NMSU Aggies vs Utah Valley Wolverines Baseball 4-17-16

I still had a headache from the day before when Ron picked me up for the game.  He’d been at work all day Saturday and was probably looking forward to some R&R for the afternoon.  Sunday was perfectly beautiful, clear and sunny with only a light breeze.  I had on my “lucky” shirt* and was looking forward to an Aggie victory.  I could feel it.  (*It’s not really lucky.  The Aggies are about .500 with me wearing it.)  Right before we pulled into the ballpark, a black cat literally crossed out path, using the crosswalk no less.  If that wasn’t an ominous omen, I don’t know what it is. 

At the entrance, a pair of attractive young women were handing out souvenir drink cozies.  I’d forgotten that hot dogs were $1 on Sundays.  I’d already eaten, otherwise I would have used the cozy to hold a drink to go with a dog.  For now, it sits on my desk next to my little NM State ice cream football helmet.  Inside, we ran into another co-worker.  It was his first trip to the ‘Skew and the occasion was his son throwing out the first pitch as the new student body president.  After throwing a strike, he received a handshake from everyone on the team. 

There were a couple other familiar faces that I’d seen at the softball stadium.  The little boy in the odd wheelchair/stroller was there.  I could swear he was wearing Missouri gear previously, so it was a surprise to see him.  Also, the little girl with the big cheer was there.  This time she was pretty quiet unfortunately.  Then again, there wasn’t a whole lot to cheer about.  She did win the dizzy bat race in between innings though.  It was a good crowd of over 500 at the park and the pretty girls were back in force.  (Maybe they were at the concert last night instead of going to the game Saturday.)  No dogs this time at the park, but there were lots of kids running up and down aisles.  One little rambunctious toddler below us was absolute handful for his parents trying to corral him.  Later, a fan brought him a foul ball to play with, which produced even more antics.    

Me and Ron were pretty quiet during the game.  He was listening to the game on the radio and enjoying it.  Unfortunately, a work issue interrupted him there and bothered him the rest of the afternoon.  I admit that I cheated on Adam Young’s broadcast, as I had brought a different radio this time so that I could try and get the Chihuahuas’ and Rangers’ broadcasts.  The Rangers’ station didn’t come in, but if it had, it wouldn’t have mattered since the game was canceled for weather (which strangely ties back into the work issue, as one of Ron’s employees was trapped at the airport, because of storms in Dallas).  I could just barely hear Tim Hagerty doing the Chihuahuas’ game and really couldn’t keep up with it.  During a break, the update anchor did refer to the team’s stadium as “the Doghouse,” so that may be the official nickname now.  The 10 second delay on the Aggies’ broadcast allowed me to flip back to it for scoring assistance for events on the field.  I may just stick with Adam from now on.           

Unfortunately, the crowd was also pretty quiet.  The infield butterfly returned to watch, but moved on after a half inning.  At one point, the PA tried to get the crowd into it, “It’s Sunday folks!  It’s crowd participation day!”  That didn’t work either.  The game dragged to the point where the Chihuahuas’ game, which started an hour later, almost caught up with the Aggie game.  It was a hard three hours and 20 minutes for Aggie fans on Sunday. 

It started reasonably well. #24 Marcel Renteria was on the mound starting and had a good pop on his fastball in the mid-90’s.  He got fired up after #25 Mason Fishback threw out a runner in the 3^rd.  Unfortunately right after that, Renteria gave up a pair of solo home runs.  They both went to left center and occurred just as the wind momentarily picked up.  The ump seemed to be squeezing the strike zone a bit (certainly the crowd thought so), which really seemed to be hurting him. 

The Aggies would get a run back in the bottom of the frame thanks to a blooper by #4 Brent Sakurai that landed in between three fielders and an RBI single by #44 Dan Hetzel.  From there, it was slow torture as the Aggie hitting got progressively colder, and the Wolverines tacked on more runs.  #22 Austin Botello lost his uniform and had to become #3 Austin Botello.  I’m afraid this might have affected his hitting and was contagious to the rest of the team.  Utah Vally hitting was pretty steady up and down the order.  They got a lucky infield single off a hit that bounced high up in the air off the pitching rubber in the 8^th.  In the end, Utah Valley wins 6 to 1.      

My player of the game is Utah Valley reliever #15 Kyle Valgardson.  As much as #13 Jackson Cofer kept a lid on the Aggie offense, Valgardson absolutely shut them shut them down, scattering two hits over four innings.  For the Aggies, it was a team loss.  At best I can say that they at least didn’t hurt themselves, as they didn’t have any errors.  #30 Tyler Erwin did come out of the game with an injury in the middle of an at-bat, which probably contributed to some bullpen problems.  (Renteria also came out in the middle of an at-bat, though I think not for an injury.  My scorecard is probably off, since I’m not sure of the scoring rules for these cases.)  At least my headache cleared up and I felt a lot better by the end of the game, in spite of the result.  There’s one more home series for the softball team and two for the baseball team.  Let’s hope for good weather and some Aggie wins in the future.  And no more black cats.