Clank! Ah, the sound of a baseball hitting a BBCorr
bat greeted me and Ron as we exited his car in the stadium parking lot. Suddenly, everything was okay. I still wasn’t quite over yesterday’s rained out debacle at the softball complex and had had a poor night
trying to sleep. The weather also rained
out the Friday baseball opener, resulting in today’s double header, which was
going to now conflict with the afternoon softball. But I couldn’t keep up my poor mood on this
lovely Opening Day for Aggie Baseball.
The temperature was in the mid-50’s with the sun peeking through the
overcast without any wind. The afternoon
never became unpleasant.
We saw broadcaster, Adam
Young, out with the RV tailgaters (now parked at the south side of the
stadium) having a good time. I ran into
him inside. Being a baseball fan, Adam
was extremely upbeat to be starting another baseball season. I finally got to thank him for his interview
with former Women’s Basketball Coach, Mark
Trakh (12-17-17) while he was at Pepperdine watching the team play. He did confirm that former player and total
sweetheart, Brandee Walton, was there
with him. I also reported to Adam that
the baseball team was there for the Softball team’s big wins over Kentucky. I’m sure they’re now properly motivated and
inspired to get their own “signature” win against a big name opponent this
season.
Once inside, there weren’t any programs or posters laying
out. While I did get a poster later, I
never got a program. I did what I could guessing
the spelling of player names without one, but the visitors are likely very
wrong. The concessions opened up late
and I didn’t get anything. I’m still
craving some Corn in a Cup. Out on the
field, the boys were in their bright home whites, filling my heart with
joy. Finally, some baseball was on the
way. They took the tarp off the mound
and sprayed on an NM State logo on the back.
Out in left field, they held an elaborate ritual, gathering in a circle,
clapping, and then meeting in the center to shout, “Aggie up!”
A good crowd showed up for the game. (Another crowd was at the next door softball
complex for a game between a couple of the out-of-town invitees. The Aggies would be playing later.) Towson
brought a good number of their fans all the way from Maryland. Several scouts were in attendance to see
today’s Aggie starter, Kyle Bradish. Five Aggies are on the Baseball America Prospects List. Richie Palacios on
Towson was also being looked at. The
female PA was back. I still haven’t seen
her. Adam was joined on the radio with
new co-host, Brandon Mangum.
Major League ump and Las Cruces native, Tony Randazzo, threw out the first pitch. Instead of the entire team standing at the
foul line together, the starters went out on the field for the Anthem, with the
bench standing back at the dugout. This
is the more traditional way of doing it.
“Trust the process.”
I heard this phrase in an Aggie preseason baseball player interview and
in a softball player interview. I’m
really not sure what it means. I
listened to a coaching podcast last week with an interview with Aggie baseball Coach Brian Green. First he mentioned the civic pride here in
town over the football team winning a bowl game last year. He wants his team to engender that kind of
pride too from the city. For the rest of
the hour-long interview, Coach Green talked about developing his players and
coaches as responsible people. Only one
specific baseball drill was offhandedly mentioned. The rest was all about the process of
development. Here’s where we find if
that works on the field.
You might notice that the Aggie scorecard looks a bit
“busy.” We’ll get to that. Obviously, I was a bit challenged for space
due to on-field events. I even managed
to write the lineups on the wrong scorecard during the introductions, which
only made the “no program” situation worse.
Good thing I had some scorekeeping practice last week. 
Kyle Bradish is a
slow worker, but he made up for it by being efficient getting outs. He got Rickey
Palacios on a Major League popup that nearly burned up on reentry. It was the highest popup I’ve ever seen. Seriously, the infield had time to play a
round of Gin before it came down. The
top of the first went smoothly enough for recording purposes. The Aggies started the bottom well by getting
their first three batters on. Tristen Carranza wasted no time in
cashing that check with a grand slam home run to left center. (Is this what I’m doing now? Padding these things out with a steady stream
of corny sports euphemisms?) Boo
Yah! Shock it to ya! (Apparently.)
The Aggies batted around and David
Bellamy drove in another run, but the scorecard was still readable to that
point. 5-0 Aggies. Eight innings to go.
I noticed the new Aggie second baseman, Bruno Teramoto, jumping up and down at his position between pitches
in the second. One of the players did a
flip at the pregame circle, so I guessing it was him. Bruno is from Brazil and has the best walkup
song on the team. Not that the music was
good, so much as it was the lyrics consisting of his name, Teramoto, just being
repeated over a Latin rap beat. How
awesome is that to come to the plate to? (I need to find out what “Teramoto” means in Portuguese.) [Edit:
Earthquake. Awesome.]
