Red-hot Kimble Schuessler is making his mark at Texas

Regarded as one of the most competitive athletes Jim Schlossnagle has ever coached, Schuessler is coming into his own for the Longhorns as a fifth-year senior.

As the No. 1 Texas Longhorns solidified their hold on the nation’s top ranking with a 14-2 run-rule victory over the then-No. 8 Auburn Tigers at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on Saturday, senior first baseman Kimble Schuessler was the star, becoming the fourth Texas player since 2008 to record eight RBI in a game with the help of two home runs and a double.

“What a day for Kimble Schuessler. What a guy. What an incredible leader, baseball player, competitive athlete. One of the top four or five pure competitors that I’ve ever coached and honored to be on his team,” Texas head coach Jim Schlossnagle said on Saturday.

After the game, Schlossnagle gave Schuessler the lineup card as a souvenir from his career night, the second time in three games the Texas head coach afforded his first baseman that honor.

“I’ll definitely be hanging that up in my room,” Schuessler said.

Schuessler earned SEC Co-Player of the Week honors after totaling a conference-best .714/.765/1.500 slash line, three home runs, and 10 RBI as the Longhorns went 4-0, including a sweep of the then-No. 8 Tigers in Austin.

Schuessler reached safely in 13 of his 17 plate appearances behind four multi-hit efforts last week, highlighted by the two-homer, eight-RBI performance to lead Texas to a 14-2 run-rule win over Auburn on Saturday. His second three-run home run allowed the Longhorns to walk it off against the Tigers.

Schuessler started the week by reaching safely in all five plate appearances of Tuesday’s 11-4 win over UTRGV and opening the weekend series against Auburn by hitting the go-ahead home run on Thursday.

At 108 miles per hour, Schuessler had the team’s top exit velocity in the sweep of the Tigers, and finished second in barrel rate (50 percent), hard-hit rate (70 percent), and average exit velocity (101 mph).

Early in the season, Schuessler experienced some poor luck with his batting average on balls in play, hitting .258 without a home run when Texas started SEC play in mid-March against Mississippi State.

No at bat was more emblematic of Schuessler’s struggles than in the ninth inning against Texas State on April 1 — the Bobcats were set to upset the Longhorns, leading 5-3, but Texas tried scrape back. Having already scored a run in the inning, the bases were loaded for Schuessler, who took a strike before lacing a line drive towards the right-center gap. Rather than tying the game on a two-run double, however, the line drive was just low enough for the Texas State second baseman to make a leaping grab and end the game.

Despite the frustrations, Schuessler stayed dedicated in the batting cage — when Schlossnagle arrives at the baseball facility, he can typically hear the ping of Schuessler working in the batting cage with freshman infielder Carson Luna.

“He’s been getting me right,” Schuessler said of his young teammate.

Schuessler is also a creature of habit.

“I’m a pretty routine-oriented guy. I do the same thing every day. Kind of show up to the field at the same time every day,” Schuessler said.

The combination of hard work, routine, and sticking with the approach preached by Schlossnagle and hitting coach Troy Tulowitzki has paid off.

“He’s obviously on a run right now where he’s just really on the fastball and he’s capable of hitting the other way on the fastball and then when they leave the elevated off speed pitches, then he’s on time for it,” Schlossnagle said on Saturday.

Timing up the fastball to the opposite field is critical in hitting to avoid what Schlossnagle calls being “in between.”

“Baseball is tough, and you go into a little bit of a slump and then you’re behind the fastball, but in front of the off speed — you call that being in between, and that’s a rough place for a hitter,” Schlossnagle said.

“Guys that are using the whole field to hit, when you can handle the fastball and you’re able to hit it the other way, then it allows you to handle the bad off-speed pitch or at least foul off the good ones, and he’s in a good spot,” Schlossnagle said of Schuessler.

Schuessler also worked with Tulowitzki to make a small change to his swing.

“I made a little swing tweak with Tulo — I was kind of no stride and I put a little stride in my swing, and I think that’s kind of helped me tap into a little bit more power,” Schuessler said.

On the walkoff home run on Saturday, Schuessler got a 1-2 fastball out over the plate and turned on it, blasting it 414 feet beyond the fence in left-center field with the weekend’s highest exit velocity for the Longhorns at 108 mph.

