[Various aspects of real life and exhaustion delayed this
post, not to mention, there was a lot to write about.]
Since the Aggies were playing for the championship, I was at
least looking forward to the game, whereas I might have been unhappy to be out
in the hot sun today to see two other WAC teams playing. I was more than slightly confused by the
schedule though. “Game 9 if
necessary?” I couldn’t quite figure that
out, but I had a bad suspicion. It
wasn’t until late in the game, that I finally read the program which had an
explanation. This was a double
elimination tournament, meaning every team, except the winner is going have to
take two losses to be eliminated. NMSU’s
opponent today had not lost. This meant
the Aggies were going to have to win to force a Game 9.
NM State would be playing against Seattle U for the championship.
I admit I was disappointed Utah Valley Seattle , the Aggies were 13-0 against them overall
and had outscored them 19 to 0 in the series here. This year the Aggies went 2-1 against them in
Seattle , and
the Aggies had lost to them on Friday.
Saturday was NMSU graduation day. The Pan Am parking lot was full and the road
virtually blocked with police directing traffic. Ron and I had to take an alternate route to
get to the park. This day was hot and
sunny with a stiff breeze. It wasn’t that
bad, unless you were going to be sitting on a shiny aluminum bench for the
afternoon.
Graduation and the weather did not dissuade anyone from the
coming. It was a good crowd, with fans
for both teams, and very enthusiastic. There
weren’t any students though, nor other players from other teams (presumably
they’d left town). There was a WAC
souvenir table, but $25 was way too much for a tournament shirt. There were Las Cruces Visitors’ Guides on courtesy
table for out-of-towners. You could tell this was a big game, since the
booming, deep-voice of the basketball PA was doing the game. (I gotta get this guy’s name.) Both teams performed a big, fierce cheer
circle before the game started, and with that we were underway.
I really screwed these up.
Since it was for the championship, I went back to the official score and
corrected them as best I could. The game
moves really fast when you’ve got two teams scoring this much along with some
assorted weirdness. Then there was the
sun and the breeze making it hard to focus and keep a hold of my papers. Okay, that’s a lot of excuses. I was there.
I saw everything. I should have
done better.
Okay, here we go.
Things started well for the Aggies.
Samaria Diaz set the Redhawks
down in order to start the game. Kelsey Horton was finally back playing
first where she belongs, and strangely, leading off in the bottom of the inning. I guess Coach
Rodolph wanted her to get the maximum number of at bats, even though she
was going to get walked. She looked
good, not gimpy like the last time I saw her.
Fahren Glackin and Victoria Castro got on via a walk and a
hustle bunt single respectively. Nikki Butler then came up and whacked a
grand slam home run to center 220’ away.
They were making this look easy. I
think the Aggie girls were even busting out some new cheering songs from the
dugout. WAC shirts were thrown out to
the crowd on every home run for the tournament, so the more homers the better.
Caity Szczesny
(I’m going to miss typing out that name in the off-season) got the crowd on
their feet again with a triple. Oops,
there was an appeal at second. She
missed the bag, and she’s out. For some
reason this felt like a much bigger play than it should have been at the time,
like an ill harbinger. Ah, but the
Aggies were still up 4-0 after one.
Looking good.
Okay, what just happened?
It’s now 4-6 Seattle . The Redhawks batted around plus two in the
top of the second. I know I saw this,
because it’s on my scorecard, but I had entered into a state of shock from
which I didn’t really recover. The
Redhawk fans made themselves known in the crowd. Kayla
Green had to come in to finish out the inning for Sam.
The hits kept coming in the bottom of the second. A series of singles and a walk pushed across
three more for the Aggies, 7-6. Kelsey
nearly killed a bird on foul ball. The
pitcher literally rolled the final ball to the plate to walk her and load the
bases. The inning ended as Victoria Castro tripped on the
shortstop for an interference call. Just
when I’d caught my breath, the third led off with a Redhawk homer to tie the
score at 7. The crowd got really angry
over a phantom hit batter call next, but the ump did a makeup call in the
bottom of the inning and made the Seattle
fans angry.
We’re not done with the third. With two on to start the inning, pinch
hitter, Kennedy Johnson, singled in Hayley Nakamura, and Rachel Rodriguez scored when the ball
was mishandled in the outfield. After
yet another walk to Kelsey, Fahren
Glackin hammered a three-run homer.
There was another anxious moment as an appeal was made at second, but
this time the ump confirmed Fahren had touched them all. Nikki took one for team for the third hit
batter of the third, and even the official photographer was hit by foul
ball. He ended up with an ice pack on
his leg. 11-7 Aggies. We’re good now, right?
Not even close. The
Redhawks made the most of a couple of infield bobbles and a walk and drove in
four runs on four hits. I looked at the
scoreboard in disbelief. It was 11-11
after three and half innings. However,
the play of the game may have turned out to be the game-saving play for the
Aggies. As a single drove in the runner
at third, Victoria
in center threw a strike to home, where Nikki slapped the trail runner on the
back for the final out. In retrospect,
if that run had crossed the plate and the inning continued, I doubt the Aggies
would have won.
I should mention that fans on both sides were complaining
about the home plate umpire’s strike zone.