Bradish, meanwhile, struck out the side,
though he hit the Tiger’s huge first baseman, Charlie Waters, on the helmet.
Not hard at least. Waters didn’t
have any reaction when it hit him and it was clearly a mistake pitch.
The Aggies went down pretty quickly in their half. Hours later, Ron asked about catcher Mason Fishback getting to first base
after striking out. Not quite complex as
the Infield Fly rule, but every out has to have a corresponding put out. Thus, if a catcher does not actually cleanly
field a third strike pitch, the batter may attempt to take first anyway, though
he has recorded a strikeout for the at bat.
This usually results in the catcher having to throw to first to get the
out, but occasionally leads to the anomaly of having a box score showing three
strikeouts and a line out for an inning. It’s not even an error, it’s a passed ball.
The most dramatic example I ever saw of this rule was years
ago. I think it was the Braves and the Diamondbacks playing, so we’ll go with that. The Diamondbacks backup catcher, not a quick
individual, was at bat and made the final out of the game with a strikeout. The final strike was dropped and the batter ran
to first after dodging a tag. The Braves
catcher casually threw the ball to first.
Unfortunately, the first baseman was already on his way to the
dugout. The ball rolled out into right
field and the Diamondbacks catcher made it all the way to second base. This sparked like a three-run comeback and
the Diamondbacks ended up winning.
Always run out it out until you’re called out.
During the inning, Adam also mentioned that the team would
like any foul balls back, because they’re expensive. The MLB can afford to toss out every ball
that gets hit. Now I felt bad, because I
have a foul ball from a game. If they
really want them, they should make an announcement during a game, like they do
at softball games. (They really want
those balls back. They’re even more
expensive and they only have a limited supply on hand during a game.) Perhaps they’re a bit embarrassed officially
asking and don’t want to deprive a kid of a ball. Ron, on the other hand, is intent on starting
a foul ball collection and pretended like he didn’t hear what Adam said.
Towson fans finally had a reason to cheer. Their team got a lead off hit to start the
third. It came to nothing and Bradish
finished off the inning with a pair of strikeouts. Palacios had a talk with Fishback and the
umpire after his strikeout. Over the
wall at the softball complex, we could hear their PA announce a shirt toss into
the crowd. The Aggies managed to tack on
a couple more runs in the bottom to make it 7-0. (Detailing every run in this game would get
way too tedious.)
There was a radio discussion about the Aggies’ presumed main
conference rival, Grand Canyon
University. They just opened a new
park. It seats 4,000 (Presley Askew Field seats 1,000) and
was full for opening night. The Lopes
hosted #4 in the nation, TCU. They had the lead in the ninth, but lost it,
but this is all very intimidating news.
Oh my goodness, my attention has completely shifted at the
ballpark. A lady has come in carrying an
unbearably adorable cocker spaniel. His
huge eyes looked my direction and into my soul.
At that moment, he knew that I desperately pet him and hug him. Sigh, it was not to be. The occasion never materialized to allow me
to cross his furry path. And he left
early, un-petted.
Suddenly this baseball thing isn’t as meaningful, but let’s
carry on. While we could hear The
Outfield’s Use Your Love from the
softball field, Bradish added two strikeouts to his total in the fourth. At least the Towson fans were here instead of
at home, where the weather update contest pegged conditions there at 37 degrees
and snowing. But it was about to start
raining here in Las Cruces to the tune of five runs. Fishback doubling in a run chased Tiger
starter Michael Adams from the game
as the PA serenaded him with Let It Go. Carranza greeted his replacement, Mason Anderson, with a two-run homer to
same spot he hit the last one. Teramoto
tripled in a run with an opposite field shot down the first base line. Another pitcher came in, Alex Parker. He slipped on
the mound on his first warmup toss, which wasn’t a good sign. Bellamy drove in his second run off him
before the inning ended. 12-0 Aggies.
The Towson fans around us started discussing current
events. They were very opinionated. I take the weekends off from the news and
didn’t join in. Bradish notched two more
strikeouts in the fifth. I’m thinking
the scouts must have liked what they saw today.
The fourth inning didn’t prepare me for the fifth. After getting the first out, two walks, two
hit batters, and two singles drove in six more runs before another pitching
change.
