Okay, I can’t avoid this topic any longer. It’s time to talk about the “hair”
situation. Amy Bergeson (and you can check out a better current picture of her
here and read about Saturday’s games) went from long raven locks (as shown
below, Amy’s on the left) to a shorter blonde cut with some dark highlights. This is a really fun, sporty look for
Amy. Looking at some older pictures, I
think this is her natural hair color.
Kelsey Horton,
meanwhile has gone brunette. Part of me
thinks this was done in an effort to try and fool conference pitchers into
thinking she’s someone else, so that they’ll pitch to her. I’m pretty sure this isn’t going to
work. She’s still lovely, but Kelsey
should be blonde. It’s not that I have a
blonde preference (I think, I definitely used to prefer brunettes), but I
always mentally picture Kelsey with her heroic stature as a Valkyrie, one Odin’s
warrior handmaidens of victorious, valiant death (or maybe not that
dramatic). She storms on to the field for
battle wielding a BBCorr bat and wearing a mitt. All Kelsey needs is a winged horse and large
feathers on the side of her helmet to complete the look. (You can feel free to take this as a
suggestion for this years’ Halloween costume.
Post it on the team Twitter.)
Last night’s What-a-burger did not sit well with me and I
got no sleep. I don’t think it was the
burger, but rather how late I’d eaten it.
(The PQ Treats frozen tornado that I chased it with probably didn’t
help.) I ended up having a glass of milk
for breakfast and didn’t actually eat until after this game in the late
afternoon, when I’d finally got my appetite back. This seemed like an ill omen.
The last of last night’s basketball crowd was finally able
to pull out of the parking lot as I came back to the university for today’s
softball game versus the Kentucky
Wildcats. (That might not be much of
an exaggeration, exiting after a big event is an issue.) There had been a cold breeze blowing before I
left, but it had died down by the time I’d pulled in. I ditched my coat in my truck as it was
bright, sunny and warm. I was even
overdressed a bit in my Aggie hoodie. Well, at least it’s a great day for a game,
I thought.
There was another good crowd in the stands. University
President Garrey Carruthers was
there. He’s a fan of the team. I sat next to Danny again. (Ron had family things to attend to
today.) Adam Young was providing play-by-play for today’s game on the
radio, which was very welcome.
Unfortunately, this was only scheduled radio broadcast for the regular
season. The baseball team was
scrimmaging next door.
The girls were in their “Sandman” black and grey’s, though
their batting helmets were white today.
I noticed volleyball player, Lia
Mosher, wasn’t with the team today.
(She’s pretty easy to pick out of a crowd.) I find myself really hoping I get to see her
play this season. Staff ace, Kayla Green was reported to be sick,
but was still in uniform. She came
through the stands briefly during the game to collect retrieved balls at the
pressbox and she was coughing. As it was,
Kayla probably wanted to be there no matter how she was feeling. I’m guessing Coach Kathy Rodolph would have started her today and only kept her
around on the off chance that if the game was close late, she might be good for
an inning.
Samaria Diaz
started for the Aggies. She was a bit
shaky in the first, giving up three hits, a run, and hitting a batter. Her catcher, Shelby Shultes, limited the damage by throwing out Erin Rethlake, the Wildcats’ starting
pitcher and hitting for herself, at second base. 1-0 Kentucky.
Fahren Glackin collected a
hit in the bottom, but Aggies otherwise went down quickly.
In the second, trucker hats in colors matching the Aggies’
uniforms were tossed to the crowd. I
didn’t make an effort to get one. I’ve
already got three Aggie hats. Sam gave
up a couple of hits in the inning, and Rachel
Rodriguez had her fourth error in three games trying to feed Kelsey for a
force at second. No damage done, though. Afore mentioned blonde, Amy Bergeson singled in between a strikeout and a fly out. Destiny
Blueford, not the likeliest power hitter in the lineup, hit a line drive
homer to right field, an opposite field two-run shot. 2-1 Aggies.
In the third, afore mentioned brunette, Kelsey Horton committed her second error of the series. I watched a preseason interview with Coach
Kathy yesterday (Tuesday) and the first thing she mentioned that she was
confident in was the team’s improved defense this season. She must be fuming after this weekend. Destiny, at least, sparkled again, as she
threw out a runner at first on a ball hit to right field. Unfortunately, Abbey Cheek came up and hit a two-run homer right after, 3-2
Wildcats.
