NM State Aggies vs Texas Southern Tigers Baseball 2-15-20

Game 1

Oddly, there was no schedule poster giveaway for this first home series.  After Softball last night, Ron and I went to Jack-in-the-box.  We both had good hamburgers, but I got a bellyache that lasted into the next day.  I don’t want to blame the food.  It might have been because I was in a bad mood yesterday and that was the wrong thing to have eaten with an already irritated stomach. 

In any case, I was pretty quiet when Ron picked me up and while I was at the game.  It was another beautiful day and another great crowd to start today’s double header.  The Diamond Club area next to left field was particularly well-occupied.  I think they put up some new permanent umbrellas there.  The batting cages are behind the club.  I thought they were getting new indoor ones? 

I watched the Aggies take infield, until I realized it was actually Texas Southern.  The uniform colors are real close.  I thought the Aggies were in their alternate black tops.  This sort of confusion has happened before with Harvard (3-4-18).  Coach Kirby had an animated discussion with the umpires when they walked by the dugout.  That could have been about anything from dinner plans to complaining about the strikezone.

Four guys from the 1970 Aggie Final Four Basketball team, who were in town to be honored at tonight’s basketball game, were down in the dugout chatting with the players.  Two of the players would be throwing out first pitches.  They both warmed up for about five minutes.  That did not help their actual throws from the mound.  We did have an American flag today for the Anthem today, unlike yesterday.  Music from warmups next door at Softball stopped to let it play.  The Final Four players stood with team on field. 

“Finish him!” shouted the dugout when Aggie pitcher, Lyle Hibbitts, worked an 0-2 count on the first batter.  However, the ump was calling a tight strikezone to start.  The batter ended up getting a hit.  Catcher Jason Bush said something after the at bat to the ump.  Hibbitts hit the next batter on the helmet with an offspeed.  Austin Duffy got a grounder at third on the third batter.  He missed a tag on the passing runner and threw late to first.  The TS dugout started chanting, “Ole!”  When something like this happened yesterday to a Tigers player, he didn’t get charged an error for it. 

Bases loaded, nobody out, and we just started.  Tiger Oscar Ponce delivered a two-run single to make it 2-0 TS.  Hibbitts settled down and got the next three batters.  Between frames, beautiful Megan Hart and a couple other volleyball players came in.  I told Ron this was his chance to apologize to almost running her over yesterday.  He declined.  Oddly, the Star Wars theme played for the opposing pitcher introduction.  That’s not much of a heckle.  Jacob Morin had some trouble with the strikezone as well and walked the two All-Americans, Nick Gonzales and Tristan Peterson.  The zone might have widened afterward as he struck out the next two Aggies looking.

That first inning took a while between a small strikezone and two slow workers.  After a hit batter in the top of the second, who was brushed on the arm, Roderick Coffee did it again.  He hit another home run.  Why is this guy still batting ninth?  A foul ball nearly took out the third base coach and sent him falling to the ground.  Hibbitt hit a third batter, this one on the heel.  At least he’s distributing the damage all over.  Two hits in a row scored another run.  Finally, a caught stealing ended the inning.  Nick had to jump for the ball from Bush, but he still got the runner.  5-0 Tigers.

Bush took a bruise in the bottom of the second, but that was it for the Aggies.  Marketing intern/goddess Emerson walked by.  She was looking for kids for a contest.  I wouldn’t have wanted to be in any contest, but if she’d asked, I would have done it.  Hibbitt worked a clean top of the third.  Duffy stumbled on a catch, but threw out the last batter.  The contest was the window toss.  The Little Leaguer hit it on the third try.  (No doubt nervous because Emerson was right there.)  His teammates gave him the business when he got back. 

Two more Aggies got hit in the bottom of the third and got into scoring position via a wild pitch.  They weren’t hit hard, which was good because they didn’t score.  The PA accidently played the Super Mario sound effect for scoring with the third out.  Wishful thinking.  Hibbett got in trouble again in the top of the fourth.  He gave up a couple of hits and there was a stolen base.  Action started in the Aggie bullpen.  A runner scored on a fielder’s choice to make it 6-0. 

