Wednesday, May 31, 2017

NM State Baseball and Softball 2017 Season Rewind

I did this last season.  (And annoyingly, I can’t find it on my hard drive.)  This time I scanned through my various posts for highlights.  But first, a couple of awards. 

My softball player of the year is Kelsey Horton.  Duh.  She only hit .415 with 16 home runs and 59 RBI’s.  By the end of the season, opposing conference teams stopped pitching to her altogether.  She also seems like a nice girl, which matters more than numbers in real life.  You know, with the Aggie baseball team losing so many seniors after this season, and Kelsey hardly being challenged in conference softball games, I wonder if . . . Just a thought.      

For baseball, I’ll pick two players.  In pitching, Ruger Rodriguez had a .92 ERA with 9 saves this season in 20 appearances.  I think he only had two bad outings this year that I can remember.  I liked seeing him come into games.  That usually meant we were about to win.  Having a cool name doesn’t hurt either. 

The Aggie starting nine finished the regular season hitting over .300, were ranked eighth nationally in average, and lead the WAC in every offensive category.  So picking an offensive star is a bit difficult for having so many choices.  With no desire to offend anyone, I nonetheless choose Brent Sakurai for my baseball offensive player of the year.  He led the team in batting average at .367 and in hits, and led the country with 9 triples, setting a school record also. 

You could pick some other players based on numbers, so let me throw these two things out that tipped the scale for me.  I think I met Brent outside the stadium before the 2016 season started.  He could barely walk, but was confident he’d be ready to play second base the next week.  He was.  This year, I think I figured out what got into Brent in the last game of the regular season, going 5 for 5.  Mason Fishback had gotten ahead of him in batting average the game before.  Nobody’s come up with a “Grit” stat yet, but Brent seems to have it.  (Adam Young also described him as “Gritty” when summing up his season.)         

Here’s a list my season highlights.  This list is basically limited to games that I actually saw in person or heard on the radio (and TV).

The Aggies beat the heck out of Bryant and Mount St. Mary’s to start their season.  They even led the country in runs after these games.

It was a double header versus Yale.  The Aggies reeled off another double digit win in Game 1.  What I was really struck by was how many Yale fans came for the games and how nice they were.

Two words: Basia Query, who became my favorite opposing team softball player.

This was the game versus Texas Tech in Las Cruces.  Tech traveled well with lots of fans.  Unfortunately, they were kind of crappy to sit with.  It was also good to see Aggie fans show up to a weekday, day game, especially one where the time had been changed.  My highlight for Aggie player spotting was seeing women’s basketball star, Brooke Salas, at the game.  I’ve seen several Aggie athletes supporting other sports, but outside of seeing Aggie Quarterback Tyler Rogers at a soccer match, this was the most unexpected.

Marcel Renteria’s finest outing.  He went nine innings against Sacramento State.  With the bases loaded in the ninth, he talked his way into finishing off the inning.  

Kelsey Horton broke up a no-hitter in the last inning with a home run against Arizona.  

Alexis Maynez busted out hitting.  There’s a little hometown pride here seeing the local girl suddenly mashing the ball. 

Chatting with Brandee Walton from the women’s basketball team was the personal season highlight for me.

This was the “Longest Day” for me, as I went to the Aggie yard sale, a baseball game, and a softball double hitter in inclement weather.  Kaitlyn Rubio’s classic walk up music made me think that both teams should have a Retro Walk up Music Day, where the players have to pick music from before they were born.  In Game 2, Victoria Castro hit the two longest home runs I’ve seen at the softball park.  
         
Aggie Men’s Basketball stars, Ian Baker and Matt Taylor, threw out the first pitches.  They definitely picked the right sport to specialize in.  If I was playing street baseball with neighborhood kids, I would pick these guys last. 

Andy Frakes, out of the bullpen, went eight and a third versus the Lobos with a strong wind blowing out.  This was probably the team’s best win of the year.  

Kayla Green had a sometimes rough year pitching, but her best performance was getting a save.  She protected a one-run lead, with two on, and got all three outs against Florida-Atlantic.  This was probably the Softball team’s best win of the regular season.  

Game 8 of the WAC Softball Tournament.  Without a doubt, the game of the year.  Fans will be remembering this game for a long time. 

I got to see the softball girls on national TV at the NCAA tournament.  It was a bit of a thrill.

Coach Green’s post-game speech made everyone feel good.  It was really nice to be invited on to the field as a fan and a good way to end the year.


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