Texas Baseball Availability | NCAA Regionals (Thursday AM)

[CJ Vogel]

Texas Baseball is practicing this morning ahead of a Friday regional opener against Houston Christian at 1:00 p.m. at the Disch.

Jim Schlossnagle, LHP Luke Harrison and SS Jalin Flores will speak with the media.

As per typical, some notes will be posted in the comments down below.

[CJ Vogel]

 

[CJ Vogel]

Of course, a lot of conversation about the centerfield fence and batter's eye.

Right now, Texas is not expected to explore alternate destinations for the regional tournament. Workers are on the field currently, working to rebuild the foundation of the centerfield fence.

I would imagine Texas goes the route of a windbreaker fence rather than a fully constructed batter's eye. Fortunately, the grounds crew staff has some experience in this with the batters eye folding in half last spring.

[CJ Vogel]

 

[CJ Vogel]

Jonah Williams had tape on the back of his right hamstring. But he was a full participant for the practice. 

[Jeff Howe]

Schloss: "We'll get a new fence put up in center field sometime between now and 1 o'clock tomorrow."

[Jeff Howe]

Jalin Flores said his house got hit pretty hard by the storm.

[Jeff Howe]

Luke Harrison: "We've seen the batter's eye fold before, but not that bad." 

[Jeff Howe]

Harrison had a lot of praise for Ethan Walker. He said Walker was "a great teammate" and worked hard when he wasn't getting to pitch throughout the season, which is now starting to pay off as he gets his chance to pitch.

[Jeff Howe]

Schloss said he's not ready to announce his starter for tomorrow's game, but he'll have an answer by the end of the day.

[CJ Vogel]

Jonah "moved around pretty well yesterday and today."

Schloss says Jonah Williams will be available this weekend, but unsure of the capacity.

[Jeff Howe]

Ideally, Texas would have four starting pitchers they'd feel confident in putting on the mound. The Jared Spencer injury, however, has clouded the picture.

[Jeff Howe]

Schloss said Houston Christian is talented and playing hot right now. He'll look at the matchups and "what'll give us the best chance over the course of time."

[Jeff Howe]

Schloss said he was at dinner when the storm blew through last night. When he saw the photo of the batter's eye down, he told his friend, "I think I need to go."

By the time he got to Disch-Falk, Schloss said there were already "eight or nine" people examining the situation and getting to work on fixing the issue.

[Jeff Howe]

Schloss on the Longhorn hitters taking a lot of pitchers: "I don't ever want a hitter to come to Texas thinking their plan is to walk."

[Jeff Howe]

Schloss is "super impressed" with HCU's season.

[CJ Vogel]

I asked Schloss about his teams in the past seeing a lot of pitches per at bat.

He cited the first page of Ted Williams' book – "Get a good pitch to hit." 

Says no one comes to The University of Texas to walk, but that the emphasis behind the scenes has always remained the same. Find your pitch and get a good pitch to hit. Whether it is pitch one or pitch seven. Schloss added that there really aren't many true "take" signs given at the plate.

[CJ Vogel]

"All four teams can win this regional." – Schloss.

[Jeff Howe]

Schloss said HCU needs to take care of head coach Clayton VanderLaan. "Given the resources," HCU is working with, Schloss said, VanderLaan is a superstar in coaching.

[Jeff Howe]

Schloss said playing HCU and UTSA during the season doesn't mean there's less work to do as far as putting together the scouting report, but it does streamline things because there's not as much background that needs to be done.

"We're well prepared and these guys are ready to go," Schloss said.

[CJ Vogel]

Schloss says if it gets to that point, Texas will roll with Dylan Volantis as long as he can go in these regional games.

[Jeff Howe]

Schloss said the day Max Belyeu was ready to hit on the field in his return from injury, the Longhorns immediately had a different energy.

"You know when he's coming back up," Schloss said of Belyeu's presence.

[Jeff Howe]

Offensively, Schloss said he believes the Longhorns' best baseball is ahead of them.

[Jeff Howe]

That's it for the press conference. CJ, Blake and I are recording this week's edition of "Based Loaded" in a few minutes. It'll be out later today.