The inning kept going.
For a moment, I shuddered that Aggies might bat around twice. As it was, five more superfluous runs crossed
the plate before a fly out to center ended the inning. It was an 11-run inning. I’d like to say it was fun, but this was
ridiculous. (And scary. I lost a foul popup in the overcast that hit
the canopy above us.) Once again, Adam
reminded us that non-conference game don’t have a run rule to give mercy,
mostly to the fans. Not to mention, it’s
two 9-inning games for the double header.
Double headers in professional Triple-A baseball are 7 innings. There was loud cheering coming from the
softball field. I thought I saw the red
of Oklahoma fans there. I’m reminded that the ticket I bought
yesterday would have let me into that game.
I was so happy just a couple of hours ago. Well, that’s part of it. This game was taking forever to reach an
inevitable conclusion.
Meanwhile, the Towson visitors thought the Pecan Grill
restaurant here was excellent. One
lady’s daughter was really good at softball, but hated the sport. It’s 23-0.
Welcome to the sixth inning. (Remember,
this is a baseball game, not
football.) The out-of-towers did get to
cheer a leadoff double and did so in a non-ironic way. Mangum mocked them on the broadcast, but this
turned out to be the only blemish on Bradish’s line. After adding one more strikeout (looking), he
was lifted for Chance Hroch, who
allowed the runner to score. Bradish
came out to a standing ovation. Okay,
it’s 23-1 Aggie. Now, we have a game.
The bottom of the sixth began a series of Aggie
substitutions, the most interesting of which were the Williams brothers, Brendon
and Braden. Not quite as interesting
as the lovely identical Mills sisters
on the basketball team, but still interesting.
Braden was involved in a rare 1 Unassisted out with the pitcher beating
him to first. Brendon gets a mention for
getting errors in consecutive innings playing at short (and with the same
player batting). They’ll work on it.
For the bottom of the seventh, I missed a couple of outs
finally succumbing to the call of nature.
I think they were ground outs. Earlier,
Adam had requested Tweets from people listening to the game over the
Internet. By the eighth, he had gotten
replies from several former players and their families from as far away as
Macedonia and Australia. Wow. That’s some reach and some alma mater
loyalty. In the top of the inning,
Towson sent eight men to the plate and scored three runs. It was hard to work up any panic, but their
fans enjoyed the rally.
In the bottom, one of the Aggie subs, Logan Ennis, blasted a 400’ shot to straight center. That’s a homer and then some anywhere else in
the park, but it unfortunately hit the batter’s eye which is located there. It ended up being a triple. Fellow sub, Nick Gonzalez knocked him in so as not to waste that prodigious
display. That was the only run given up
by Joe Anea (that’s not spelled
right) for the Tigers, who restored some order for the last three innings for
them. Kyle Wullinwebber (also likely not spelled right because I didn’t
get a printed program, and I’m not looking it up in protest), worked an easy
ninth and Adam and Brandon fell in love with his name. And there was more cheering at the softball
field. It sounded exciting.
Is it over? Is
it? After three hours and 40 minutes, we
have a final: Aggies 24, Tigers 4. Of course this game was actually decided
definitively in the fourth and should have ended earlier. Gee, I wonder who should get the gameballs
today? How about Kyle Bradish, who went 5 1/3 and only gave up 2 hits, 1 run, 2
walks, and had 11 strikeouts. Then
there’s Tristen Carranza, who went 4
for 5 with 4 hits and 8 RBI’s, and he did all that in 5 innings too. The player development process worked out in
this game.
If only there was a fan development process. Oh, I’m sorry for being cranky on Opening
Day. Rainouts suck. Overlapping event scheduling sucks. NCAA baseball rules suck. Looking back at last year, I didn’t enjoy the
blowouts then either. (It was also a lot
colder then.) Should the baseball team
schedule Kentucky and Oklahoma like the softball team did to
get a more competitive matchup? In this
case, no. I don’t want to sit through
being on the wrong end of a 20-run game.
Don’t worry. I’m still looking
forward to the rest of the season.
While we’d planned on watching as much of the double header
as possible, the length of this game ran it directly into the Aggies’ first
softball game of the day. We’d sort
planned on missing it, but with the 40-minute break between baseball games,
there was no reason to do so. Besides,
we could listen to the baseball game on the radio. Time to go next door and see what all the
shouting was about.
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