Right off the bat when we got together, Ron handed me this
Aggie football helmet statue. He’d
gotten it Friday night when he exchanged some foul balls for it. Normally, they just give kids returning foul
balls a lollipop. Ron brings them
several balls and holds them hostage until they give him something good.
Entering the gate, they were handing out free dogs. I was already planning on buying a Sunday
Dollar dog. Sisbarro, a local car dealership, was sponsoring the giveaway since
it was also Big Brothers/Big Sisters
and Boy’s and Girl’s Club day and
there were a bunch of kids present today.
I went ahead and bought a Brisk Lemon Tea and a bag of chips to go with
the dog. (They were also handing out
sodas. Later in the game, Ron brought me
a grape soda.)
At the Concessions, I ran into a co-worker, Valerie. She’s a big Aggie fan and I’d been trying to
talk her into coming to see a ballgame.
She’d brought her husband and son and was looking forward to seeing the
game. On the way to the bathroom, I ran
into Coach Kirby. He was shaking hands by the gate. I didn’t recognize him at first, since he
wasn’t wearing his usual black windbreaker.
When Ron and I got to our seats, he left and went to the
Press Box. He took some more foul balls
with him and came back with the Coach Lou
Henson Confetti Globe for me. I’d
been coveting one of these ever since I’d heard of them. (I thought it was a snow globe, which it sort
of is.) I should mention these two
souvenirs are giveaways for season ticket holders for Men’s Basketball and Football.
I’m on a roll now and the game hasn’t even started.
The Anthem, even with plenty of warning, caught Dixie State completely off guard. They did all stand at attention wherever they were on field at the time. The kids all ran out on the field with players as they took their positions. It was really cute watching the guys interact with the kids. Poor Ryan Grabosch. They ran out of kids when he took the field and he was out there in left field alone. I should mention that it was another beautiful day with a light breeze. The crowd was pretty good with all the kids there.
It was another busy day with the scorecards. The official scoring was helpful, though it
did cheat AJ Garcia out of one of
his RBI’s, so I hope that gets corrected.
The Trailblazers came out on
a mission. They wanted to end this game
early. Aggie spot starter, Noah Estrella, struggled as the first
five Dixie State batters got on—three singles and two hit batters. It was so bad, even the Aggie pitch tracker
nearly got hit by a foul ball rolling off the canopy into the stands where he
was sitting.
There was already action in the Aggie bullpen and quick
conference on the mound with the pitching coach. A double play finally killed the rally, but
not before three runs scored. There was
another walk after. More disturbingly,
the runner then took second on a delayed steal, which was met with virtual
indifference by the Aggie defense.
Thankfully, a strikeout ended the inning. 3-0 Dixie State.
Three Aggies struck out in the bottom of the first. However in between that, Logan Galina came to the plate with murderous intent. He’d had a frustrating offensive day
yesterday, while his teammates had mashed.
A GCU player had also caught
up with his conference lead in home runs.
You could pretty much sense what was coming. It was a no-doubt home run to center, his
sixteenth of the season. 3-1 Dixie
State.
Sports Marketing goddess, Emerson, walked by to recruit some of the kids sitting behind me and Ron for a contest. Who could say, “No,” to her? After an opening walk to start the top of the second, Cam Blazek was brought in in relief. The wind was blowing out a bit. The next batter hit a fly ball to center. Centerfielder Tommy Tabak first ran in, then ran back, got turned around, and finally caught it in front of the batter’s eye.
After a single, Trailblazer Kaden Hollow found that Jetstream and hit a three-run homer to
center. Blazek finished the inning with
a strikeout and a fly out to left. Grabosch
was out there again after a bad day catching yesterday. He made a good running catch on the fly. 6-1 Dixie State.
In addition to some between innings activities on field,
kid announcers were also brought into the booth to announce the Aggie at
bats. They were giving them little
nicknames, too. I was a bit disturbed by
Galina’s “Meatstick” moniker. This could
be construed in a . . . actually I’m not sure how else you could interpret
that. It sounded even worse with a kid
doing it.
Moving on. The
Trailblazers flashed some leather in the bottom of the second. Shortstop, Matthew Ivancich made a great running catch and throw across his
body to nip Cal Villareal at
first. Cal and Coach Kirby questioned
the call, but after a conference, the umps let it stand. The play was too pretty to wave off. In right field, Tyson Fisher made a diving catch to end the inning. The Aggies could play defense, too. In the 1-2-3 top of the third, Kevin Jimenez at second made a jump
throw to first, where Galina laid out with his toe on the bag to get the
out. I’ve seen that play enough times to
think that they practice it. KJ also
made a snow cone catch on a soft liner to end the inning.
By the way, Dixie State is changing their name next year
to Utah Tech. (They’re located in St. George, Utah.) It was
always a weird disconnect, but the reasoning for changing the name now is
probably worse. I chatted with one of
their fans wearing a Dixie State shirt and hat briefly. I told him he was going to have to buy all
new gear. He said they were already
selling it. He also mentioned that the
players don’t care either way.
