Ron and I arrived from the baseball stadium and joined
Game 1 of the double header against Grand Canyon University in progress. Freezing, Ron put on his new Aggie
hoodie. This may have been the first
time I’ve seen him in long sleeves. I
put my jacket and ceased to be an obnoxious fan in a jersey. Our baseball tickets did indeed get us into
the game for no additional charge. I
picked up a rally towel on the way in.
(Later, they put out another batch for Game 2. I got another two for other people. I hope I didn’t deprive anyone.)
Game 1
The stadium for the game was nearly full. There were more GCU fans here than at the
baseball stadium. Ron’s favorite little
fan was present. She was wearing a
cowboy hat and, admittedly, looked adorable.
I was sitting in a pile of sunflower seed shells at my feet. (I hate slob fans). We arrived in the top of the fourth with the
Aggies up 3-2. I didn’t bother with a
scorecard, since it would have only been partially filled out. We arrived at a dramatic moment. GCU had two on and one out. Samaria Diaz got
out of it, though that last out was a long fly ball to center.
A little boy started crying in front of us. An older lady front of him and his dad, who
was holding him, told the boy that, “There’s no crying in softball.” That didn’t help (and also isn’t true). While there was another crying episode later
(no idea why), he seemed to have a good time running around and playing with
his sisters throughout the games anyway.
Shortly after we got there, the entire GCU baseball team arrived and sat
up in the center of the stands with the other GCU fans. It was hard not to be concerned about the
balance of fan power shifting at that point.
It also made the Aggie baseball team look a little bad, though in
retrospect, maybe it wouldn’t have been a good idea to have both teams in the
stands together.
I noticed Kelsey Horton wasn’t in the field. She came up to hit as the Designated Player
in the bottom of the fourth and was clearly hurting. I don’t know what happened to her. No problem with her hitting though. She promptly whacked a home run just over the
wall to right center. It was her
fourteen of the year and I assume she’s still hitting well over .400. Kaitlyn Rubio came up next and hit an even
longer home run to the same place. The
inning ended with a runner thrown out at home, but 5-2 Aggies.
I don’t think I’ve seen much of Kaitlyn playing, but bless
her for being the only baseball or softball player with good walkup music
(“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell). With Kelsey not in the field, there was some
reshuffling with Kaityln at first and Fahren Glackin moved to left field. This left the scrappy and dependable Amy
Bergeson out of the game (I hope she’s not injured too). Caity Szczesny was at second instead of right
field, and Ron said he saw her limping at times, which might explain why she
wasn’t in the outfield.
The GCU baseball players called for the giveaway shirts that
were thrown into crowd. One of them got
one, but did hand it to an Aggie fan. In
the top of the fifth, the Lopes tied the score on a three-run homer. Half the stadium erupted. 5-5 Tie.
The PA told the crowd to get up and dance. A chubby young GCU fan worked it in aisles to
the amusement of the baseball team. Mid-fifth
was the stretch and, knowing what was going to happen, I shouted out “Aggies!”
for the “home team,” during “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” Like visiting Cubs fans, the GCU fans tried
to jump the song and shout out their team’s name.
The baseball players also started jazzing the ump in the bottom
of the inning. Given this was something
they couldn’t do safely during a game, they were laughing and clearly enjoying
it. On field, the Aggies managed to
score two on an error. Kelsey was
intentionally walked. Kaitlyn hit a
two-run double. Victoria Castro knocked
in an RBI with a single. The GCU
baseball team started leaving in one’s and two’s, but later returned with hot
dogs and such. (I hope the concessions
served our guests better food than I usually get.) Alexis Maynez drove in two with a ball that
hit the top of the outfield wall and bounced back in. That was 7 runs and they batted around. 12-5 Aggies.
The PA announced that the team’s Thursday night game is Star
Wars night and that they’d be giving away an Aggie Star Wars shirt. Ron made plans to go. I wonder if it’s the same Aggie Empire shirt
I have. Next inning, Victoria drove in
two more runs to end the game on a run rule, 14-5 Aggies. The GCU baseball team loaded up on a team bus
outside to presumably head back to the hotel.
We retreated to Ron’s car to warm up before Game 2. (No stars awarded for this game, since I
didn’t see the whole thing.)
Game 2
Back in the heated bathroom at the stadium, because of all
the layers I was wearing, I had trouble finding something while standing over
the urinal. Ron, also wearing layers,
said he’d had the same issue. We got hot
chocolates and returned to the stands. We
still had a good crowd for this game. The
PA almost made it through the lineups before the game started. The umps were not delaying the game under
these cold conditions for anything. She
had to finish in the bottom of the first.
Kayla Green started Game 2 for the Aggies. Things got off to a rough start for her with
a hit and an error. A sacrifice, another
hit, and a fielder’s choice drove in two Lope runs. Megan Hart and Tatyana Battle entered the
stadium to represent for the volleyball team, but the cold got the better of
them after a few innings. Athletic
Director Mario Moccia also came in and sat by the pressbox and chatted with
some fans.
