NM State Aggies vs Oregon State Beavers Softball 2-13-22

 

We lost to a team named the “Beavers?”  Really?  Yeah, okay.  It’s Oregon State.  They could purchase our entire athletic program and use it as a training camp, but still, it’s kind of humiliating.  It was a capper for a terrible weekend for Aggie Sports.  Softball opened their season with three-straight run rule losses.  (Oh, spoilers?  Oops.)  Women’s Basketball, after winning a three-overtime game on Thursday, lost by like 30 on Saturday.  (Ron had been at that OT game.  It was interrupted late by a fire alarm and he’d been forced to leave.  He didn’t get to see the ending.)  Men’s Basketball also lost a close one on the road.

 

It’s been even worse than that lately.  I’d meant to go to the Men’s Basketball “Pack the Pan Am” event.  Of course, my plan involved getting free tickets from work, which did not materialize.  Well, over 12,000 other fans did show up and cheered the Aggies to victory.  Unfortunately, the university deemed that they cheered too much with their masks down.  Thus they decreed that the concessions would be closed for the rest of the season and that there would be strict mask enforcement.  They weren’t kidding.  The police cited several people and even arrested a woman at the next game.  I’d actually meant to go to the next Saturday game, since I’d sort of prematurely invited Ron to the Pack game, but forget that for the rest of the season.  I hope this mask mandate ends before Volleyball season starts this fall.

 

Anyway, no mask mandates for outdoor sports at least.  I was still pensive about going because I thought it was going to be colder than what it was.  It turned out to be a gorgeous today and pleasantly warm.  I ended up overdressed, dehydrated, and got slightly sunburned by the end.  I also didn’t want to write about going to a game, but that’s just being lazy. 

 

Ron and I arrived to find a game in progress.  It was NMSU’s two guests playing each other, Texas State and Oregon State.  It was hard to miss the Beavers in their bright orange uniforms.  The Aggies had lost to the Bobcats twice since Friday and did not look good doing so judging by the scores.  The game ended just before we went in with Oregon State winning 6-1. 

 

Inside, the Aggies were out warming up in their road grays (but were still the home team).  They looked as happy and upbeat as ever.  The Beavers were also likewise in good spirits.  I could see the baseball team scrimmaging next door over the wall.  I noticed on that wall that Aggie Softball had won another WAC regular season championship last year.  I didn’t remember that happening.  I went back and looked at last year’s blogs and sure enough, I hadn’t written anything about their post season and little about the regular season.  I was apparently seriously disenchanted with the program last year. 

 

There was a pretty good crowd for the game, even though the Superbowl was later in the afternoon.  (The Oregon State fans there had some sharp gear on.)  This game was going to finish well before the football started.  (The son of a co-worker was working at the game with the Aggie Vision telecast.  He was reportedly irritated about having to work that afternoon.)  At least there were concessions here, so I got some popcorn I’d been wanting for awhile.  It was just $2.  The vendor mentioned $1 hot dogs.  I’d just eaten breakfast and was planning on pizza for dinner, but I was sorely tempted.   

 

These scorecards added up on the first try.  I haven’t missed a beat since last season.  (Actually, this was a complete fluke.)  To start the game, the Beavers were loud in their dugout.  They started playing well with a couple of singles and a stolen base.  Credit Aggie centerfielder, Yazzy Avila, with crushing the rally by throwing out a runner at home.  She had some fans in the crowd cheering for her.  She also caught the final out on a deep drive to center that sort of died on the warning track.  There was no breeze going.    

 

The Aggie lineup featured several new girls, including Yazzy.  Their singing from the dugout may have been the most enthusiastic I’ve ever heard from an Aggie team.  Yaz did work a walk, but that was all.  The inning ended on a great play on a liner by Beaver shortstop, Kiki Escobar.  Lici Campbell started the scoring for the Beavers in the second with a home run.  It was a line drive shot to right field.  1-0 Oregon State.  There was t-shirt toss between innings.  I was amused by the somewhat indifferent intern guy tossing the shirts. 

 

Paige Knight led off the second for the Aggies by beating out an infield hit.  She tried to steal second during a strikeout, but the throw beat her.  Paige danced around the base, but wasn’t tagged.  She was improbably initially ruled safe, but an ump conference ruled her out.  (That would have been so great otherwise.)  This is why you do scorecards in pencil.

