NM State Aggies vs UTRGV Vaqueros Baseball 4-9-17

The start time of this game was moved up an hour.  I remember showing up to a game late last year because of a similar issue, which turned out to be a great game.  Thankfully, I was at the Saturday game where the PA made sure to let the fans know about the change.  The crowd was pretty small at the start of the game, but filled in pretty well as it went on (555 official attendance).   

  

Today’s giveaway card featured Brent Sakurai.  He’s one of my favorite players on the team.  I think I met him outside the stadium once, and he was a nice guy.  I came hungry, since it was early and dollar hot dog day.  The hot dogs weren’t ready before the game.  That was disappointing.  I did get one 10 minutes later right before the first pitch.  It was just further disappointment.  (The Corn in a Cup was good though.)  Ron was hungry too, but he smartly picked up a hamburger at Jack in the Box before picking me up.  I just don’t know about NMSU concessions (though I’m still hoping to try the Pan-Am Center hamburger).

It was a little cooler today, but worse, the wind was colder and blowing into the grandstand.  I wished I had brought the jacket that I’d brought yesterday.  UTRGV was wearing grey pajamas today out on the field.  It wasn’t an upgrade from Saturday’s uniform.  (They also started three guys named Garcia.)  The Aggies were in sharp-looking crimson tops and white pants.  I’d planned on not wearing Aggie stuff today, but reconsidered to respect the streak, so I was in crimson too.  Also for a second day, Nolan Fox wasn’t in the radio booth with Adam Young.  Adam seemed pretty preoccupied with the curfew time three and half hours from the start time (so that UTRGV could make their plane).  Specifically, he was worried that they’d changed the time without telling him.     

A little girl from the Aggie Kid’s Club threw out the first pitch.  She threw like a girl, but dropped a strike right into (I think) Jason Bush’s mitt.  The crowd roared.  Jason congratulated her and handed her the ball.  The team mobbed her as she came off the field.  It was so cute.  I’d like to think that gave the Aggies some good karma for the game.            

Jonathan Groff started off the game well for the Aggies with two groundouts.  Then the third batter sent one deep to center field.  Marcus Still got an unfortunate error trying to catch it.  He may have misjudged it with the wind.  If he’d been less athletic, Still wouldn’t have gotten a glove on it and thus been charged with an error.  The next batter singled the runner in.  The PA played Shania Twain’s “That Don’t Impress Me Much.”  I’m thinking the two-run homer next did.  Because of the two-out error, all the runs were unearned.  0-3 Vaqueros. 

Men’s Basketball coach Paul Weir came in in the bottom.  I wanted to congratulate him on their season as he went by, but didn’t get his attention.  I should give up on wanting to talk to Aggie sports figures.  I saw Mario Moccia again.  This time he wisely brought his wife with him to keep track of his two little girls.  Marcus hustled his way on to start the Aggie frame and when he got moved over to third, he took home on a wild pitch.  That’s some atonement.  Dan Hetzel then drove in a run.  Tristan Carranza got a gift single on a ball that rolled foul, then fair.  Unfortunately, he didn’t run it out and only made an out.  Little John Hatch, better known as LJ (little wonder he goes by his initials), would drive in Hetzel, and Mason Fishback would drive in LJ.  4-3 Aggies in a good bounce back inning.  The crowd was totally loud and into it for the comeback. 

A staffer walked by with a big beautiful dog, like a cross between a German Sheppard and a collie with one droopy ear.  Oh, how I wanted to reach out and pet that dog, but it was just out of reach.  Meanwhile, two very large birds orbited over the field, checking out the action.  So much for wildlife, back to the game.  The Vaqueros scored another run in the second.  It was a complicated series of events.  A runner got on via another error, though was thrown out on an overslide trying to advance on a wild pitch.  The next batter tripled in the lead runner, who had gotten on by a single previously.  Somehow that’s an unearned run.  I don’t think the rule book will help me this time.  4-4 tie.     

The Aggies came right back in their at bat and nearly sent nine men to the plate again.  Austin Botello doubled in Joey Ortiz.  Hetzel then blasted a 400’ non-wind aided shot over the centerfield wall.  7-4 Aggies, in spite of what the scoreboard said.  Adam pointed out it was wrong.  I wondered how he could see the board with the sun on it.  The lights on it are almost invisible in direct sunlight. 

