NM State Aggies vs UTRGV Vaqueros Baseball 4-16-22

This series was an odd match up.  These games were between conference opponents, but didn’t count as conference games.  Both teams had an open weekend and decided to play each other.  I regret not listening to Friday night’s game against the Vaqueros on the radio.  The Aggies won 11-8 in an exciting back-and-forth fashion.  Today’s game (Saturday) was not of that caliber.  At least it was pleasant.  It was overcast, but warm with a cool breeze.  Ron was there Friday and said I also missed an unlicensed beef jerky vendor in the stands that might have come from an outdoor concert going on next door, who was subsequently ejected.  I was warned that UTRGV brought a bunch of fans with them.  They have a couple of El Paso players on the team. 

 

Indeed, their fans were tailgating outside a strangely quiet Presley Askew Field.   One family even had sharp-looking jerseys with their last name on the back.  Ron and I wondered if the game was still on, but actually the pregame warm up music was mutated because there was a dedication ceremony going on for the new batting facility.  Ron wasn’t interesting in going to that.  Instead, we went inside the grandstand and met with fan, Michael, who wasn’t interested in the ceremony either.  This may have been a mistake.  They might have been handing out some free ice cream at the dedication. 

 

The conversation, at least, was interesting as usual.  I found out that the Aggie dugout ballkid was actually the son of a donor.  Once again, I saw the kid impressively taking infield with the team.  Coach Kirby chatted with him a bit afterward.  Michael also told a little story about the zealous enforcement of parking permits at the university.  When the coach had first arrived at the stadium, he was nearly ticketed for not having a permit.  Michael, on the grounds crew, recognized him and vouched for him.

 

Gunner Antillon had had big night Friday, going 4 for 4 with 4 RBI’s.  Unfortunately, he was hurt and not in the lineup.  Catcher Ryan Grabosch was in left field today.  Okay.  Ace second baseman, Kevin Jimenez, was DH’ing.  A freshman, Jacob Wiltshire, was taking his place on the field.  If KJ had been there, I think he would have made a couple more plays.  Later in the game, a fan asked me about a couple of pitchers, who were in the stands with a radar gun and a notebook.  Looking at their player numbers, I told him that Sammy Natera and Ian Meija were both injured.  Ian is the team’s Sunday starter.  In other words, the Aggie lineup is messed up.   

In spite of the number of runs, these scorecards added up pretty quickly, if hurtfully, because of the results.  Pablo Cortes started for the Aggies.  He got two outs before yielding a hit.  Unfortunately the pivotal play of the game happened right after.  The next batter struck out, but the ball went to the backstop, so he made it to first and an additional error was charged that advanced the runner on first to third.  Four unearned runs followed—three of them on a home run.  4-0 Vaqueros.

 

During the first inning some interesting people came in.  I recognized Assistant Coach Hertel from the Volleyball team sitting behind us.  I turned around and said, “Hello,” to him and asked if he brought some players with him.  Yeah, they were right behind us, too.  I didn’t recognize them.  I talked to one of them later and found out they were new freshmen players.  I mentioned a freshman player that wasn’t there, Mia.  A co-worker had met her at the gym last month and was infatuated with her.  Coach Hertel wasn’t surprised.

 

Later, former volleyball star, Tatyana Battle, joined them.  She’d been hired by the team after working for the Miners two years ago.  Funny, I’d mentioned her to Ron when we came into the stadium.  I greeted her and said, “Welcome back.”  She left before I was able to catch her to ask for a briefing on Conference-USA.  Taty went over to talk to this one Aggie fan lady that’s at all the games.  They were chatting with each other for most of the rest of the game.  Also coming in was new Men’s Basketball coach, Greg Heiar.  He walked by with five obvious basketball players that I didn’t recognize.  The radio call said that they were new recruits being given a tour.

 

In the top of the second, a walk to start the inning was followed by a bloop double over first base.  The Vaqueros scored two more runs on ground outs.  6-0 UTRGV.  The Aggies came back in the bottom with a first pitch ambush homer by Logan Galina.  Two more hits and a walk drove in another run.  6-2 UTRGV.

 

Adam Young on the radio call talked to Mike Johnson in the third inning.  Mr. Johnson and his wife had financed the new batting facility and some other stadium improvements.  They’d been very unimpressed with the ballpark when they’d first seen it and wanted to help.  The improvements that have been made over last few years have been with the goal of taking Presley Askew Field up to NCAA regional tournament standards to host games.  Mr. Johnson was pretty sharp about baseball, too.  He was successfully predicting upcoming pitches.

 

On field, Cortes worked a 1-2-3 inning in the third.  In the bottom, Nolan Funke doubled and Preston Godfrey singled him in to make it 6-3 Vaqueros.  Also on the radio, Adam mentioned that former Aggie, LJ Hatch, was currently starting with the Albuquerque Isotopes.  I’d heard him come into a game against the Chihuahuas last season.  There was a competition going on in the stands.  The ballhawk kid, who has been a fixture at games over the years, had a little brother with him today.  They were rushing out of the grandstand trying to get foul balls from each other.

