Wednesday, March 2, 2022

NM State Aggies vs Oakland U Golden Grizzlies Baseball 2-27-22


After yesterday’s successful outing, let’s watch two.  It was a brilliant sunny day out.  Sundays do feature $1 hot dogs at the park, but owing to the 1:00pm start, I went ahead and ate before I left for the game with Ron.  He’d also sort of scared me off when he told me yesterday that there were lines into the grandstand all game long for those hot dogs last Sunday.  (Boy, did I regret not eating a couple of dogs at the game instead of what we got for dinner.  I’m still kicking myself.)

 

There were lots of kids out at the park for another Little League day.  We took seats in front of the Las Cruces Dodgers.  The scouts weren’t present today, but the kids took their places in the center grandstand.  Attendance turned out to be over 950, probably the best of the season so far.  One of the kids was wearing a Washington REDSKINS hat.  Cancel him immediately!  Now, of course, they’re the Washington Commies.  How appropriate.  Out on field, the Aggies were wearing their white hats again.  Oakland (Michigan) looked sharp in their camo hats and cream colored uniforms.           

 

I saw a heartwarming scene at the foot of the grandstand.  A masked pair of father and son stopped behind home plate.  The son took off his mask and dad took his picture with the field behind him.  Then the son put his mask back on and they found their seats.  Remember this little scene for later in the game. There were maybe 50 people in the crowd masked, including what looked like a Japanese couple.

 

Ron noticed that the Oakland Coach had stopped warm up early.  He was angry with his guys dropping balls and not taking it seriously.  Boy, did that turn out to be foreshadowing.  Sports Marketing goddess, Emerson, led the troop of the Little Leaguers on to the field for the Anthem.  One of the kids tossed out the first pitch.  He went into a full wind up for it.  He ran off before the catcher could give him the ball. 

 

During the Aggie player introductions (which are seriously screwing up me writing down the Aggies’ lineup pregame), Gunner Antillon went to third and chatted with the umpire there.  Catcher Ryan Grabosch went to the plate and shook hands with the ump.  Our starter, Ian Meija, took the mound wearing a turquoise-colored glove.  Bold fashion choice.  There was a multitude of crowd chatter to start the game.  It was a happy ballpark.    



I can’t believe these added up, but I’ll take it.  Meija started the game with a walk.  The next batter hit a high chopper to Gunner.  He made a good effort, but Brad Goulet beat out an infield hit to put two on.  Michael Stygles faked a bunt and instead executed a hit-and-run and drove in a run.  On the next batter, there was something of a delayed double steal.  Stygles was thrown out, but Goulet scored.  The Oakland fans gave the team a big round of applause.

 

Ian got a ground out, but gave up another hit.  Grabosch framed a pitch and held it, but didn’t get the call.  Ian came back with a strikeout and Grabosch rolled the ball to the mound.  The ump, however, didn’t rule the batter out.  Suddenly, I was having a flashback to the end of the game last Saturday.  Ian did too, and quickly picked up the ball and threw out the runner at first.  0-2 Grizzlies. 

 

Jacob Wosinski started for the Grizzlies.  The kids picked up a chant for leadoff batter, Brandon Dieter, but Wosinski struck him and the next two Aggie batters out.  If you were rooting for Oakland, I hope you enjoyed the first inning, because the rest of this game will not be pleasant for you.  Meanwhile, there were a couple of tremendous blondes in the crowd.  One was majestic with long, wavy hair and was built to heroic, curvy proportions.  Ron saw her and was in love.  There was also another blonde with shoulder length lightly permed hair and an incredibly sweet, cute face.  This all made up for yesterday, which was a bit of a girl-watching drought.

 

The leadoff hitter for the top of the second collected an infield hit that went off of Meija’s turquoise glove.  The Grizzlies’ aggressive baserunning suddenly came to an end, as a missed hit-and-run resulted in a caught stealing and inning finished quietly.  Meija was now on track.

 

Logan Galina got on to start the bottom of the second.  Jared Miller at third had a tough chance on a slow grounder and threw the ball away.  The first baseman immediately threw up his hands to signal that the ball went out of play.  They did not want another four-base error like yesterday.  (Error count: 1.)  Logan was awarded a hit and advanced to second on the throw.  Cal Villareal drove him in with a single.