Okay, now I’m getting worried and my mood was getting worse.  An incredible girl with long dark hair and a white poncho dress and little shorts walked by.  Well, that’s baseball.  If the game sucks, at least the girls are pretty.  On that matter, Emerson searched both ends of the grandstand for some more contestants and found three boys together. 

After two outs to start the bottom of the fifth, I was not expecting much.  Bush legged out a surprise bunt to break up the no-hitter.  (Yeah, do that early.  Don’t wait until the eighth.)  The wind kicked up into a cool breeze.  Tristan Stacy and Zerek Saenz walked to load the bases.  Nick took a Purple Heart to drive in a run as he got hit hard.  Peterson followed suit getting hit to drive in another. 

The PA started playing the ringing phone sound effect to bring in a new pitcher with a mound visit, but Morin stayed in.  That was probably a mistake.  Duffy singled in two runs and Kevin Jimenez doubled in two more.  Suddenly we’re tied at 6, and I’m feeling a lot better about life in general.  A new pitcher came in too late and closed it out. 

Those three boys ended up spending a lot of quality time with Emerson waiting to do the “I Scream” contest after the inning, as they screamed for an ice cream gift certificate.  Hibbitt came out of the game.  He had three hit batters, but no walks, while giving up six runs over four innings.  Aldo Fernandez took over on the mound.  He started a nice double play to make it a quick inning.  The Aggie dugout was pumped.         

By the bottom of the fifth, Softball had started next door.  Their double header was supposed to start at the same time as baseball, but they moved it back a couple of hours.  I don’t understand Aggie Sports scheduling.  Noah Haupt led off and gave the Aggies a lead with a solo home run to center.  The wind was blowing out and he took advantage of it.  Bush hit a popup that dropped in over the infield.  Stacy was then drilled in the back.  Ouch. 

Zerek hit the pitcher on the ankle with a comebacker to drive in a run, but Jaiden Beck stayed in the game.  An El Paso TV sports reporter came in and set up his camera just as Nick got an RBI hit.  Hopefully, he got that on tape.  (Unfortunately, he works for a station that I haven’t been able to get here in Las Cruces for a month over the air.)  A new pitcher did come in after that and got a double play for the first outs.  Duffy tossed his bat after he thought he’d worked a walk, but got called back.  He apologized to the ump, who then rung him up on a called third strike on the next pitch.  9-6 Aggies.

To the top of the sixth, Aldo whiffed on a comebacker, but Nick made a great scoop and throw to get the runner.  During an around the horn after a strikeout, Peterson overthrew Nick into left field.  The crowd chuckled.  Nick made another good play to end the inning.  I hope the camera guy was getting all of this. 

Emerson was nearly mobbed by the large crowd during the “What’s in your pocket” contest.  Everyone wanted the Aggie lunchbox prizes.  Kevin nearly took first to start the bottom of the sixth.  Did he walk?  Was the scoreboard was wrong?  Was he hit?  After the umpires consulted one another, KJ was sent back and filed out.  Daniel Head walked, but that was the only damage.  The Tigers came off the field and made a power circle with the bench players.

AD Mario Moccia came in and greeted the reporter.  Mario was dressed up with a tie.  The Tigers started off with a hit and a walk.  Aldo got a couple of strikeouts, one was a delayed call and another premature trip to first on a presumed walk.  However, pinch hitter Jean (pronounced “Jan”) Ortiz delivered a run on a double.  Victor Bueno followed that with a two-run single.  We were tied at 9.  The power circle worked.  I was depressed again.

Paul Kindervater came for the Tigers in the seventh.  He struck out the side, only allowing an intentional walk to Nick.  To the eighth, Aldo gave up a pair of singles, but not a run.  In the bottom, Daniel became the final batter hit by a pitch in this game.  There were 10 total with the Aggies taking seven painful passes.  The scoreboard was consistently wrong this inning with the count.  The ump kept trying to correct it.  Alex Reyes came in and worked a no-drama top of the ninth.