It was way more than the usual, somewhat good-natured, ribbing that
occurs in the regular season. This was
serious. Give fans a championship on the
line, and the game takes on a whole different dimension. Also, Amy Bergeson entered the game at some
point defensively in left field, but never took an at bat. I’d been concerned that she was injured,
since I didn’t see her in the last series. Fahren took all the at bats for that
position. I really don’t understand
softball substitution rules. I thought I
saw Fahren warming up in bullpen mid-game, but she did not come into this game
to pitch.
In the bottom of the fourth, Kelsey was walked to load the
bases with two out. We’re getting close
to Barry Bonds territory here. I’m
waiting see her get walked with the base already loaded. The Aggies did not score. Shockingly, the entire fifth inning did not
produce any runs either. The sixth
featured a WAC sunglasses giveaway to the crowd.
Unfortunately, the sixth was also the inning that Kayla
finally lost it. She gave up a single
and hit a batter. On the next batter,
Kayla got over one of her best offspeed pitches of the game and got a
strikeout. But right after that, she
gave up a three-run homer to left center.
Even in the stands, you could hear her curse as soon as the bat hit the
ball. She knew it was a mistake
immediately. There was another walk and
another hit batter, before Sam had to come back into the game to finish the
inning. 11-14 Redhawks.
At this point, I lost heart.
After giving the program another look, I’d finally looked at the fine
print and realized that, even if the Aggies won, they’d have to play another
game. It was hot and unpleasant, and I
was somewhat exhausted before the game even started. Now I was completely beat and just wanted it
over. Thankfully for the team, I wasn’t
playing.
The Aggies went down in order in the sixth. In the top of the seventh, I could see Kayla
in the dugout, brooding. I would have
liked to have given her a pep talk, but I needed one too. The Redhawks went in order in the seventh
too, but that was thanks to a tremendous play by Misty Hoohuli on the first batter.
She came up with a ball and shot it to Kelsey at first and actually
threw out the runner. Perhaps this
completely unexpected play sparked the team for the bottom of the inning.
The Aggies were now three outs from elimination and down
three runs. Kelsey started off the
inning with being walked, yet again.
Kathy Rodoph’s strategy of batting her first paid off right there. It’s not like the next three batters were
easy outs, especially with runners on.
In spite of a couple of easy innings, Alyssa Reuble, was gassed and perhaps the pressure of the impending
championship and another go around with this Aggie line up weighed on her. Fahren walked. Victoria
hit a shallow single, and Kelsey was held at third to load the bases.
At this point, I still wasn’t believing. It either seemed too cruel or too unreal, even
after all of the scoring I’d seen for the previous six and half innings. Nikki came up and hit another shallow
single. Kelsey scored. Fahren was held. The bases were still loaded. Now with a two-run lead, the Redhawks brought
in Andie Larkins, the game’s
starting pitcher. I’m sure their coach
didn’t want to do this, since Larkins didn’t do well when she was fresh.
Caity was next in the hit parade, as she singled in
Fahren. Again, Nikki was held and the
bases were still loaded. One run
lead. At this point, the crowd was going
crazy. One, they couldn’t believe this
comeback, and two, they couldn’t believe that the Aggie assistant coach wasn’t
sending any of these runners. She was
right in doing so every time. The hits
weren’t deep enough. The girls must have
been choking up on their bats, just trying to make contact. Hayley worked a walk, and the tying run
scored. What happened next, as
improbable as it would have been before this inning, seemed all but
inevitable. Rachel stroked another
single to score Nikki and win the game.
Aggies 15, Redhawks 14.
That was seven straight batters reaching base without an
out. That was clutch defined. As high-powered as the Aggie offense is, it
seemed unreasonable that Seattle
was going to hold them down for four straight innings, especially after they’d
scored 12 in the first three. If they’d
had one fresh pitcher, it would have made the difference. I know this because of what would happen in
the next game.
The Aggie girls of course celebrated on field. They knew they hadn’t won it all yet, but
this was a moment they had to enjoy. The
PA announced the next game for the championship would be played in
45-minutes. Ron was confused. I had somewhat dreaded this moment. After nearly three hours in the sun today, I
had to tell him that there was another game, and we had to be there. He took it about as well as I did. I almost think the girls won just to spite
us. That’s okay. We forgive them.
For the final game, the Aggies would be the visiting team (I
don’t know how this is determined). The
girls even exchanged dugouts and had carry their gear across the infield. As the Aggie girls walked past in front of
the grandstand, they got extra applause from fans by the netting. They tried not to notice, since they still
had another big game to play, but Rachel, all smiles, did acknowledge the
crowd. You hit the winner in a game like
this, it’s hard to be humble.
Maddy Kristjanson
and Kayla Gonzales get my game stars
for the Redhawks. Maddy went 3 for 5
with a home run and three RBI’s. Kayla’s
only appearance was a pinch hit at bat, where she hit the go-ahead, three-run
homer in the sixth. That was
clutch. For the Aggies, Fahren Glackin and Nikki Butler drove in a total of 11 of the team’s 15 runs, mostly via
two big home runs. Yeah Seattle , maybe should have walked you those guys
too. Speaking of walks, Kesley Horton had an 0-1 game with four
walks, and scored four runs anyway.
Reapply that sunblock.
We’re not done yet.
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