 

Shortstop Goulet then made a bad throw on a Grabosch grounder, which drew Cam Post off first and into the baseline where Grabosch ran through him.  Post dropped the ball and his hand was injured.  (Error count: 2.)  The trainers looked at him, but he stayed in and got a round of applause.  Before play resumed, Grabosch patted him on the shoulder.  Tommy Tabak came up and just missed a home run to center, but settled for a two-run triple. 

 

Edwin Martinez-Pagani had an epic at bat next fouling off pitches.  The guys behind us were making jokes about each other’s trucks getting hit outside.  The new foul ball sponsorship quickly got annoying here.  Pags finally worked a walk.  The Grizzlies turned a double play on the next batter.  Post again appeared to pay the price.  He had to lay out on a bad throw and it looked like he got walked on, but he held the bag.  3-2 Aggies.

 

Ian worked a quick third inning.  Goulet did get a strike called when Meija went ahead and pitched when Goulet wasn’t granted time by the ump.  Goulet had words for the ump after he grounded out and received a warning.  Emerson came out for a towel toss into the crowd and the kids went crazy.  I think she enjoyed the enthusiasm.  I went crazy too, but just for seeing her.  (Just kidding.) 

 

Gunner got a leadoff hit to start the bottom of the third.  As catcher, Brandon Heidal, backed up the play, he took the opportunity to chat with the coach in the dugout on the way back to home.  Logan came up and the home plate ump made an appeal to the third base ump on a check swing, except that ump was working at second.  How embarrassing.  Logan struckout on a hit-and-run.  Gunner took second anyway and then took third on a bad throw to second.  (Error count: 3.)  The Aggies weren’t able to bring him home.

 

One of the coaches behind us was giving a steady stream of instruction to his kids using the game play in front of them as examples.  (Hopefully, he was also telling them to not do some of the things out on the field.)  Meija worked another quick inning in the fourth.  Yet another Oakland batter was not granted time in an at bat.  The umps were trying to move the game along.

 

A happy, smiling Emerson came out for a t-shirt toss and the kids became a pack of howling jackals.  Wosinski had a 1-2-3 inning, though Grabosch got on via Goulet booting a grounder.  (Error count: 4.)  Not to mention, Grabosch got time from the ump when he asked during the at bat.  (Wosinski did try to quick pitch.)  On the next batter, Seth Tucker in center made a great running catch of a sure double and managed to double off Grabaosch to end the inning. 

 

Volleyball coach, Mike Jordan, came in.  Ron had seen him out a couple of weeks ago at Softball.  The coach chatted with a few fans on the way to his seat.  How to put this delicately—I’ve never seen the coach look bigger.  He’s ballooning.  Ron didn’t seem alarmed.  I’m worried.  It’s not like the guy has a low-stress job. 

 

Ian gave up a double in the fifth, but no other damage.  Bizarrely, an automatic ball was called before the inning.  The umps did conference before it was called.  Ron and I had caught radio broadcaster, Adam Young, before the game to ask about yesterday’s automatic strike call.  Though he wasn’t there, we thought he might know the rule.  He didn’t and was confused when it happened here.  It was good we had made him aware of it beforehand, which he mentioned.  This must be a new rule.  

 

The Oakland coach had to be counting his lucky stars.  After four errors, they were only losing by one run.  Then the bottom of the fifth started off with another error by Goulet.  (Error count: 5.)  It was a hard luck error as the ball took a bounce in front of him and ate him up.  Dieter then singled.  Pags hustled to third on the hit and was lucky he was safe.  Gunner drove them with a double.  Wosinski got one more out before being replaced by Brandon Decker.  He knocked down a comebacker on his first batter and got the out.  He finished the inning.  5-2 Aggies.

 

To the top of the sixth, the kids were singing along with a PA song I sort of eventually recognized.  (Believer?)  Meija gave up a single to the second batter, but KJ caught a liner on the next and doubled off the runner.  AD Mario Moccia came in in the bottom.  He still looked profoundly unhappy, probably about the Men’s Basketball team.  The Aggies went down in order in the inning.  Grabosch was hit by a pitch, but also appeared to swing.  The appeal to first, said no swing, but after a conference, Grabosch had to go back to the plate.  I don’t think that was the right call.  (If you’re hit but swing on the pitch, it’s a strike, but there was no swing.)

