NM State Aggies vs CSU-Bakersfield Roadrunners Game 1, 4-7-18

It was a poor start to the afternoon when Ron called and said he was running late and canceled going to lunch before the game.  And there I was at the time, napping and dreaming about food.  That was pretty disappointing.  Certainly the quick lunch from a can I had didn’t help.  We also got to the stadium while the player introductions were going on over the PA.  Things were looking up though.  On the way in, we were both distracted, highly distracted. 

It was the gorgeous woman from the soccer matches last year (10-8-17)!  It was the one who'd inspired me to actually me to write something borderline poetic about her.  To briefly recap, she's damn near perfect in appearance.  Her mirror shades completely obscure her far too cool demeanor.  Her bronze skin tantalized beneath a loose tank top and tiny white shorts.  Her legs went on for miles as she stretched them out after finding a seat.  There I go again, romanticizing this non-encounter.  Her motivations for attending seem unknowable, as she was alone and had no reaction to the events on field.  She disappeared out of my life once again halfway through the game.

Speaking of lovely, Megan Hart and Megan McGuire were in the crowd representing Aggie Volleyball’s support for the softball team.  Today was anti-rape day at the park.  If you were a student and pledged not to rape anyone, they gave you a t-shirt.  If you weren’t a student, they gave you a sticker.  Frankly, this is an embarrassingly cringe-y PC handling of a serious topic.  A more practical message would be: If you’re not into unwanted sex, don’t go out to wild parties and bars and get drunk.  Megan Hart, very practically, used her giveaway shirt to shield her fair complexion in the hot late afternoon sun.  Megan McGuire made sure to sit in Megan Hart’s long 6’5” shadow. 

Friday night on TV, I watched the girls beat this Bakersfield team 4-2.  It was a pretty tight game.  The Aggies’ scoring came via home runs by Kelsey Horton and Nikki Butler.  Kayla Green came in in relief and struck out the side in the seventh to end the game.  Rachel Rodriguez wasn’t playing though.  Jeanelle Medina moved over to short with freshman Stefani Duran playing third.  I saw Rachel running up to the pressbox to retrieve balls a couple of times during the game and she looked okay.  According to the stats on the program, she has the highest batting average on the team, so I’d think they’d play her if they could.   I also noticed Brandi Wilke was also retrieving balls.  She was noticeable because she was wearing a softball top, but black shorts on the bottom.  I’m guessing she wasn’t available to play either.

Today’s Game 1 was also on TV.  Having a radio call would have been nice and I could have found out what was up with Rachel.  I’d missed most of last night’s game where that was probably mentioned and only got to see the last two innings.  The color commentator, whose name I didn’t get, was excellent.  The PA for today’s games was very enthusiastic and kept the energy level up in the stadium.  The crowd was pretty good for the game.  Not SRO like for the Oklahoma game (2-17-18), but still nice.  The crowd for that game feels like a strange dream now. 

The Old Man was there.  Ron’s unofficial daughter was there.  She was running down foul balls during the game.  A family supporting Bakersfield was nearby with a beautiful daughter.  Maybe she was a sister of one of the players.  (She had a strong nose, which I love, and great hair styling.)  There was an actual purse puppy a couple of rows below us, and a larger dog was hanging out in the Aggie bullpen.  I don’t have any stats on the dog to scout her, but she must be pretty talented.  Coach Rodolph never brought her brought her into the game.

Analise de la Roca started in the circle for the Aggies.  I saw her taking an at bat last night, and her stat line for hitting is pretty good in a limited number of at bats.  It's strange that the top of the first only went three batters, but took quite a while to play.  Analise was throwing hard, but the Roadrunners were fouling off a good number of pitches.  She got two strikeouts and a hit batter between them was thrown out by Nikki catching.  Star Wars has fallen out of favor with me lately, but I was loving the new Chewbacca sound effect for Aggie strikeouts.

Kelsey Horton came up second for the Aggies and promptly hit a moonshot to left center.  1-0 Aggies.  It's like she's playing a video game.  I've just about run out of things to say about her greatness hitting.  Fahern Glackin came up next and was hit.  She's like a magnet for balls when she's standing in the batter's box.  The inning ended on a double play.  The Roadrunner's catcher, Karah Wiseman was interesting looking.  She's one of the tallest players on the team at 5'9” and also rather thin and wiry.  It's not your typical catcher build.  I was kind of fascinated watching her play.

For whatever reason, I wasn't taking much in the way of notes for this game.  Maybe it was the game itself.  The second inning was pretty quick on both ends.  The top of the third ended with Jeanelle making a good unassisted play at second for a force out.  Her and Kelsey were smiling at each other during a lot of the plays around second base as they were getting accustomed to one another's coverage.  There weren't any problems, and they worked well together and were having fun.

The bottom of the third was eventful.  You could almost see it coming.  In sum, the Aggies scored 6 runs to make it 7-0.  Four of the runs were scored via Nikki's two-run double and Victoria Castro's two-run homer.  Tori hit one of the trees in left center.  It was a heck of a shot.  However, the other two runs were scored on wild pitches.  Also, there were two more hit batters (including Kelsey in the back) and a walk, two of which scored.  My scoring may also differ from the official scoring.  I thought I heard the PA say there were two errors in the inning, but I'm not sure where they were.

Analise gave up a double to start the fourth, but had no further damage.  Kelsey came up to bat second in the bottom.  This was the battle of the game between her and Roadrunners’ reliever, Summer Evans.  I counted 9 foul balls.  Twice, girls were sent from the dugout to the pressbox to get more balls.  I think two balls went to the soccer field next door.  A couple little boys were breathlessly running them down.  Kelsey was mostly hooking them to the left.  The swings were savage, but early.  Since she stands way up in the box, she might benefit from standing a bit further back.  Finally, Evans threw her an offspeed over the plate and Kelsey crushed it to center.  You could definitely see that coming.  8-0 Aggies.

Mikayla Bongi came in for the fifth, which because of the score, was a possible close out inning.  She gave up 1 hit, but that was all.  Aggies won 8-0 in a run rule game.  For this shortened game, I’ll give nods to the Aggie offense for putting up 8 runs in four innings.  Kelsey Horton was dominating with two homers.  Victoria Castro and Nikki Butler also drove in two runs.  The Roadrunner pitching did hurt themselves with wild pitches, walks and hitting batters.   Aggie pitching combined for 4 hits and no runs.  Analise de la Roca looked overpowering at times. 

Though a short game and only eventful for one of the teams, I feel like I didn’t do much for this recap.  Maybe it was because we found our seats right after the Anthem and I didn’t get properly settled.  Maybe the heat was bothering me as it was a hot, sunny day.  Maybe it was lunch, or the lack of a good one, when I was expecting it.  Sorry.  I got a bit more into it for Game 2.