I’d had enough mood swings for now.  I did not want extra innings, especially since we were planning on going over to see Softball afterward.  Stacy started the bottom of the ninth well with a single.  He was balked over to second.  Two defensive replacements were sent out to the outfield.  Zerek then beat out a bunt to put two on.  Nick was intentionally walked again, after taking one pitch, to load the bases with nobody out.  The scoreboard was still off during Peterson’s at bat, but he worked a walk to force in a run to win it, 10-9 Aggies.  

Some of the crowd was a bit disappointed by the lack of fireworks to end it, but I was happy.  Let’s hand out the gameballs.  For the Tigers, the story was again hot coffee, as Roderick Coffee went 3 for 4 with 2 RBI’s on a homer.  Paul Kindervater was the hard luck loser.  He pitched well for three innings and only gave up one run, unfortunately the winning run.  For the Aggies, Alex Reyes did a great job in the ninth pitching.  There was some good clutch hitting by several hitters, but I have to give it to Tristan Peterson.  He went hitless, but forced in two runs anyway, including the winning one.  That’s how an All-American contributes even when he’s in a slump.

From here, Ron and I were off to Softball.

Game 2

The Aggies took the other end of the double header 13-2 on a run-rule.  Oh yeah, sure.  When I’m not there, they have the run-rule in play.  This game even finished before the softball game.  Given the cold, it would have been better to have stayed with the baseball, but we would have missed a good softball game.  There were no live stats for Game 2, so we had no updates on it, other than hearing some occasional cheers.  On the radio broadcast for Sunday’s game, they mentioned Noah Haupt was ejected from this game, but the reason wasn’t elaborated on.  He wouldn’t be playing the next day. 

 

2-16-20  

I was not there for this game either, but Ron was.  I was at my dad’s apartment to watch the Daytona 500 with him.  That didn’t work out well.  While the prerace was entertaining and we saw the President take a pace lap in his armored limo, the sunny blue skies there suddenly started raining.  (It also didn’t help that the race essentially started an hour late.)  We ended up mostly watching a Gulf War movie with Sean Bean.  Not to mention, dad had wanted to try a hamburger at Freddy’s.  He didn’t like it.  That place is hit-or-miss in appeal.  I liked my chili dog, but it wasn’t Wienerschnitzel, which also would have been cheaper.     

I tried listening to the ballgame on the radio with my earbuds in.  At first, there was no coverage at the scheduled time.  When I tried back later, the game was in progress.  My little mp3 player/radio ran out of juice a half hour later.  I then borrowed one of dad’s portable radios, but the batteries were so depleted, I could barely hear anything.  This was really too bad, since Adam Young and former Aggie player, Marcel Renteria, were doing a really good job calling the game. 

In spite of all the disappointments, at least I got to hear an Aggie win, 15-8.  Nick Gonzales had a typical game with nine RBI’s and three home runs, including a grand slam.  Catcher Jason Bush hit four doubles in a row.  A bunch of bench players also saw action today.  I may have also seen a future star on the Tigers.  Roderick Coffee hit two more home runs in this game, giving him four for the series. 

I talked to Ron after I came home after listening to the game.  He reported that there had been an hour time change.  (Usually, a Sunday time change means the game starts an hour early, not later.)  He got there early enough to watch both teams take batting practice.  Ron reported that they no longer hustle to take down the batting cage like last year.  There was a lack of Esprit d’ Corps in general in their pregame rituals now.

Another good crowd showed up at the rescheduled time, so they knew when to come.  Half of the Softball team came in and sat near Ron, but he was too intimidated to talk to them.  On a disturbing note, they ran out of hot dogs on Dollar Hot Dog Day.  The concessions manager had refused to put in a full order for hot dogs today.  There should be an NCAA investigation. 

So, I’m kind of sorry I didn’t go, but I couldn’t have guessed there wouldn’t be a race today based on the good weather forecast and all of the sunshine.  I would have gotten to the ballpark two hours early, but would have seen Aggie batting practice, which I’ve never seen.  I might have gotten a hot dog, or not.  (I do know better than to try their experimental chili dogs again.  I probably got the better of that deal at Freddy’s.)  I might have chatted with the softball team, but the game went nearly four hours.  It’s a toss up.