NM State Aggies vs Yale Bulldogs Baseball 2-23-19

There was snow on the tops of the Organ Mountains this afternoon.  Amazingly, it wasn’t that cold.  It was also sunny with no clouds in the sky.  This was a good change from last night and much better than the forecast earlier in the week.  It was supposed to be raining all day.  However, there was still a cold breeze going.  It felt colder than the announced 46 degrees.  It was better than Connecticut, where Yale is from, where it was 34 degrees with a 50% chance of rain.  

Ron was busy with his caretaking in the morning, but said he’d make it over later.  I drove into the parking lot and noticed a men’s team going to the soccer field.  I don’t know who they were.  The baseball side was filled.  There were several school busses there, though it turned out there weren’t any students inside the stadium.  There was a knot of Aggie fan RV’s and a big tailgate with Yale fans.  Like two years ago when they were here, the Yale fans do travel well.  It was a decent crowd inside with the Yale fans making up nearly half of it.   

I ran into Adam Young in the bathroom.  Yes, just how you think, at the urinals.  That’s really not the best place for conversation, but I wanted to tell him about Braden Williams’ home run ball reaching the softball field last Sunday (2-17-19).  I also asked him about the Cardinals’ chances this year (his favorite team), since they’d picked up some good free agents.  Adam was cautiously optimistic.  I did find out how he can call a four-hour game.  Adam has the bladder control of that alien character from The Orville, who only has to pee once a year.  Adam only has to go once per game for about two-straight minutes.      

Two Aggie Basketball greats threw out the first pitches.  When the catchers went into a crouch, they motioned for them to stand up.  The guys at least did know how to throw a baseball.  I’ve seen a few otherwise excellent male athletes go out and throw like girls.  (No offense to the Softball team.  If they’d been watching, they’d said the same thing.)  

Game 1

The game started frighteningly for the Aggies.  Catcher Braden Williams got hit on the knee by a backswing and went down.  He stayed in to a round of applause.  Starter Justin Dehn gave up an opening walk, but got the next three batters.  Bulldog starter Alex Stiegler got a pair of strikeouts for a 1-2-3 first.  Leadoff Logan Bottrell got a wave from the Aggie dugout to start his at bat.  The Yale catcher, Cal Christofori, actually tried to run off on a ball he thought was the final strike of the inning, but got called back.  The inning ended on the next pitch.

Adam interviewed Reggie Jordan, one of the Aggie Basketball players who threw out a first pitch, during the radio call of the game.  Jordan was being inducted into the Aggie Hall of Fame tonight at the basketball game.  Dehn was a bit wild in the second, but escaped without any damage.  Logan Ehnes singled, but was then picked off to start the bottom.  Tristen Carranza broke the seal of the game with a liner that just cleared the left field wall.  1-0 Aggies.  Right after on the next batter, the Yale part of the crowd started getting unruly disputing the ump’s ball calls.  A strikeout resulted anyway.  Maybe he was listening. 

“What’s in your pocket?”  This contest is back.  I had a pen with me (two, actually), but I wasn’t interested in the free cup for a prize.  I am interested in Emerson, the attractive marketing intern who was giving out the prizes.  I’m waiting for the “Win a Date With Emerson” contest.  Somewhere around this time, Ron showed up, but then left to chase foul balls. 

No changes in the third.  Dehn also cruised through the fourth.  In the bottom, Adam interviewed the commissioner of the WAC, who was probably around since the Aggie Men’s team was about to clinch the conference.  He talked about growing the conference and increasing its status as you’d expect.  On field, the wind had picked up, which made me rather miserable in the increasing cold, but allowed Nick Gonzales a leadoff homer.  It flew to right and just kept carrying on the wind.  There was, I think, a scout, who I heard ask another fan if that was wind-aided.  I think it was, but the scout thought it would have gone out anyway.  The inning ended on a double play.  2-0 Aggies.

In the fifth, the ump was still having issues with the Yale fans and now the coach over the count.  Regardless, a single, a stolen base, and a double got the Bulldogs on the board.  2-1 Aggies.  Ron returned out-of-breath, but he’d gotten a couple of foul balls.  I don’t know why he’s doing this.  He’s got a huge number of balls by now.  He had to leave shortly thereafter and didn’t come back before the end of the game.  This would have serious consequences later.

