Texas A&M's Jim Schlossnagle expects Aggies-Longhorns SEC baseball rivalry to go 'nuclear'

Don’t tell Jim Schlossnagle that Texas is struggling.

Forget the Longhorns’ recent three-game sweep at the hands of No. 3 LSU, Texas State and No. 9 Vanderbilt at the Astros Foundation College Classic tournament in Houston. Texas, which hosts Schlossnagle’s Aggies at UFC Disch-Falk Field Tuesday night, will find out soon enough how good those SEC teams are although David Pierce really already knows.

So does Schlossnagle, as the third-year A&M coach who has gotten used to life in the SEC and expects the baseball rivalry between the Aggies and Longhorns to take on a whole new dimension when Texas joins the league in July.

“The rivalry is going to drastically change next year,” Schlossnagle said. “Next year it’s going to be nuclear. And it will mean as much to the coaches as it does to the fans. Right now it means more to the fans than the coaches.”

Conference games just mean more. It’s more than a slogan.

“Texas has Texas Tech (on the road) this weekend,” Schlossnagle said. “And if I had to choose between two out of three against Florida (next week) or win tonight, I know what I’m picking. Now the fans might feel different.”

They do.

Texas, Texas A&M tangle as Top 25 teams at the Disch

Schlossnagle brings in an unbeaten, No. 7-ranked Aggies team that is 11-0 and has just pummeled its competition. He said it’s as much a product of the schedule as it is the really strong talent A&M has.

“Arizona State is the only good team we’ve played,” Schlossnagle said. “Texas has played a much better schedule than we have. Texas can hit. They can really hit.”

So can the Aggies who have slugged 22 home runs in 11 games and is hitting .336 as a club. The 24th-ranked Longhorns (7-4) have been no slouches at the plate because, they, too, have powered 22 homers and carry a collective .320 batting average.

The Aggies come in loaded and undefeated

Longhorns fans may not see a better visiting tandem than the Aggies’ pair of Braden Montgomery, who transferred from Stanford, and Jace LaViolette. The two have combined to hit 11 homers and drive in 42 runs.

“They’ve been a pretty good one-two punch,” Schlossnagle said. “I think Braden is as tooled a player as I’ve ever coached. and Jace is right there. The only difference is Braden is a switch-hitter, and Jace is faster. Braden has a big-time throwing arm. He’s a first-round talent but he’s got to put together a good year. If he puts in an incredible year in the SEC, he can go in the first 10 picks.”

A&M will throw right-hander Chris Cortez, whose fastball has been clocked upwards of 97 mph, tonight against Texas’ Tanner Witt, a pitcher Schlossnagle tried hard to recruit when he was the head coach at TCU.

He also attempted to land Longhorn first baseman Jared Thomas but he had already committed to Texas. Second baseman Dee Kennedy was once committed to the Aggies, but switched to Texas after the A&M coaching change.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Coach: Texas-Texas A&M baseball rivalry to explode as SEC teams