CWS notebook: Texas looking to feed off Aggie pitcher's emotions

OMAHA, Neb. — Texas coach David Pierce remembers Texas A&M's Micah Dallas well from times gone by.

Well, those times were not all that long ago.

In fact, the right-handed transfer from Texas Tech will try to bank on some good memories from the time he beat the Longhorns and Tristan Stevens 5-3 last year. Dallas struck out eight Longhorns and allowed seven hits and one walk over 7 1/3 innings.

Dallas, who will start for Texas A&M against Texas in Sunday’s 1 p.m. College World Series elimination game, has been up and down for the Aggies.

He has a 6-3 record with victories over Florida in the SEC Tournament and Oral Roberts in the College Station Regional and a 5.40 ERA, and opponents are hitting .297 against him. In almost 77 innings, he’s given up a whopping 94 hits but struck out 83 with 20 walks.

“He’s very emotional,” Pierce said of Dallas. “He’s been their Saturday guy. A guy who left Tech because he wanted to be a weekend starter. And he’s done really well for them. He’s very emotional. I think we have to feed off his emotion.”

A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle minimized any impact that might have on Sunday’s game.

“I think it goes two ways,” he said. “They’re familiar with him, too. They’ll go back and watch the tape, but he’ll take confidence in what he’s done. That’s a really good offense over there.”

Who’s the most resilient? Pierce said he has no big concerns about his team’s mindset for Sunday’s game even though the Longhorns managed just six hits in a 7-3 loss to Notre Dame on Friday night.

“Our guys are resilient,” Pierce said. “They’ve got a lot of toughness about them. I just told our team to regroup and let ’em play. They’re OK. We got to play cleaner. Just let them breathe and just go out and play.”

Interestingly enough, Schlossnagle used almost the same verbiage to describe his A&M team, which fell 13-8 to Oklahoma, although he used the words “super resilient.”

Both teams downplayed any impact Texas’ 12-9 loss to A&M on March 29 might have on the showdown that will send the loser home with a second CWS defeat. For example, one of the most effective Longhorn pitchers in that game was Aaron Nixon, last year's closer, who has fallen on hard times and is rarely used anymore.

That said, Pierce did think that provided momentum for the Aggies, who carried it forward to win the SEC West and take a 16-3 record into the CWS.

“I think they came in uncertain of who they were,” Pierce said. “They got better, and we got better. They took off after that game and learned they could play with anybody in the country.”

Dialing up Dylan: Pierce said he has no plans to move Dylan Campbell up from eighth in the order, even though he’s red-hot and had a sharp single and a line drive scorcher that the Notre Dame third baseman caught Friday.

“We’ve always noticed that he’s electric,” Pierce said. “If he can stay focused, he can change a game, and we’ve seen that. He seems to be better down in the order because there’s a little less pressure, and that creates that beginning of speed with the No. 8-9-1-2 in the order,” ahead of Trey Faltine, Doug Hodo and Eric Kennedy.

Campbell has hit four home runs in the NCAA postseason and has four hits in 14 at-bats with five RBIs in the Greenville Super Regional and CWS. He had a key home run and the walk-off RBI single to beat East Carolina in the second game of that tournament.

Horns up: Before the Longhorns’ one-hour practice at Fricke Field in Papillion, Neb., on Saturday morning, Pierce chatted up a bunch of 10-year-old Little Leaguers and asked them their favorite teams.

Several said Texas, but a few threw in Notre Dame and Oklahoma. Pierce chose one to come onto the field and get a baseball autographed by Ivan Melendez and others. But several of the boy’s teammates were envious and yelled at Pierce, “Hey, he had his Horns Down.”

They start young here.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas looking to rekindle memories, feed off Aggie pitcher's emotions