NM State Aggies vs Yale Bulldogs Baseball 3-5-17

I was sorry I was at work Friday night and not able to go to the first game of the Aggies’ series versus Yale.  I could hear the size of the crowd over the radio, which was listed at 1,300+.  It was Little League night and a bunch of little kids were there.  Adam Young reported that the concession stand was doing great business.  (On a similar note, Nolan Fox did a really good job during the game providing color commentary.)  Unfortunately, the crowd may have scared the Aggie’s mighty bats in a 1-3 loss.  At least the kids got to see Marcus Still making an awesome diving, highlight reel catch in centerfield during the game. 

When Ron picked me up for today’s game, I found out he’d been at the Friday night game.  He’d baseball-cheated on me!  Well, I can’t blame for that, given that I’ve gone several times without him.  He reported that the parking for the entire baseball/softball complex was filled on Friday.  Ron was concerned about another big crowd and we got there way early.  It turned out to be a more modest 673 in attendance today, but a reasonable crowd.  We got to watch the team take infield.

What was easy to spot was how many fans were there for Yale.  They were outside tailgating in team gear.  Inside, they filled up the whole section next to the Yale dugout.  “I’m feeling outnumbered,” I remarked, as we sat next to them.  However, this was a friendly rivalry.  There were Aggie and Yale fans chatting amicably, including myself.  I talked to a friendly fellow in a cowboy hat with a Yale pin on the headband.  He was from California and had brought a scorecard book with him.  I mentioned last year’s star, Daniel Johnson, to him, just in case DJ makes the big time, he’ll know that he was an Aggie. 

Yale also brought along a pretty blonde trainer in their dugout, but I never saw her again after the anthem.  Not to be outdone, we saw a hot blonde going in the Aggie clubhouse with a case of beer before the game.  (Just partially kidding NCAA officials, I think she was actually heading to the Diamond Club section.)  A group of Aggie volleyball girls were sitting behind us.  A few softball players were on the other side of the stadium, but I couldn’t identify them.    

The pre-game crowd warnings seem to be getting longer.  Now the fans were cautioned to not shout out profanity in English or any other language.  I proudly yelled out a Klingon curse word at this overbearing political correctness.  Ron, helpfully, brought up a list of further Klingon profanity on his phone.  Fight the power!  

To start the game, we found out that the Yale fans were not here as passive observers.  I had heard them during the Friday night broadcast, but couldn’t really believe it.  It must have sounded like an away game to the Aggie dugout.  They were getting all over the umps with every contrary call.  When the Bulldogs scored, they absolutely erupted.  My hat is off to these Ivy Leaguers for their enthusiasm.  It was 0-1 Yale after a half inning. 

Maybe it was all the cheering that woke up the Aggie bats in the bottom of the frame.  The Bulldogs definitely shouldn’t have started off the game with an error that put leadoff hitter, Marcus Still, in scoring position.  What happened next may well describe what will characterize this season for the Aggies.  Mediocre pitching plus shaky defense equals Aggie runs in bunches.  All nine batters came to the plate, resulting in a 5-1 Aggie lead.

Things quieted down for the next couple of innings.  Marcus (just using “Still” is setting off my spellchecker) leadoff the second. He stole second and was singled in by Austin Botello.  That’s the line score.  What actually happened is Marcus slipped on the artificial turf rounding third.  He feigned back to third and then scampered home without a throw.  6-1 Aggies.  I still can’t believe I saw that.  And that was just the beginning of Marcus’ adventures on the basepads today. 

The top of the third saw the strange line score of LJ Hatch at shortstop recording three putouts in a row to Cooper Williams at first.  It was déjà vous all over again.  In the bottom, a Jason Bush liner bounced off the Yale first baseman, giving Marcus his third at bat in three innings, but it was cut short on a caught stealing attempt by Bush.  Marcus would start off the next inning.  Actually, he batted in every inning except the seventh. 

The fourth had a free What-a-Burger coupon giveaway.  The cowboy Yale fan tried to get in on the action, but was ignored.  A little bitty kid took up the broken window challenge before the fifth and had the whole crowd behind him, but just couldn’t find the pane.  The top of the fifth had a moment that Adam and Nolan actually missed on the radio call.  A foul tip hit the home plate umpire on the hand.  Catcher Bush grabbed him immediately and asked him if he was okay.  Bush then made a courtesy visit to Kyle Bradish on the mound, while the ump was literally shaking it off.   

