NMSU Aggies vs Maine Black Bears Baseball 2-27-16 Game 1

After 9+ hours of baseball this weekend, writing out this recap is the last thing I wanted to do Sunday night.  The good news is that thinking about baseball really will your mind off of your problems without adding any more.  I’m afraid to stop, so let’s keep going.  I’m also too sore and tired to do anything else, and the longer I wait, the more indecipherable my scribbled notes and messed up scorecards will get.

This warm, bright sunny weekend made it almost impossible to stay indoors, especially if you’re feeling depressed and have nothing else to do.  Cue a Saturday double-header with the New Mexico State Aggies.  For $5, you can’t beat the price.  It was another good crowd for the game, who also felt compelled to enjoy the weather.  I chose a lousy obstructed view seat, but it was close to the field and gave a good straight view of home plate.  I pretended I was at Fenway and started working on a New England accent.  I can see what they should have done when they put in the new seating, which would have avoided putting a pole in the way of such prime seats, but it’s too late now.

The seat turned out to be great as 10 minutes later two extremely fashionable and glamorous young women sat down nearby.  I found myself sketching them between innings and wishing I had had more time and something better to draw on.  This is another reason I’m glad I don’t have smart phone.  For situations like this, I’d be sitting on both hands trying to stop myself from taking pictures.  If they saw me drawing them, I could proclaim, “I’m an artist.”  Yeah, looking at my etchings, I question that claim too, but it’d work.  Anyway, the girls seemed to be studying the day’s program, perhaps scouting future boyfriends.  Bull Durham-esque groupies?  Actually, I have no idea why they were there.  They didn’t seem that into the game or rooting for any particular player.  They also brought a sack of What-A-Burger hamburgers and fries, which was almost as attractive on my empty belly.  When they got up and left in the fifth, I gave them a round of applause just for showing up (which coincided with a good pitch, timing is everything).

The rest of the crowd was a fairly diverse mix: attractive young women, some handsome young men, kids, married couples, older men and women.  There was a grandfather explaining the game to his little granddaughter.  Some very tall and pretty girls from the NMSU Volleyball team were in attendance.  There was a kid wearing a very cool red and black camo NMSU shirt.  I’ve seen that design before, but not in a store unfortunately.  One of the cuter sights I saw was a very large gentleman cradling an itty bitty baby over his shoulder.  The crowd was maybe a bit smaller than last weekend, but seemed way more into it and animated.  The Visitor’s section was nearly bare of fans for the Black Bears.  They apparently don’t travel as well as Towson did. 

Crowd chatter mentioned that there was a White Sox scout there for the Friday night game.  I saw a fellow with a Yankee hat and a very sharp-looking Yankee’s polo shirt that even I wanted to wear (not a Yankee fan).  I figured him for a scout.  As I found out during the radio broadcast the next day, there were actually 12 scouts at the game.  They were all sitting in one section, up and behind me, so I never saw them.  No offense to the ladies, but I was in the wrong seat.  I would have loved to been listening in on those conversations (as long as it was baseball-related). 

This time I brought a tiny mp3 player with a radio to the game.  After some fiddling, I heard the familiar, friendly tones of Adam Young . . . calling the Women’s basketball game which was going on at the same time at the next door Pan-Am Center.  They announced the final score over the PA later (along with the Men’s game, which was out of town and being broadcast on another station).  I missed a good overtime game with the girls there, and both teams were victorious and looking forward to the post-season.  But I wasn’t about to try and absorb two games at once, like I often do at home, while attending a live event. The radio was turned off. 

The team started the game with another enthusiastic circle and an “Aggie Up” cheer.  I think this is a new tradition (oxymoron), and I like it.  The team worked up its own chatter from the dugout for the early part of the game.  From crowd chatter, I gathered that the Aggies lost the Friday night game 3-1.  I also confirmed that I wasn’t the only one disappointed with the players’ walk-up music.  #33 Joe Koerper’s John Cena theme was the only really likeable one.  At least the between innings music was pretty good.  I haven’t heard Stacey’s Mom Has Got It Going On in ages.  This time for keeping a scorecard, I waited until the players actually came to bat before I started writing them in.  The announced line up before the game wasn’t correct last time, forcing me to make a bunch of corrections.  Annoyingly, the guy sitting next to me was keeping better track of the game in his head than I was on paper.    

I thought the stadium needed a new scoreboard last weekend.  Now I’m convinced of it.  This time there was direct sunlight reflecting off it as there weren’t any clouds, and it was basically unreadable.  I gave up on trying to keep up with the hitter’s count.  On that note, both teams were giving it to the home plate umpire from the bench and it got loud.  The crowd also joined in at times.  Seemed like a dangerous way to live, especially for the players, but the ump just ignored them.  

 

 

The game summary is fairly simple.  The Aggies scored 7 runs in the first two innings and Maine never recovered.  NMSU jammed the bases the hard way with three hit batsmen (four total for game) and that added up to several runs.  A couple of times I actually said, “Ouch!” out loud.  While they didn’t score or even really threaten again, the Black Bears could only generate a couple of solo home runs for the rest of the game.  One of the homers came after a double play wiped the bases.  Aggie fielding only committed one error and when combined with good pitching, they were really able to put a lid on them after getting a big lead. 

In the Aggie fourth, I list a Caught Stealing for #22 Botello.  It was a little more complicated than that.  #30 Joe Koerper was actually Picked Off first, but during the lengthy rundown, Botello attempted to take home from third and was thrown out.  Without the radio call, there was no way I was going to track everybody who touched the ball.  One of the stranger things of the game was how the Aggies got the hits in that inning and another in the sixth.  They were infield hits off of check swings.  The Black Bears weren’t able to field these little dribblers that didn’t even make it to the mound.  Eventually, the Aggies tried bunting for base hits, but Maine caught on at that point and started playing up.  

My player of the game has to be #27 John Arel of the Black Bears.  Listed at 6’7” 275 lbs, Arel looked even bigger out on the mound next to his teammates.  This monstrous reliever came into the game in the second inning after things had already gotten out of control.  For 7 2/3 innings, all he did was blank Aggie batters, including 9 strikeouts.  He was the epitome of having a good game in a losing effort.  For the Aggies, I give it to #22 Austin Botello.  He had three hits, two RBI’s, and a stolen base.  #7 Daniel Johnson had yet another great play in center in the fourth.  He is definitely a plus defender.   

On to Game Two.