Jim Schlossnagle knows what he’s chasing. He can even name the guys who finally got their happy endings ahead of him.
The College World Series has concluded for three summers and counting with a longtime accomplished coach reveling in Omaha glory for the first time. Chris Lemonis and Mississippi State in 2021. Mike Bianco and Ole Miss in 2022. Jay Johnson and LSU last year.
Maybe this June it will be the 53-year-old Schlossnagle and Texas A&M, which carries a No. 1 ranking for a second straight week and has the look of the most complete team in college baseball. The Aggies are 35-5, including 25-1 at home and 22-0 against nonconference opponents. Dropping the series finale by one run at No. 12 Alabama — while winning the series last weekend — almost qualifies as a letdown.
“Look at our record: It’s pretty good,” Schlossnagle told local reporters last week. “That’s not being elitist or anything. It’s just that this team has proven it’s mature. ... Our team has a really good professional approach to every single day.”
The Aggies were no sure thing to be a title favorite coming off a 38-27 campaign that flamed out as a regional two seed. Schlossnagle lost his pitching coach, Nate Yeskie, to LSU and had no obvious top-of-the-rotation pitchers on the rise. The offense had just ranked 12th in the SEC in scoring.
So A&M hit the portal like a hanging slider. Outfielder Braden Montgomery (Stanford), catcher Jackson Appel (Penn), DH Hayden Schott (Columbia), shortstop Ali Camarillo (Cal State Northridge) and first baseman Ted Burton (Michigan) all arrived as foundational lineup pieces. Montgomery — hitting .376 with 22 homers and 67 RBIs through 40 games — will be a top-10 major-league draft pick this summer.
Meanwhile, sophomore centerfielder Jace LaViolette (.322 average, 20 homers) continues his breakout. Freshman third baseman Gavin Grahovac (.329, 14) — a former top-60 national prospect — took off immediately.
The result: A jump in production from seven runs per game (120th nationally) to 9.4 (12th). Team batting average has gone from .270 (201st) to .313 (19th) with slugging percentage up to fifth in the country.
Pitching has also been transformative in College Station. Lefty Ryan Prager — with a 5.16 ERA as a starter in 2022 who missed last season recovering from Tommy John surgery — is performing as an unlikely ace with a 2.55 ERA as well as 74 strikeouts and seven walks in 53 innings. Tanner Jones, a junior righty and Jacksonville State transfer, has been serviceable as the Saturday starter while Sunday southpaw Justin Lamkin is showing growth as a sophomore.
A blend of young arms, former transfers and veterans in the bullpen under first-year pitching coach Max Weiner — previously pitching coordinator for the Seattle Mariners — have also sparked an ERA drop of more than two full runs from a season ago from 5.63 (115th) to 3.57 (fourth). Collectively, they miss bats and avoid walks as well as anyone.
The one concern, Schlossnagle said, might be identifying a fourth starter by June.
“It’s just trying to find that guy that we’re going to need — if we’re in the postseason — to pitch in the conference tournament or losers bracket game in a regional or the College World Series,” Schlossnagle said.
Schlossnagle became a familiar name in Omaha after turning TCU into a national power with five CWS trips between 2010 and 2017. His sixth came with the Aggies in 2022 when he turned the last-place club into a final-four finisher in his debut campaign.
The maroon and white has never captured the ultimate prize despite a storied baseball tradition including a run of making all but one NCAA regional in the last 16 full seasons. The program previously reached Omaha under Rob Childress — now Nebraska’s pitching coach — in 2011 and 2017. Schlossnagle’s new athletic director, of course, is former Husker administrator Trev Alberts.
Schlossnagle joked that a No. 1 ranking right now doesn’t change the purchase price of his Starbucks coffee. Talk to him again in a couple months.
“We’ve got a long way to go,” Schlossnagle said. “But it’s a snapshot of where we are in time.”
Here’s a look at seven other schools on which to keep an Omaha eye. Note the usual SEC and ACC flavor, with metrics of recent College World Series qualifiers also suggesting a few newcomers over muddled fields in the Big 12 and outgoing Pac-12.
Arkansas: The Hogs remain atop the SEC West with one of the nation’s deepest pitching rotations and a top-10 defense that has allowed a total — total! — of seven unearned runs. They’re 27-1 at home and 20-2 against nonconference foes. The big question remains an offense scoring 6.8 runs per game that sits 148th nationally. The only post-pandemic CWS qualifier with a lower-ranking attack was regional three seed Virginia in 2021.
Dallas Baptist: The curious case of the Patriots is ongoing. They’re 6-0 against Quad-1 foes and 13-0 against Quad-4 teams but 9-10 versus everyone else while losing three straight Conference USA weekends. A powerful lineup, rock-solid defense and deep staff led by bat-missing ace Ryan Johnson all scream this NCAA tourney team in 11 of the last 12 full seasons can finally make its Omaha debut.
Duke: The best may be yet to come for the Blue Devils, with six of their eight ACC losses coming by one run or in extra innings. A new-look lineup of freshmen and transfers has become a top-35 scoring unit in a key development backing a top-10 defense. A low-20s RPI is dinged by a weak nonconference schedule but series wins include Wake Forest, Virginia and Miami. Impressive fact that translates to regionals: 12 oft-used Duke arms still boast ERAs under 5.
East Carolina: It’s 15 wins in 17 games for the Pirates, who have yet to lose this year by more than two runs amid a top-45 schedule. One of the country’s best starters in Trey Yesavage and best relievers in Wyatt Lunsford-Shenkman headline a stable of pitchers with high-end command while the offense may be ECU’s best post-pandemic group. The program is still seeking its first-ever Omaha trip in what will soon be a 34th NCAA tournament berth.
Kentucky: The Wildcats are the only SEC team — current or future — to never reach the CWS. That may soon change for the league leaders (15-3 in conference) even after an 11-game streak ended in a tight series loss to Tennessee. UK has balance and momentum after playing in front of a record home crowd of 7,304 Saturday. It just means more in Lexington now after getting a super-regional taste last June.
Tennessee: It’s five straight SEC series wins and counting for the Vols after sweeping LSU a week ago and traveling to quiet a top-five Kentucky squad over the weekend. This has been a consistent national power of late – it made Omaha in 2021 and 2023 and just missed in 2022 as the No. 1 national seed. Expect more of the same led by a top-shelf collection of power arms and the nation’s best slugging lineup.
Wake Forest: This isn’t the juggernaut program that ended a half-century Omaha drought last year but one battle tested by a top-five strength of schedule and perhaps finding its groove after a key series win over Florida State. Tennessee transfer Chase Burns — with 113 strikeouts in 62 innings — is a force and a dangerous offense can keep pace as needed. Wake doesn’t boast the star power from 2023 but may have upgraded in depth and experience.
Photos: Our favorite 40 moments from the 2023 College World Series