least on the
offensive side, is gonna be a high first round pick.
And I thought Drew Rerick did really well. Uh in
the time in which he was out there. So I
think those are all the freshmen that played, and uh,
I thought they did great, they did really well.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
We're talking to the head baseball coach, Jim Sloasnago after
they had a two in one weekend. They were supposed
to play the other night, but bad weather. This weekend
that'll be hosting Dartmouth and they're expected to start that
on Friday night. But coach, I want to get to
the offensive side of the ball. Max belou been dealing
with an illness. Maybe he needs to be sick more often,

(06:21):
because he found a way to get that barrel going.
Very impressive. The young freshman Adrian Rodriguez. Everybody that I've
talked to spoke of his bat and will Gasparino being
able to put some weight on, and you got a
chance to see that weight be flexed a little bit
this past weekend. Your offense is going to score runs,

(06:44):
and that to me is very impressive.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah, I think it has a chance to as long
as we keep the best players healthy. You know, we
didn't even this time last week.

Speaker 3 (06:55):
We didn't.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
We weren't quite sure Max is going to play at all,
much less play all three games. And uh, yeah, he
as long as he's been rolling here and dropping Allen
iverson on me, Like, yeah, talking about practice, I don't
need practice. I don't need practice. I can just shut
it down for three weeks and then get a few
swings in right before the game and I'm good. So
I'm kidding Max, And Max isn't like that at all.

(07:18):
He would love to be on the field. Gasparino. Yeah,
he's added strength and and some weight, but he's really
done a better job of controlling the strike zone and
and uh, you know, limiting at least this past weekend.
We'll see how it goes long season ahead, but try
and cut down some of the chase and swinging. Miss Rodriguez,

(07:40):
as you talked about, was really good. I thought that
Ethan Mendoza had a great weekend for us. He uh,
his value average didn't reflect the quality of his at bats.
We we we track quality at bats, as you know,
like as a former player, like you can hit a
you hit one hundred and six mile hour line drive
at the center field or the the box score says

(08:02):
you failed, and you and I both know that that's
all you can control is putting together a good at
bat and hitting the ball hard and his quality at
bad percentage was the best on the team on the weekend,
seventy seven percent. And his hard contact percentage, which means
every how many times did he hit the ball hard
over ninety six miles an hour on the times in
which he put the ball in play and it was

(08:23):
seventy one percent, So that's a very high Those are
high numbers against the great pitching that we saw. So
I was really pleased with Mendoza. He's the guy that
not a lot of people have mentioned since the weekend.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
Well, I love the you know, one of the things
that kind of went under the radar was the defensive
playing up the middle that Jalen Flora is kind of
dove and flipped it to second base, and it was
so effortless that a lot of people didn't even realize
that Mendoza bare handed that and flipped it and hit
him dead in the chest. And you know, some of

(08:56):
those times. You have some tough fielding percentages this weekend, right,
you guess, obviously, as a young player playing in the
hot corner, it's gonna be some moments where it's gonna
be like, okay, he's gonna be okay, he's got to
work through some things. Same thing with Mendoza, but you
have to be pleased with the work that you saw
from your guys defensively.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
Yeah, I thought Jalen played outstanding, had a great heartbeat
on defense. Especially. You know, he didn't have his his
his best offensive weekend, and we know the numbers that
he's put up as a hitter, but he didn't take
that to the field and that that double play ball,
that ball was absolutely crushed like one oh eight. And
you know, he and you know we're not our playing

(09:38):
Our playing surface here at Dishwalk is so much different
than what we were on this past weekend. We play
on this turf, it's it's pretty slow, and then you
get on that artificial grass that's left way harder, and
the and the dirt and that that's a big adjustment
and that's that was a great play. Mendoza, I don't

(09:59):
e you know the only air I guess they charged
him with an air when he there was the runner
was kind of coming into him. I think he was
trying to draw and interference play instead of just fielding
the ball. And then you know Rodriguez third base. As
I've said before, other than catcher. Third base is the
toughest position in baseball, I am. In college baseball and

(10:22):
in professional baseball, they don't bun as much. Third baseman
can play way back and guys sometimes don't run hard.
But in college baseball, guys will bunt. Balls are constantly
getting chopped and sliced off a left handed hitter's bat.
You gotta play different, you gotta throw from different arm angles.
I mean, it's a really tough position. And Rodriguez is

(10:42):
you know, he's a shortstop in high school, so he's
learning how to handle all those balls. And I think
we'll look up in a couple of months as long
as he stays healthy, and he'll do great. And I'm
I'm I'm real confident in that one super highlight for
me on on defense, well two of them. Riley Galvan
was incredible, yep, caught all three games. And then Kimball

(11:02):
Schuschler at first base, you know, you know, started a
double play. You know, that's kind of a new position
for him. He's a lifelong catcher, started a double play,
kick some balls out of the dirt, made nice catch
on some pop ups. He kind of settled things down
at first base and that's big for us going forward.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah, that's important, and he's done a really good job coach.
As always, Man, I appreciate the conversations on Thursday. You
guys have a great weekend playing some ball against Dartmouth.
It's gonna be cold, but hey, it's baseball season. We'll
work through some.

Speaker 3 (11:35):
Things, man.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
Yeah, I appreciate you having me, and yeah, we're we'll
probably have to juggle some schedules this weekend and try
to fit in a couple of games, and then next
week the good weather comes in. I'm we're excited about that.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
Finally, finally, there he is the head baseball coach of
your Texas Longhorns. Coach Jim Slosnagel coming through when we
come back, Kevin Durant is in town.

Speaker 1 (11:56):
Folks.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
We're gonna hear from KD right here on the morning
kickoff on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
This