In the bottom, after a walk and a sacrifice, Kelsey was
pitched around for another walk. Kaitlyn
had a long at bat that ended in another walk and bases loaded for Victoria
Castro. I was writing something at the
crack of the bat. I looked up and saw a
bright, yellow softball sail over the scoreboard in center. It was a grand slam home run and probably the
furthest hit ball I’ve seen at the softball field. This chased the Lopes starter out of the
game. A reliever finished off the
inning. A GCU fan caught a foul in the
stands and gave it to an Aggie fan.
Unfortunately, they were only exchanging suckers for retrieved
balls. They may have run out of
souvenirs since there were a bunch foul balls in these games. 4-2 Aggies after one. 
Kayla did not have a better second inning. Four runs scored, three off a home run. Her offspeed wasn’t going for strikes, and
they were tee’ing off on her fastball.
GCU took the lead 4-6. There was
some kind of robbery on another t-shirt toss into the crowd. I think one kid snatched a shirt from
another. He was boo’ed by the
crowd. In the bottom, Kelsey was issued
another walk, but the Aggies didn’t score.
Hayley Nakamura’s at bat had the oddest play of the game. One of her foul balls somehow lodged high up
in the netting. The ump gave it a shake
to dislodge it to a round applause from the crowd.
The Aggies put up two runs in the third to tie it. It was a circuitous route to get there. Victoria took a strikeout to start the
inning, but the umps lost count of the balls and strikes in the at bat. Everyone was confused. Fahren hit a solo home run and Caity took a
walk after, but both had lengthy at bats, fouling off pitch after pitch. They actually ran out of balls briefly. Destiny Blueford came in for the Misty
Hoohuli to drive in Caity. Misty was
probably given the start for Senior Day.
After the inning, I took some trash to a barrel and said, “Hi,” to the
older lady we’d met at the Yard Sale.
She was also at the baseball game.
Pom poms were tossed to the crowd. The little girls in front of us went crazy
for them. In the bottom of the fourth,
Kelsey was given another walk. She came
hobbling out for Amy Bergeson as her pinch runner. With two on, Victoria came up to hit another
home run. This one went over the sponsor
board in right center. She was seeing
the ball well tonight. GCU went to
another pitcher. Ron identified her as
the Game 1 pitcher. Nikki Butler drove
in another run to make the score 10-6 Aggies.
In fifth, Kayla gave up a double and a single that made the
score 10-7. Sam (Samaria) came back in
to finish the inning. Unfortunately in
the sixth, she lost her stuff and gave up a run, leaving two on. Coach Rodolph put Kayla back in. I’ve seen Fahren used in spots this
season. There are two other Aggie
pitchers listed on the program that I’ve never seen. We’ll never know if Kayla had enough left in
the tank to finish the game cleanly.
Destiny called off Caity on a short pop up to right field and dropped
it. This scored a run and put another
runner on. One out later, a three-run
homer sailed over the center field fence and gave GCU the lead, 10-12. (I admit I never quite figured out who the #6
hitter was for the Lopes. It seemed to
change every inning.)
The Aggies were able to get some runners on in the fifth
(including another intentional walk to Kelsey) and the sixth, but couldn’t
bring them around. The Lopes started off
the seventh with a home run that seemed to break the Aggies fans’ spirits. In the bottom of the seventh, with no one on,
one out, and a three run lead, they finally pitched to Kelsey, who seemed to be
hurting worse with each plate appearance.
She promptly singled to center.
Victoria unfortunately struck out with two on, which she also did in the
fifth. The third Lopes pitcher seemed to
be fooling her with offspeed stuff. And
the game ended on a ground out. Lopes
13, Aggies 10.
It was like watching Shakespearean tragedy. There was even a cackling crone, namely a GCU
fan that was screaming her head off for her team on every rally. Our easy star of the game is Victoria Castro,
who drove in seven of the Aggies’ 10 runs.
I don’t know what Kelsey Horton’s injury was or how it happened, but
even hurt she scared the hell out the opposition. She gets the newly created Grim Determination
award. The star of the game for GCU
would appear to be Aggie pitching, which left no lead safe. I suspect the problem here is overwork on arms
not yet ready to take on this much stress (maybe next year).
In any case, with the Game 1 win, the Aggies are conference
co-champs, and since Grand Canyon isn’t eligible for post-season play, that
means the Aggies get the number one seed in the tournament. (Take that crone!) With the loss, a hasty Senior Day ceremony
was conducted. The PA recognized the
seniors on GCU, as their team lined up on first base foul line. Aggies, Misty Hoohuli and Haley Nakamura, two
the team’s three island girls from Hawaii were given a presentation.
With that, Ron and I finally left the campus. By the time I got home (waving off any talk
of dinner), it was after 9:30. Figuring
in the hour we spent having lunch indoors, we spent over eight hours outdoors
in cold and windy conditions. At least
it didn’t rain, and we got to see one win today in between two hard losses, and
I got a baseball jersey out of it.
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