The bottom of the fifth saw a Mason Fishback fly ball lost in the sun drop between the left and centerfielders, who were standing next to each other.  That went as a double, but failed to score Hatch who was at second at the time, since he had tagged up, assuming somebody would catch it.  Yale pitcher, Tyler Duncan, talked his way out of getting taken out after a line out.  The mound meeting sound clip from the PA was terrible, “And 10 minutes later.  Meanwhile, six months had passed.” And so on.  That was too funny.  Not so funny for Duncan, Cooper came up and rapped a single to drive in both runs.  You could just about sense that was coming.  The Yale crowd gave him a nice round of applause as he was lifted right after.  PA cruelly played “Let it go” from Frozen for his exit.  Duncan’s relief was greeted by a monster two-run homer by Bush to right field.  10-1 Aggies.

I took a shot at the Aggie trivia question in the sixth, but was wrong.  Oh well.  Bradish finally got into trouble in the inning, giving up four hits and two runs.  Frankly, he works too slow with runners on and it doesn’t seem to help his pitching.  10-3 Aggies.  Not to worry, the Aggies tacked on four more runs in the bottom, two on passed balls by the catcher.  They also scored two more in the seventh, one of those on a passed ball.  16-3 Aggies. 

Busted.  In the eighth, the Yale cowboy caught me yawning.  “There’s no yawning in baseball,” he said.  Chance Hroch came in for Bradish to finish the game.  He looked good for 1 2/3 innings.  What happened next confused me terribly.  After the passed ball runs in the sixth, Andrew Herrera came into catch (which didn’t help, as mentioned above) for Alex Boos.  When Boos came up to bat in the ninth, I was surprised.  I had assumed Boos was out of the game, but he had actually moved to short and kept his place in the batting order, but I hadn’t taken note of that at the time.  Maybe Hroch was surprised too.  What happened next was a home run and then a run scored on a wild pitch.  At least the Yale fans got something to cheer about.  It took six batters to get that final out.  Our final was Aggies 16, Bulldogs 5.

My Game one defensive star is Kyle Bradish for his seven-inning, three-run starting pitching performance.  Big ups also to the Aggie fielders for a clean game.  Picking an offensive star is harder, given all the hitting, but I’ll go with Austin Botello, going 2 for 4 with two runs and two RBI’s.  Our stat of the game is this: both teams had double digit hits and left eight runners on, but Yale gave up eight walks and the Aggies, only one.  

Game one went in a fairly tidy three hours.  The half hour break was uneventful, though I think I ran into the new female PA voice coming out of the bathrooms.  I would have told her she was doing a good job, if I’d been sure.  She took the night cap off in any case, and another PA came in.  We kind of lost our seats for Game two and I was behind a netting pole, but could still see the game fairly well. 

The Centennial high school baseball team came in, wearing their uniforms.  They were mostly seated in the Diamond Club area (though I assume the beer wasn’t there), but a few were in the stands.  Athletic Director Mario Moccia made a quick appearance at the game before going over to the Men’s basketball game.  He kind of stood out, being the only person in a suit and tie.  A few drunken frat boys came to the game after it started and were seated behind us, amongst the Yale fans.  I was afraid there might be problems, but they were just vocal in their cheering, so it was cool.  Several of the fans had blankets, including me.  Some kids were using theirs for blanket fort by the Aggie dugout.      

The Aggies got the game started with Marcus Still singling, stealing a base, getting moved over to third on a single, and finally being driven in on a Botello sac fly.  1-0 Aggies.  In the second, Yale fans were only able to get vocal over the mispronunciation of their left fielder’s name for his at bat (Rud-dee, not Rue-dee).  A new laughing porpoise strikeout sound effect was used in the third.  The PA was on fire today with the sound effects.  Marcus got on again in the bottom, but was thrown out on a blown hit and run.        

In the top of the fifth, Brent Sakurai and LJ Hatch combined for the defensive play of the game, with Brent fielding a grounder falling down and glove-flipping to LJ, who barehanded it for the out.  A couple of batters later, the rare Catcher’s Interference error was called on Mason Fishback.  Or was it rare?  It was called the previous night, with the same batter at the plate, who happened to be the opposing catcher, Andrew Herrera.  A little gamesmanship going on perhaps.  There was a close play at first to end the inning that the Yale faithful didn’t like.  I told Ron at this point that this one-run game was not going to hold up.  “If this is a 1-0 game, it’ll be the first at Presley-Askew Field.”  (A statistical exaggeration I’m sure.)  In the bottom of the fifth, the Aggies did tack on some insurance with Botello driving in two more runs.  3-0 Aggies.  