The Aggies would have their big inning in the bottom.  Joey Ortiz doubled off the centerfield wall and cleared the loaded bases.  Nick came up after and homered to drive him in.  Carranza then hit a two-run homer of his own.  Both homers went out to center and were probably also wind-aided.  (Hey, the wind was blowing out for the Bulldog’s at bats too.)  That was a seven-run inning and a 9-1 Aggie lead.

Eric Mingus made a great spinning catch deep in the hole at third to get the second batter of the sixth inning.  Thanks to that, Dehn blew through another inning.  In the bottom, a hit batter and a walk were driven in on a double by Nick.  Bulldog Tim DeGraw made a good diving attempt on the ball, but it popped out.  11-1 Aggies. 

Dehn finally ran out of gas in the seventh.  He gave way to Chris Barraza, but between the two of them, six runs came in.  Three walks in the inning hurt.  Junior transfer Aldo Fernandez came in to get the last out.  11-6 Aggies.  Almost worse, Adam missed a pinch hitter, Jake Gehri, who was announced.  He usually picks up defensive changes in the outfield that I never notice, but somehow blitzed on this one.  He even missed him again when he came up later.  The Aggies went down in the bottom on another double play and a good dive stop at first by Benny Wanger.       

Fernandez got a double play behind him for a quick eighth.  In the bottom, I noticed the guys in the dugout were bopping to Mingus’ walkup beat.  They love it.  I saw an older man in the crowd doing same earlier.  Maybe we’ll all be doing it before the end of the season.  Joey drove in two runs with a double, and Ehnes sac’d in another run to make it 14-6 Aggies.  Of note, this was the first time I saw an automatic walk issued in a college game.  They’ve adopted the MLB rule. 

Fernandez closed out the ninth 1-2-3.  Aggies win 14-6!  How great is Aggie hitting that Tristen Carranza with two home runs was only their third-best hitter of the game?  Nick Gonzales went 3 for 4 with 6 RBI’s, and Joey Ortiz went 2 for 4 with 4 RBI’s.  These two are quite the duo.  Justin Dehn did a good job getting the win giving up 4 runs in 6+ innings.  I was impressed with Aldo Fernandez going nearly three innings without giving up anything.  For Yale, it’s hard not to be impressed with Simon Whiteman going 3 for 3 with three stolen bases. 

Game 2

I did not attend this game.  By the end of Game 1, the cold and wind had totally gotten to me.  I was actually filling out my scorecards in the later innings with my Isotoner gloves on.  Given my usual penmanship, it’s hard to tell how much worse my writing was.  Ron hadn’t come back.  I was hungry and feeling sick, so I left.  When I got home, I called him.  I found out he’d just missed me.  Worse, he’d brought pizza back with him for the break.  (And by the time he’d found me, I would have already bought a crummy hot dog.) 

I ate ramen at home instead.  Thrilling.  I also had a headache, which resulted in me taking a couple of things and going to bed early.  I couldn’t even write.  On the radio, I switched between the baseball and the Men’s Basketball coverage.  I came at about halftime of the basketball and stuck with it mostly when it was on.  I’ll cover that elsewhere.  Oddly, the starting temperature of Game 2 was actually higher than Game 1 and the wind died down.  The game even finished in three hours.  Unfortunately, this wouldn’t have made any difference, I was shot and had to leave.  I have no regrets on that decision. 

I was sorry that I didn’t get to see the Yale staff ace, Scott Politz.  I’d heard good things about him and he was as advertised.  He went into the eighth inning and only gave up two unearned runs in the first.  The first baseman, Benny Wanger, came on in relief.  He is actually their very good two-way closer and he did just that.      

Aggie starter, Chris Jefferson, did well until the sixth and left with the bases loaded.  Two runs came in, which gave Yale the lead.  Mitchell Allen pitched out of an inherited jam in the seventh, but Yale added another run in the eighth and won 2-4.  I think the Aggies just ran into some really good pitching in the nightcap.  Nobody goes through a baseball season undefeated.