I should mention that the wind had picked back up and was
blowing out. Not only that, clouds had
rolled in and suddenly it was cold and miserable. An inning before, I was nearly sweating, now
I was almost shivering. I kept thinking
the sun would come back out, the wind would die down, and I wouldn’t need to run
out and get my jacket. Rachel led off
the third with a double. Fahren received
her third bruise of the series courtesy of Wildcat pitching. Last time she was angry. This time, the umpire had to escort her to
first base to stop her from charging the circle. She was replaced by a pinch runner, Brandy Hernandez. A couple of groundouts and pop up ended the
inning.
Sam got a couple of quick fly outs in the fourth, but was
suddenly pulled in the middle of an at bat for Analise de la Roca. She made
one pitch to end the inning on a ground out to first. Amy collected another hit in the Aggie half
of the fifth, but was caught stealing right after. She had an awkward jump going for the base
and wasn’t going to make it. That ended
the rally.
For the fifth, freshman, Kennedi Sorensen came in to catch, which I think was her debut. I noticed her having a friendly exchange with
the ump during the inning. With two
other hard-hitting catchers on the staff, she was probably happy to get into a
game. After a single, Jenny Schaper (“shaper,” still loving
that name) hit a deep fly ball to straight away center. Victoria
Castro may have caught it going just over the fence, but couldn’t hold
on. In and out heartbreak. It was a wind-aided, cheap homer, but it
still counted. 5-2 Wildcats.
The sixth inning featured “Dance Cam,” but without the
camera, nobody wanted to dance. It was
cold and windy and we were losing. “We
just got up,” said one lady, referring to the fifth-inning stretch. “That was just to warm you up for dancing,”
replied Danny. Analise had no problems
in this inning. In the bottom, Kelsey
and Nikki shared a laugh on deck. At
least the girls stayed loose. Kelsey got
a single, but that was all of the Aggie damage.
The newspaper account mentioned that the Wildcats changed their pitching
strategy for this game and went with a lot of offspeed stuff. This was the inning I noticed that Rethlake
was really getting in some good pitches.
And the wind the wind blew out another two-run homer in the
seventh for Kentucky. This one was by Katie Reed. The crowd started deserting at this
point. It may have been more for the
cold than the score. There was scheduled
autograph session after the game; I was definitely staying. Then Cheek hit her second home run of the
game. This one was a three-run shot and
would have gone out with the wind blowing straight in. The outfielders didn’t even flinch or bother
watching it. 10-2 Kentucky.
Okay, I was definitely still staying, but I was also
definitely running out to my truck to get my coat. Besides, it finally occurred to me that was
listening to the game call and wasn’t going to miss anything. On my way out though, I ran into Volleyball Coach Mike Jordan. Well, this was opportune, since I had burning
volleyball question. “Hi, coach. Hey, did you know that Lia was out here
yesterday in uniform with the softball team?”
I fully expected him to be infuriated that one of his players was
cheating on him with another coach.
Actually, he knew about it. Coach
Jordan referred to it as “an experiment.”
He seemed skeptical, but was taking Coach Kathy’s assessment that she
had some talent.
Some of the volleyball team came in with him. They must have come straight from practice,
as they were in loose t-shirts and shorts.
This sight only made me feel colder.
I don’t think they felt real warm either. After a hit batter, freshman Mikayla Bongi was finally brought in to
the get the last two outs. I don’t know
why Analise was left out to twist in the breeze, so to speak, for so long. She’s got some good stuff, but I wouldn’t
want to wreck her confidence by letting her get shelled this early in the
season. In any case, the Aggies went
down in order to end the game. Our
final: Wildcats 10, Aggies 2.
Erin Rethlake of
the Wildcats gets the game ball for her complete game pitching performance, as
well as hitting for herself. This was a
pretty amazing turnaround from her Saturday start. Destiny
Blueford is our easy, if only, Aggie Player of the Game with her two-run homer
and a great putout. Team fielding was
again a bit shaky, as was the pitching.
I mean no disrespect to the Kentucky coaching staff, but after seeing
their team dominate in this game, I don’t think they actually scouted the
Aggies until after they’d gotten beat the day before. I may be wrong, but that’s sure what it
looked like. One thing is for sure, when
defending national champion Oklahoma
comes here this week for the Troy Cox
Classic, the Aggies aren’t going to be sneaking up on them, not after this
weekend.
After the game, I went around back for autographs. The volleyball team was there, which was a
nice show of support. Gia Pack from the Women’s Basketball
team was also there. I would have liked
to have said “Hi” to her, but she looked kind of grim. I hope the whole team isn’t brooding after
their bad road trip. Once again, I ended
up next to Coach Jordan. Having the
coach’s ear for a second time, I praised Megan
Hart’s performance last year. He
said she’d recovered from her injuries to where she felt confident in
hitting.