 

The home plate ump chatted up the water girl between innings and made her laugh.  The Aggie Men’s Tennis team and their coach came in to root on the girls.  Three doubles and a single drove in three runs for the Beavers in the third.  Two of those hits snuck right down the third base line.  A pitching change in the inning of Jordan King for Felicia De La Torre didn’t help.  4-0 Beavers.  There were strong alternating smells in the stands of vinegar and cologne where we were.  The vinegar was terrible, but the cologne was the good stuff.  The Aggie girls were still in high spirits.  Hannah Lindsay led off the bottom and got on via an error and was given second on the overthrow.  Savannah Bejarano came in to pinch run.  Unfortunately, she was left stranded at third.

 

The error was contagious as Maya Martinez (pictured at the top in the ad) let on the first Beaver batter of the fourth.  The next batter got on via a fielding indecision.  Then there was a walk.  This was not shaping up well.  A Beaver batter did almost take out her coach on a hard foul grounder.  The coach went, “Woo woo!” and tap danced around it.  The player turned around and snickered to the dugout.  A bases loaded hit drove in a run with still no outs.  Coach Rodolph called a team meeting at second base.  The Beaver runner there had to leave during the chat.  After the break, the next pitch was a grand slam home run by Frankie Hammoude.  Not a good meeting.  Thankfully, the inning ended before they batted around and wrecked my scorecard.  9-0 Beavers.

 

I have to admit, I was continually distracted during the game.  There were two beautiful young women sitting below us.  They were constantly playing with their long dark hair the whole time.  I’m guessing they were sisters sitting there with their dad.  Hopefully, I won’t see them again, because I don’t need that much of a distraction at a game.  Women are nothing but trouble.  In the bottom of the fourth, the Aggies again got on a runner.  Xophia Venegas came as a pinch runner for Ramsay Lopez and gets a creative spelling award for her name.  Ramsay’s single, unfortunately, was in-between three strikeouts.

 

The Aggies brought out a new pitcher for the fifth, Laurli Patane.  Kiki Escobar beat out a single in the fifth for the Beavers.  It looked like Paige’s throw from short beat her to the bag, so “Booo!” to the umps.  Frankie Hammoude came up again with two on and hit her third homer of the day.  (She’d hit one in the earlier game.)  12-0 Beavers.

 

The coach began some wholesale pinch hitting in the bottom of the fifth.  The Aggie dugout was still singing and cheered on Hannah getting a hit.  Jaelah Burrell came in to pinch run.  (Another creative speller.)   She’s a good looking athletic specimen with great hair.  Pinch hitter Madison Muxen played, I think, a BTS song as her walk up music.  It was brave choice given the mostly hard rap selections of her teammates.  Yazz’s had rapper going on about, “Junk in the trunk.” 

 

Anyway, the game ended.  The Beavers won 12-0.  Frankie Hammoude gets an obvious gameball with two home runs and seven RBI’s.  Beaver pitcher, Sarah Haendiges, only gave up four hits over five innings.  As for the Aggies, err . . . they showed lots of spirit.  I’m not sure I’ll be going to too many softball games this season, but I’m sure I’ll be handing out some gameballs to them in other games.   

 

The Aggie girls came out to the circle, did the Aggie cheer, and then yelled, “Thank you!” to the crowd.  They seemed undiminished in spite of the weekend results.  The Beavers clustered around their dugout.  Somehow, something valuable had gotten tossed on to the roof their dugout and they were trying to get it with a bat.  That was successful.  The team then took a picture with a cute little girl, who probably came with their fans. 

 

Maybe I should be more worked up about this loss, but I was glad the game didn’t continue on because my back was hurting from sitting in the stands.  Ron was in the same boat.  I’m not sure I was expecting a win anyway.  I didn’t really want to come, but I was glad I did.  It was really nice out and good to get some sun. 

 

I was also looking forward to getting some pizza for the Superbowl, not the game itself, because I had no rooting interest.  We got a large at nearby King Zahs.  While there only a couple of people there, it took a half hour to get the pizza, but what a pizza!  The large box was embarrassingly enormous and the pizza was great, which we took over and ate at my dad’s apartment while waiting for the game to start.  Overall, not a bad day.  The softball wasn’t great, but at least it was easy to recap.