 

In the fourth, Cortes gave up three hits and two runs before being taken out.  Two more runs came in after before the inning finally ended.  Worse, on two balls to left field, Grabosch was out-of-position to make a play.  The Vaqueros were now up 10-3.

 

In the bottom, the highlight was the Easter Bunny showing up to hand out eggs to the kids.  Yay!  Oh, I’m not a kid.  Boo!  At least the kids were happy.  EB was all about customer service and even took care of a couple kids that were late coming over.  A little boy also wanted a hug and got it.  Ahh.  Hey, when EB showed up, Emerson the Sports Marketing goddess, disappeared.  Hmmm.  (Actually, I’m not sure.  Otherwise, I would have gone over and asked for a hug.)

 

In the top of the fifth, the Vaqueros tacked on another run.  I was miffed that Brandon Dieter at short was given an error on a ball he had to slide for.  (The scorer called the throw an error.  It’s the classic unfairness of handing out errors based on parsing out the play.)  11-3 UTRGV.  AD Mario Moccia was a guest on the radio.  He said the basketball prospects had toured the baseball clubhouse and were impressed.  Baseball opponents were also reported to be impressed by the Aggies’ new batting facility.  He mentioned that the Diamond Club was full today and that they were serving free hot dogs, ice cream, and beer.  Ron and I definitely got into the club on the wrong day.    

 

In the bottom of the fifth, the Aggies mounted a comeback off a UTRGV reliever.  They scored three runs off of four hits.  Godfrey tripled in the inning, which will come up as important later.  11-6 UTRGV.  In the sixth, the Vaqueros led off with a home run.  Logan made a nice sliding catch on the infield to end the inning.  12-6 UTRGV.  In the bottom, there was a ricochet of a foul ball into the stands.  A kid made a nice diving play on it.  More importantly on the field, Godfrey doubled in a run to make it 12-7.

 

I noticed an Aggie player juggling in the dugout.  Since I know how to juggle, I like watching other people do it.  Godfrey made a great defensive play in the seventh.  From right field, he gunned down a runner trying to stretch out a single to a double.  The Aggies went down in order in the bottom.  Vaquero Diego Ramirez made a great shoe top diving catch on a liner in the inning.  Edwin Martinez-Pagani finally made it back into the Aggie line up as pinch hitter.

 

The Vaqueros scored another run in the eighth.  Grabosch tripped on a fly ball to left that dropped in for the run-scoring single.  Funke made a great running effort on a foul ball by the Aggie dugout.  He went down on his back and stayed down a few seconds.  I take credit for leading some applause for his attempt after he got back up.  EMP, now playing second, started an inning-ending double play.  Logan laid flat out and kept his toe on the bag on the throw to him for the final out.  13-7 UTRGV.

 

For the top of the ninth, Hayden Johns came in for the Aggies.  His family was shouting for him and girls were screaming.  He is tall with flowing, long blonde hair.  He worked a quick inning.  In the bottom, the volleyball girls behind us were gossiping.  Mia’s name came up.  I didn’t hear what they said (or won’t disclose it).  In the bottom of the ninth, EMP singled.  Later, KJ had an epic at bat that went eight pitches and ended with him driving Edwin in.  Grabosch, 0 for 5 today, was lifted for a pinch hitter.  (I’m not picking on Ryan—I’m pointing out that he shouldn’t have been playing out of position for the game and it seemed to affect his hitting, too.)  The Vaqueros win 13-8.

 

While there were some good plays today, at over three hours and 20 minutes, this defeat was too long to be enjoyed.  The outcome didn’t seem much in doubt after the first inning, but the Aggies put up a fight.  The Vaqueros get two gameballs.  Raul Ortega went 4 for 5 with three RBI’s.  This was bettered by Brett Cain, who went 5 for 5 (!) with 4 RBI’s.  Oddly, those were all singles.  For the Aggies, Nolan Funke went 3 for 5 and Preston Godfrey went 3 for 4 with 2 RBI’s.  He finished a home run short of hitting for the cycle.

 

The volleyball girls left.  One of them looked really tall and impressively built, not to mention pretty with a nice booty.  I think we’ll be seeing her play in the fall, even as a freshman.  Ron and I had had Jimmie Johns subs for lunch before the game.  Those were great.  Afterward, we went by Caliches.  I used an Aggie coupon and a gift card I’d forgotten and only spent less than $2 for two sundaes.  I’ll take credit for these good food calls.  Meanwhile, I’d been obsessively complaining about my milk going bad way before its expiration date.  I’d asked if we could go by a supermarket, but Ron was nice enough to just give me an extra gallon of milk he had.  That was so nice.  It took some of the sting out of the loss.