“My approach this week, it was really stay on the heater and I did a good job of that,” Schuessler said.

Schuessler had already shown his ability to stay on the breaking ball, working a 3-2 count in the second inning before sending a flat off-speed pitch down the left-field line.

The double was the second breaking ball Schuessler had handled well in the game, dropping his barrel on a low pitch that did actually have some bite on it, launching it at 32 degrees on a 400-foot shot.

Friday’s go-ahead home run came on a 1-2 breaking ball that stayed up and out over the plate. Schuessler stayed back long enough to hook it off the wall behind the visiting bullpen in left field.

“The lefty, he had really good fastball, and he tried to drop a breaking ball in there and he left it in the middle of the plate and Schuess got all of it,” Schlossnagle said.

The recent surge by the graduate student in sports management is a culmination of the winding journeys of Schuessler and Schlossnagle that finally overlapped.

“I love Schloss. Our relationship has come a long way — he’s a fierce competitor, and so am I, so we get along great,” Schuessler said.

While Schlossnagle has only coached Schuessler for less than year, he’s known the Llano product since Schuessler was a top-150 prospect nationally in the 2020 recruiting class because TCU targeted the 6’2, 215-pounder before he signed with Texas A&M. But when Schlossnagle made the move from Fort Worth to College Station, Schuessler entered the transfer portal and landed in Austin.

In 2022, Schuessler played sparingly, appearing in 17 games and making four starts as the backup to standout catcher Silas Ardoin, who was a fourth-round selection by the Baltimore Orioles in the 2022 MLB Draft.

A breakthrough season in 2023 looked possible as Schuessler competed with Rylan Galvan for the starting job. Instead, Schuessler missed the season after undergoing a five-hour experimental surgery for a “dead” left index finger, which had experienced discoloring and numbness:

The surgery, as Schuessler said, was an experimental one. Doctors took an artery from his left thigh and attached it inside his left hand to get blood flow to his “dead” finger. They removed scar tissue and broken arteries as well which all left him with quite the scar.

“Going in, I knew that it was going to be fixed but I didn’t really know if I was going to have 10 fingers when I woke up,” Schuessler said last year.

The surgery worked, allowing Schuessler to show off his talent for the first time in college, starting 46 of 53 games for Texas between catcher and designated hitter, batting .343 with 44 runs scored, 14 doubles, 10 homers, and 30 RBI. Schuessler closed the season strong, too, finishing with multi-hit efforts in four of the final six games.

When former head coach David Pierce was fired and Schlossnagle made the controversial decision to leave Texas A&M for Texas, Schuessler finally linked up with the experienced and successful head coach with unfinished business on his mind.

“We always thought Kimball was a really good player. He’s a really good catcher that just has run into a bunch of injuries early in his career and he’s kind of stuck with it during his time here. Just this summer when I got here, he was very determined to make his mark at Texas and he’s earned it,” Schlossnagle said.

When Schlossnagle arrived in Austin, however, Schuessler was dealing with such significant recurring shoulder issues that the staff wasn’t sure he could hold up behind the plate, so Schuessler moved to first base to replace Jared Thomas and allow Rylan Galvan to become the full-time catcher.

Schuessler threw himself into the position change with his trademark competitiveness.

“I’m in my fifth year of college. I just want to win a national championship. I’ll do whatever this team needs. And I know you all see how great Rylan Galvan is back there. I think he’s the best catcher in the country. So I mean, just where we can get both of our bats in the lineup, it’s been great,” Schuessler said.

“It was definitely an adjustment, but I think catching helped me a lot. I spent a lot of time with Tulo taking a million ground balls and he’s definitely helped me over there, and I’m going to continue to get better,” Schuessler said on Friday.

Being able to pick the ball in the dirt and a comfort level throwing down to second base around a runner are skills that translated well from catcher to first base for Schuessler, who has a .994 fielding percentage with two errors and 30 assists this season.

Now batting .327 with six home runs, 14 doubles, and 28 RBI, Schuessler is a catalyst for a team that is 33-5 overall and 16-2 in SEC play and an avatar for the program’s success.

“Just the guys that put in so much effort and lead and do everything right and they’re constantly trying to win pitches and they love their school, I mean, we have more than one, but Kimble, certainly, he’s the epitome of all that,” Schlossnagle said.