NM State Aggies vs Delaware Blue Hens Baseball 3-3-19

I felt a bit better after a good night’s sleep after a long day of watching Aggie sports yesterday.  There was a bright, warm sun out, but a truly cool breeze.  It was hard to decide on a wardrobe, but I went with a jacket.  I was with Ron for the game. 

There was another great crowd at the park.  A bunch of Little League teams were there.  Business at the concessions was buzzing.  Given the line, it was a good thing I’d eaten beforehand.  The Aggie Old Gent said “Hello,” to me when I came in.  I need to find out his name. 

The Delware Blue Hens again looked sharp.  Their uniforms were white with blue trim.  I think I saw an Adidas logo on them just to give proper credit.  I could see the Softball girls practicing next door.  I chatted briefly with radio broadcaster, Adam Young, on his way to the pressbox.  We both agreed Women’s Basketball star, Brooke Salas, was great and we’ll miss her.  The Little Leaguers went out on the field with the team for the Anthem.  The guys gave them all high-fives as they filed past them. 

I’m developing an unnecessary and unproductive crush on the marketing intern, Emerson, at these games.  She was in the stands playing with a fan’s dog in the first.  She has an affectionate side.  The Aggie dugout gave a wave to leadoff batter Logan Bottrell.  The crowd seemed to enjoy it.  Via the radio call, we learned that Nick Gonzales is leading the country in batting average, home runs, and RBI’s.  Wow.  The Aggies scored via an error on Nick’s at bat to take a 1-0 lead.

Aggie starter Chance Hroch and the Aggie defense had a rough second.  A leadoff hit was later advanced to third on a wild pitch.  Owing to the sun and wind, Tristen Carranza in left field lost a flyball.  The run would have scored anyway, but the batter advanced to second.  A slow ground ball on the infield let on another runner, which then resulted in another run.  1-2 Blue Hens.  Neither bad play was an error, but neither looked good. 

During this half inning, I got to stare death in the face.  A foul ball went straight back and arced over the net into the crowd.  Unlike the last time this happened, I saw the ball clearly as it seemed to be coming right at me.  The previous time, I caught the ball in my lap.  Thankfully this time it dropped short and hit the walkway and bounced high into the grandstand.  Adam reported that a fan by the pressbox made a great catch.  I forced my heart out of my throat.  I will die for my love of this game!   

Logan Ehnes was hit on the ankle in the bottom.  He came up limping, but stayed in the game.  When your coach is sitting the dugout after having surgery earlier in the week, you don’t have many excuses for coming out of a game.  Tristan Peterson was hit next, but the Aggies didn’t score.

The third inning went 1-2-3 for both sides.  Blue Hen pitcher Jack Dubecq was hit on a comebacker, but stayed with it to get the out.  I ran out to the bathroom in the fourth.  The line outside at the concessions was even longer than before the game.  (I’ll bet they had plenty of cheese for corn-in-a-cup today, but I’m not bitter.)  Trying to turn a double play, Nick committed the first Aggie error of the series overthrowing first.  It was a good effort though and the right decision to try and throw it. 

In the bottom of the fourth, Ehnes and Peterson got some revenge by driving in a walk and a hit batter in front of them to give the Aggies a 3-2 lead.  In the fifth, normally sure-handed Braden Williams let a third strike go through the wickets.  This let the batter on, who was cashed in immediately on a two-run homer by Kevin Mohallen.  The Delware dugout erupted.  Hroch didn’t even look back after Mohallen hit the ball.  3-4 Blue Hens. 

Joey Ortiz was the next hit batter to start the bottom of the fifth.  Nick promptly doubled him in to tie the score at 4.  Caleb Henderson struck out looking for the second time in the game.  This time he showed frustration with the ump’s calls.  Ehnes drove in Nick for a 5-4 lead.  AD Mario Moccia came on the radio to start the sixth.  Hroch had a reasonably quick top of the inning.  Mario referred to a “Margarita inning,” where a pitcher only throws a few pitches.  Joey made a good throw to get the lead runner at third on a grounder to short.

In the bottom, PA Alexia announced it was snowing and 35 degrees in Newark, Delaware, where the Blue Hens are from.  Mario continued.  He talked about the stadium and field upgrades.  “I was sure a local quarry had provided the infield,” he said, referring to the small rocks that used to litter the basepads.  They had to clean up rocks around the bases all the time.  Mario noted that right field used to be 372’, not the current 345’.  It didn’t matter.  Before the BBCorr bats, those increased distances were no issue to hitting it out. 

While it’s hard to beat a team four times in a row, I actually wasn’t too worried about the outcome.  The Aggies added three more runs in the sixth to make it 8-4.  In the seventh, with Matt Munden now pitching, Ehnes brought a home run back by knocking it off the top of the wall.  It did go for a triple, but the runner was stranded.

Also in the seventh was my personal low-point of the weekend.  Aileen Galicia and a couple of her teammates on the Soccer team came in and sat down in front of me.  If I was regretting not going to talk to her on Senior day before (10-27-18), it was only getting more acute.  This was the second time I’ve seen her since then.  I don’t know.  Maybe if we’d spoken before, these meetings would have actually been more awkward.  In any case, Aileen was hurtingly beautiful.  She’s got this Ariana Grande vibe going for her now.  She was wearing an Aggie Baseball shirt, so this probably isn’t the last time I’ll be seeing her.  Sigh. 

On to the eighth, Eric Mingus at third made a great play, running and stopping a grounder, then getting the runner with a strong throw.  In the bottom, we had some comedy as two Blue Hens collided trying to get Joey’s bunt to move Bottrell over.  The throw hit the runner and moved Botts to third.  Adam was shocked when they pitched Nick up next.  He called it.  Nick cranked his nation-leading tenth home run.  11-4 Aggies after that three-run homer.  The Blue Hens brought in a position player to pitch to finish the inning. 

Aggie Softball’s practice ended and several players came in.  They walked past the soccer players and there was no interaction between the groups.  Later, a young fan got her picture taken with the them.  Mitchell Allen, the closer who has gotten very little closing work so far this season, came in for the ninth.  He struck out Jack Goan.  Goan helicoptered his bat down the third baseline on the final strike.  Allen gave up a double and a walk, which prompted a mound visit.  Adam did confirm that the umps are now counting visits.  Ehnes helped out with a great leaping catch at the wall, and Allen finished it off.

Aggies win 11-4 and sweep the four-game series.  Nick Gonzales went 3 for 5 with 5 RBI’s and a home run.  Scouts should be looking at this kid.  Chance Hroch struggled a bit, though his problems weren’t all of his making.  He did persevere well.  Matt Munden, Aldo Fernandez, and Mitchell Allen did a good job locking it down for three innings.  Aggie pitching only issued one walk today.  Your stat of the game is ten.  That is the number of walks and hit batters given up by the Blue Hens.  Five of them scored.

Pulling out of the parking lot, Ron retrieved a BP softball lying outside the softball complex.  He mentioned he’d heard that the softball team has to run laps up the football berm for every ball they don’t recover during practice.  We tried going to the new Freddies burgers, but they were full.  Raising Canes next door was much easier to get into.  I didn’t think Freddies was that great, so I think things will even out at some point.  We did get to watch the end of the NASCAR race in Las Vegas at my apartment. 

It would have been a pretty good afternoon after a good game and a win, but I was a bit despondent after seeing Aileen.  This felt like a long weekend (especially given that it’s taken until Wednesday to write all this out).  We’ll regroup and hope I’m more enthusiastic next weekend.