By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
Media outlets are reporting that injured Texas A&M pitcher Shane Sdao will not be available for the Aggies as they open their national-title quest this weekend at the Men’s College World Series.
Outlets at texags.com, the Bryan-College Station Eagle and the Houston Chronicle/San Antonio Express-News reported on the development regarding Sdao from A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle’s media availability Wednesday morning.
The coach told reporters that the Aggies will need to make adjustments to compensate for the absence of Sdao and Braden Montgomery in the lineup. The CWS starts on Friday, with third-seeded A&M (49-13) opening play on Saturday at Charles Schwab Stadium.
In the past two weeks, the Aggies have swept through the first two weekends of play in the NCAA tournament with a 5-0 record. They beat Grambling, Texas and Louisiana on the opening weekend.
Last weekend, the Aggies followed with a two-game sweep of Oregon at the Super Regional. Montgomery was lost in Game 1 on Saturday against Oregon with a lower leg injury. Sdao was lost in Sunday’s Game 2 with an apparent arm problem.
A&M acknowledged on Saturday that Montgomery, a highly-rated prospect for the MLB draft later this summer, would be lost to the team for the remaining days of his final college season.
Schlossnagle confirmed on Wednesday that Sdao won’t pitch again until next year.
“Braden’s having surgery this morning in North Carolina,” Schlossnagle told reporters. “He’s going to join us (in Omaha), probably in the next couple of days. Shane was evaluated. He won’t pitch again this year.”
Schlossnagle said the long-term prognosis on Sdao is good.
“I think they’re going to wait two weeks and let some swelling go down and re-evaluate him one more time just to be sure,” the coach said. “But it looks a lot better than expected for Shane, for next year.”
Ryan Prager is expected to start for A&M against Florida on Saturday. But without Sdao, the starter for the Aggies’ Game 2 has yet to be announced. The coach said that not having Sdao changes “a lot” of the team’s plan for the pitching rotation.
“He had been as effective as any starting pitcher on our team,” Schlossnagle said. “So, we’ll have to adjust a little bit. We’re not ready to announce that yet. Justin (Lamkin) threw the one inning in the regional and didn’t pitch in the Super Regional. So, he’s ready to go.
“He had a couple of good side sessions this week. But the goal obviously is to stay in the winners bracket so you don’t have to play as much. That would help. But, we’ll have to have some other guys step to the forefront.”
The Aggies shuffled Sunday’s lineup, inserting Kaeden Kent at second base and moving things around to compensate for the loss of Montgomery, one of the best players in NCAA baseball this year.
Kent, the son of former major league star Jeff Kent, responded with a grand slam in the Aggies’ 15-9 Super Regional clincher against the Ducks.
“That’s one of the things I challenged the pitching staff about,” Schlossnagle said. “You know, who’s going to be the Kaeden Kent — or more — of the pitching staff? Somebody that hasn’t pitched a lot is going to have to pitch well for us to stay up there (in Omaha) for a long time.”
Winning the CWS will require the Aggies to play and prepare and play again and again over an 11-day period. The title round is scheduled for June 22-24. Here’s a look at the CWS schedule for the first two days:
Friday’s games
North Carolina vs. Virginia, 1 p.m.
Tennessee vs. Florida State, 6 p.m.
Saturday’s games
Kentucky vs. North Carolina State, 1 p.m.
Texas A&M vs. Florida, 6 p.m.