There was another poor play in the third.  Groff picked off the runner on first, who managed to get around the tag at second after a bad throw and stole the base.  He came around to score on a double, and that was after a bad non-strike call.  7-5 Aggies.  If Groff got frustrated with the defense, he had to like the offense.  You know things are going right when Ortiz tried to bunt the two runners over, the first baseman fielded it, lost his glove with ball still in it, and he’s safe to load the bases.  A pass ball plated one run and a double play scored another.  9-5 Aggies.     

          

Ron went off for a walk during the fourth.  He was not himself and didn’t seem well.  An inning later, he returned and tossed me a ball.  He bragged about outmuscling the ballhawk kids for it.  Just kidding.  He found it lying around behind the grandstand.  Here was a conundrum for me.  I’d always thought that if I got a ball, I’d do what you’re supposed to do and give it to a kid (after getting a picture with it).  However, as I fondled the pitching mud-encrusted object, I found it very hard to part with.  Hmm.  I contemplated seeing if I could get an autograph on it after the game.  Okay, next ball I’ll give away.  Actually, after I showed it to dad, I think he wanted one too.  So the third ball, I’ll give away.  Unless somebody else I know wants one too.  They’re kind of magical, you know. 

The top of the fourth finished without anyone scoring finally, but there was still drama.  I was watching a high foul fly get caught by the Vaquero dugout for the last out, when I suddenly noticed a crowd around home plate.  The home plate umpire was on one knee being attended to by both training staffs and the coaches.  He’d collapsed, perhaps from dehydration, though it wasn’t hot out.  He got a good round of applause for staying in the game from the people who’d been questioning his strike zone.  It’s just game in the end.  In the bottom of the inning, he called a Balk on the Vaquero pitcher.  He actually went to the mound and explained to him what he did to correct him.  Cooper Williams, starting today, sacrificed Fishback in from third.  10-5 Aggies.

Fifth inning and more hi-jinks.  On a bouncer to first, Carranza took it himself instead of tossing it to Groff covering and it became an infield single.  Amazingly, the runner didn’t score later.  Here’s stranger news: the Aggies didn’t score in their half of the inning either.  A couple of young guys sitting by us, brought in a pair of new hats to a couple older gentlemen they were sitting with.  They looked pretty cool, sort of like Brooklyn Dodger hats, but the hat was a different shade of blue and the Olde English “B” was in gold.  I wonder where they came from. 

In the sixth, the Aggies tacked on two more runs, 12-5.  Adam pronounced this, “A game that is taking forever.”  He was looking at the clock and wondering how much longer they’re going to be able to play.  I started to wonder if he had a plane to catch too.  By the seventh, the sky was now overcast, but the wind had died down, so it was actually more pleasant.  A couple of the ballhawk kids walked by with a half dozen balls in a mitt.  I still feel a little bad about keeping my ball, but not too bad. 

Apparently, the Aggies wanted the game over too.  In spite of a double play taking out the first two batters, the next two batters got on the hard way after getting hit.  Hatch knocked in one of them.  (I have an error advancing a runner, but the scorer must have waved that off later.)  Mason Fishback then delivered the game-winning, two-RBI single that ended the game immediately on the 10 run rule.  Aggies 15, Vaqueros 5 is our final.  That only took two hours and 25 minutes and nobody missed their flight.                   

First, I have to give a raspberry to Aggie fielding today with four errors and other mishaps.  I only recorded three errors, and I think I have the hits right, so the scorer must have changed his mind on something else.  The guys will probably be running laps or something at the next practice.  Those muffs kept UTRGV in this game.  While Jonathan Groff gave up five runs in six innings, only one was earned (though I’m confused why that run in the second was unearned).  Given the wind and his defense, Groff gets a star.  Likewise, Dan Hetzel and Mason Fishback were awesome today driving in runs.  The Aggie offense scored in six of seven innings.  The Aggies are now 6-0 for the first time in the WAC, and the only undefeated team with Grand Canyon losing on Saturday.

Right after the game, Ron wanted to leave.  I didn’t argue, though I wanted to try to get Coach Brian Green’s autograph on my ball.  (Actually, I wanted an excuse to talk to him for a second to make a suggestion.)  I asked him about the family lunch he was going to, at which point he confided that he really wasn’t feeling well and was going straight home.  He felt he just needed some rest.  It was a great game.  I was sorry him and Adam didn’t enjoy it.  Before we left though, he drove around the baseball/softball complex.  Ron was looking for a way to get at the home run balls behind the fence.  Maybe next time.