Our starter, Matt McHugh, had pitched a great game.  In the sixth, he finally showed some vulnerability with a single and his first walk to start the inning.  Marcus made a play in center on line drive that Yale fans and the radio guys thought was probably a trap.  The problem for the umps was that none of them called it quickly.  The Aggie dugout was screaming to throw the ball in, while Yale fans were screaming about the call.  The Yale baserunners barely made it back to their bases before getting doubled off.  Matthew Perea came in for McHugh.  He got another out on a fielder’s choice, but then surrendered a game tying three-run home run to Griffind Dey.  The Yale crowd was already worked up and this sent them into a frenzy.

In the bottom of the sixth, the inning ended on another close play at first that the umps appear to have gotten wrong again.  Questionable officiating were the watchwords of this game.  Aggie coach, Brian Green, had a talk with the first base ump between innings, but without any hysterics.  In the seventh, Perea gave way to Andy Frakes for the last two outs.  He came off the mound screaming, startling everyone, especially the Yale fans.  Frakes started pounding on his teammates as they met him coming into the dugout.  He was telling them to get fired up.  That they did. 

Marcus Still singled on and was moved over on a sacrifice.  A Botello double next should have scored him, but he got a bad break and only made it to third.  What happened next was complicated.  Dan Hetzel hit a grounder into the drawn in infield with Marcus and Botello going on contact.  Marcus was completely hung out between third and home as Botello took third.  Hetzel went to second as Marcus started dancing on the baseline.  Somehow, he forced enough throws that the pitcher made a mistake and he was able to slide around the catcher’s tag and slap the plate.  Fishback’s two-run single was almost an anti-climax after that.  6-3 Aggies.       

 

The Bulldogs did not threaten again.  Botello would drive in Marcus in the eight for the final run of the game.  As a final insult, the RBI was driven in off a shot that hit Yale reliever, Alex Stiegler’s leg.  That had to hurt, but he waved off the trainers, thus depriving me of seeing the cute blonde in their dugout.  Though not a save situation, Ruger Rodriguez finished off the game quickly in the ninth.  Our final was Aggies 7, Bulldogs 3. 

I went over to the cowboy Yale fan after the game and shook hands and found out he was a doctor.  He probably has a good bedside manner.  I told him not to feel bad about the losses.  From the radio call, I’d learned that the Aggies were leading the country in hits and runs.  Then I told him what the team did to Mount St. Mary’s last weekend.  That did actually seem to brighten him up a bit, and certainly magnified their Friday win.   

For Game two, Griffind Dey for Yale gets my opposing MVP for his game-tying, sixth inning three-run blast.  He looked big and took some mean cuts in the game, so that shot wasn’t a total surprise.  For the Aggies, Matt McHugh, Ruger Rodriguez, and Austin Botello all had great games.  But for the MVP’s, I’m picking guys for having great moments.  Marcus Still had some bad baserunning moments in this game, but watching him somehow evade an easy rundown to score and break the tie in the seventh was epic and made up for everything.  Andy Frakes had a really good relief outing, but his emotional outburst coming off the mound in the seventh got the team fired up and led to Still and two other runs scoring in the bottom of the inning. 

Even at two hours and 43 minutes for Game two, it had been another long day at the ballpark, but a successful one.  Thank goodness the Aggies have learned how to play more efficiently.  Ron and I got pizza down the street.  I got the final scores on the Aggie Men’s and Women’s basketball.  The Women won and went undefeated in conference this season.  The Men won and ripped off another 100+ point game.  Lastly, I found out that the US Women’s soccer team was defeated by England on a goal in the 89’.  Don’t say I’m not making sacrifices for the Aggies.  I gave up precious Alex Morgan viewing time to come to these baseball games.  Oh well.  Alex is still beautiful, win, lose, or tie.     

Afterward, we went to a local froyo place nearby.  Inside was most of the Aggie volleyball team, which was surprising.  Perhaps they had been at the Men’s basketball game.  After getting our order, I mustered my courage and spoke to Sasha-Lee Thomas on the way out, since she felt like the most approachable one of the group.  (Hey, these girls are a bit intimidating when together, being a team of attractive athletic young women.)  I said “Hi” and said I was looking forward to seeing them play next season.  Sasha seemed like she recognized me.  She’d have to have a pretty memory to remember our one meeting for autographs months ago.  She smiled and said “Thanks.”  I asked about her ankle, but she thought I was confused and asking about Tatyana Battle’s bad ankle, which I didn’t know was bad.  It was slightly embarrassing.  So from this, I guess that Sasha’s okay and Tatyana was playing hurt, but is okay now.  I think. 

There’s a while to wait before seeing the girls play again.  There’s also going to be a wait for more Aggie baseball and softball, three long weeks.  Hopefully the boys and girls’ basketball teams will be playing for a while longer in tournament play for something to listen to in the meantime.