 

On the radio, Adam called out the Oakland coach for eating a big bag of Sweet Tarts during the game.  I looked.  He was.  There’s some in depth game analysis for you.  I’m not just looking at girls and reading my scorecards here.  (I could see eating a bag of Skittles, but Sweet Tarts?)

 

Ian gave up two hits to start the top of the seventh.  He then helped himself out by catching a liner back to him and doubling off a runner.  In the bottom, the wheels really came off for Oakland.  There were two more errors (Error count: 7), a walk, and another two-run triple.  That was pinch hitter Preston Godfrey hitting one down the first base line.  Pags stole third in the inning (he must be living right) and scored on an error.  There was a pitching change, which was proceeded by the kids singing, “We want a pitcher, not a belly itcher!”  That got a laugh out of the crowd.

 

Emerson came out one more time for the Pocket Contest.  The crowd and the kids all stood up—posed to rush her with the items.  The PA asked for a pen, an earring, and . . . a mask.  The crowd spontaneously immediately booed.  It was a beautiful moment.  Emerson was laughing as the crowd was going nuts.  Ian came back out for the eighth.  He had a pretty low pitch count and worked a final quick inning.

 

Then there was the catastrophe of the bottom of the eighth for the Grizzlies.  The good news: there were no errors.  The bad: 6 runs, 4 hits, 2 hit batters, 2 walks, and a balk bringing in a run.  A soft-tossing lefty that didn’t have a good feel for the strikezone, Chase Keeney, came in in relief and did not help.  Eventually, I was calling out the Oakland coach to put down the Sweet Tarts and put in a new pitcher.  The big blow was a three-run homer by KJ.  There’d been a weird shift on him where the shortstop played in short right (the lagoon) and it had worked up to that point.  14-2 Aggies.

 

Much of the crowd got chased off (no pun intended) after the homer.  I went to the bathroom between innings to avoid the line after the game.  I came back to a multitude of changes in the defense and pinch hitting in the ninth.  I was scrambling to keep up on the scorecard.  Adam was mentioning something about a player’s former team was the Tarp Skunks?  Yesterday, there was an out-of-town score involving the Long Beach State Dirtbags?  Where are these names coming from?  Redskins and Indians are now available names.   

 

Anyway, the Aggies won 14-2.  Ian Meija gets an obvious gameball for going 8 innings with 5 strikeouts, 1 walk, and 2 runs.  Great performance.  Gameballs also for Gunner Antillon, who went 3 for 5 with 3 RBI’s, and for Kevin Jimenez for his three-run homer.  The Grizzlies had a bad day.  I feel that Jacob Woskinski was a bit a hard luck loser.  He gave up 5 runs and 6 hits, but had 7 strikeouts and I only had 1 of those runs being earned.  The official scoring was 3.  I don’t doubt the official scorer knows the rulebook, but my reading was that any runner advanced by an error is unearned.

 

Then I made my own error.  We weren’t sure where to go to dinner and were going to go see my dad to watch the end of the Fontana NASCAR race.  I picked Subway, only because it was close and I thought it’d be quick.  Also, PQ Treats is right there for dessert.  It wasn’t quick and, though I saw someone getting served at PQ Treats when we came in, it wasn’t open when we went to order.  Ron’s sandwich was okay.  Mine was a meatball and most of the flavor in it came from the lettuce.  (And I would have gotten a foot-long if I’d known there wasn’t going to be ice cream afterward.)            

 

As for the race, Fontana needs a severe repaving.  The bumpy in-car views looked like they were driving on a gravel county road.  (Weren’t they supposed to redesign this into a short track this year?)  Kyle Larson won the race and took out teammate, Chase Elliot, in doing so.  I’m sure this will be forgiven and forgotten quickly by them and the fans.

 

It looked like a good race, but I think I made the right call going to the ball game.  It was good day, but not a tasty one.  I’m going to have to work on my food ordering game. 


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