With all the confidence I could muster, I then told him that
the only thing holding the team back the last two years has been injuries. At this point, I was probably about to go
into some polite form of my rant that I didn’t want to hear about anymore
injuries in practice, since that’s on the coaches, not the players. I was going to use my example that Coach Mark Trakh felt his success with
the Women’s Basketball team last
year hinged on keeping his players healthy and making sure they didn’t hurt
themselves in practice.
What actually happened was that Coach Jordan agreed that
that was an issue and that they needed to focus on it. Okay, he’s aware of the problem. I remarked about how badly the girls in
volleyball get injured compared to other sports. The coach winsomely expressed his admiration
for his lost team captain, Jordan Abalos. She had apparently came into the program with
an injury from high school that had never really healed. Wow, as if I didn’t already think enough of
her determination. She was already aware
that her knees were wrecked for life from playing, but kept doing it.
At this point, his wife and little son came back. The boy had a mitt with a bunch of signatures
on it. The coach gave me a fist-bump in
parting. He had a massive championship
ring sitting on one of his fingers. I
hope the conversation wasn’t too awkward for the coach. Random conversations with idiot strangers
about the team probably happen to him on a regular basis. I was certainly glad to chat with him for a
minute. He was a nice guy, as long as
you’re not playing volleyball for him.
I’ll admit. The
autographs were a bit of a letdown. I’d
hoped to chat for a couple of seconds with a several players, but it didn’t
really materialize. In fairness, they’d
just lost badly, it was cold and windy, and, after the talking to the coach, I
was the last person in line. The girls
mostly had their heads down signing and were leaving right after signing my
poster. The signing tables were even
being taken down behind me.
Still, there was some interaction. Nikki
Butler has a great smile and was very friendly. Unfortunately, I totally blanked on her name,
which was terrible because I did know it and recognized her. I got to congratulate Destiny Blueford on her home run.
She was all smiles and nice.
Granted she was the only one who’d had a good game, but I’d guess that’s
her usual personality. Down the line, I
ended up standing next to Rachel
Rodriguez. She’d had a rough
weekend, but Rachel was all smiles and totally genuinely pleasant. You could tell she was a nice girl in two
seconds, like Brandi Walton on the basketball team last year.
Rachel even checked to make sure that Kelsey had signed the poster
before she gave it back to me. What a
sweetheart.
There I was, so close to Kelsey Horton, but she was already leaving by the time I got to
her. I wasn’t able to get her attention
before she left. Darn it, I had a couple
of questions for her. Not that I know
anybody on the team well, but I at least know a bit about her. Well, so much for talking to her this
season. Fahern Glackin was the last player on the line. I told her that the other team didn’t seem to
like her. Yeah, she was aware of that
and she was still angry. I wished I’d
said something different. Fahren was probably
aching.
I need to add a postscript.
Monday evening, I listened to KROD’s
Sportstalk out of El Paso. Likely
much to the consternation of Miner fans, much of the show was about the
Aggies. Host Steve Kaplowitz spent his opening segment talking about the Pan-Am sellout and the Men’s basketball
win. He had Coach Chris Jans on to talk about it, as well as Coach Brian Green to promote Aggie Baseball. However, nobody mentioned the Softball team’s
big wins. Aggie Athletic Director Mario Moccia did Tweet out over the weekend
that he was sorry that the softball victory would likely get overshadowed by
the basketball victory.
I took it on myself to hype the team. I wasn’t able to call them from work and
there wasn’t a working e-mail to reach them, but there is a spot on their
website for breaking stories and tips.
Apparently they keep close track of submissions there. Kappy read my copy verbatim ten minutes later
(after presumably fact-checking it). The
funny thing was that I had a co-worker at my desk and I was showing her my
softball poster with the station stream on.
Kappy said my name to start the story and she said, “Hey, that guy on
the radio just mentioned somebody with your name.”
I admit that was a bit of thrill hearing my little recap was
being read over the air with my name attached to it. I was even more happy to help recognize the
team’s accomplishment to a wider audience.
If anyone with the team was listening earlier, hopefully this made up
for it. I think Sportstalk just didn’t
know that the Aggies had beaten an SEC team, because they would have mentioned
it. Coach Kathy is a “friend of the
show,” and I think I’ve heard her interviewed there. (I hope they take the opportunity to invite
her on this week to talk about it.)
Kappy even segued into talking about UTEP Softball right after.
Coach Jans did wish the baseball and softball teams good
luck in his interview, but I think he didn’t know about it either. I’ve heard him offer support to other Aggie
sports before. Coach Green, on the other
hand, must have known. His boys were
there and had to have come back inspired and motivated to go beat a big school
themselves this season. Come on, Coach,
Aggie Up.
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