Blazek worked a clean third. In the bottom, the Aggies had three singles,
including a run-scoring grounder by KJ that bounced up and hit the pitcher on
the back. That was still almost a double
play. There was a DP to end the
inning. 6-2 Dixie State. The I Scream contest with a couple of kids
did not go well. First, the 9-year old
boy got severe stage fright. The little
5-year old girl then got scared to death.
The PA made an effort to save it by having the crowd scream
instead. Of course, the kids still got
the ice cream coupons.
Surprisingly, there was no scoring in the fourth inning
either, but the Aggies did turn another double play. They turned another to start the top of the
fifth. Cam nonchalantly caught a
bouncing comebacker and casually threw to second to begin it. Unfortunately, the next two Trailblazer
batters found a jet stream going out to right and hit back-to-back solo home
runs. 8-2 Dixie State. Nolan
Funke and Cal Killgore started
the bottom of the inning also searching for the breeze. Both doubled with Cal driving in Funke. 8-3.
Cam led off the top of the sixth with another defensive
play that he made look easy. A
comebacker dropped out of Cam’s mitt. He
calmly picked it up and threw out the runner anyway. I noticed Grabosch wasn’t in left
anymore. Adam Young on the radio call noticed
too and thought it was Edwin
Martinez-Pagani. The guys don’t look
alike. The player out there was tossing
his mitt in the air during a delay, which I don’t think Ryan would be prone to
do. The official scoring said the player
change happened in the bottom pinch-hitting.
I’m not sure what the truth is.
The Aggies were not ready to concede this game. Tabak tripled to ignite the bottom of the
sixth. EMP came up and blasted a two-run
homer to center. Villareal followed with
a single and AJ drove him in with another two-run homer to the same spot. Dixie State changed pitchers. The PA played Let it Go and a chorus of kids sang along.
Back to play, Funke walked, but was caught stealing. Killgore singled and successfully stole
second. Dieter then singled and Dixie
State brought in another pitcher. KJ hit
a ground rule double that bounced into the trees over the fence to bring in
Killgore. Five runs later, we’re tied at
8 and have a game. I’m glad Valerie came
and got to see good game.
Okay, EMP went to play third and Funke changed positions to
left for the seventh. Everyone is sure
this happened. Lyle Hibbitts relieved Cam.
His second batter crushed a homer to center. This was the turning point of the game, but
not in the way you’d think. I haven’t
been mentioning it, but the Trailblazers were celebrating every time they
homered today and yesterday. This time,
there was no reaction from their dugout.
It was easy notice, because there wasn’t any hollering and cheering,
just quiet. I interpreted this as
exhaustion on the Trailblazers’ part.
They had this game won, but like yesterday, the Aggies kept coming back
on them.
Giving up the lead didn’t dim the Aggies’ efforts. On the next batter, Logan made a dive into
foul territory to snag a liner. To
finish the inning, KJ and Logan connected on their usual spin throw and layout
to get the runner at first. I need to
think of a clever name for this, since they do it all the time. 9-8 Dixie State.
EMP singled begin the bottom of the seventh. The Trailblazers showed some nerves, as he
was advanced to third on two bad pickoff throws, one by the pitcher and one by
the catcher. AJ was hit by a pitch,
which precipitated another pitching change.
Yesterday’s finisher, Jimmy
Borzone, came in after throwing 2+ innings the day before. He showed no signs of fatigue. He struck out Funke looking. He gave Killgore three straight breaking
balls to do the same to him and end the inning.
The Trailblazer catcher pumped his fist as the team came off the field.
It was a bit discouraging.
Valerie and her family left at this point, I think. I wouldn’t have blamed them for giving up,
given that the game was running long and the Aggies didn’t look like winners
today to this point. Even the PA came on
asked if anyone had the keys to the golf cart.
The crowd was still in good spirits and started the Wave. This is something you’re only going to do at Presley Askew Field if there are a
bunch of kids there.
Frank
Dickson came on for the eighth.
His effort started with fly outs.
I listed them as “nervous-looking” catches. One was to KJ and the other was to Funke out-of-position
in left. KJ was given an error on the
next batter on a ball that he had to charge into the infield to get at. That was questionable scoring. Frank finished off the inning with a
strikeout.
The wind was now blowing in a bit. I was running out of space on the last page
of my pad. I wasn’t going to write
anything unless something interesting happened. As it turned out, I ended up writing on the
back of the page. To start the bottom of
the eighth, Borzone gave up a pair of singles.
Dieter, who’d gone first to third, came in on a sac fly by Galina and
tied the score at 9. Logan shouted at
Ron and the older guy in front of us who were always criticizing him for
swinging all out from his heels, “I do know how to hit situationally!”
Borzone was lifted.
The Dixie State coach probably shouldn’t have tried to run him out for
another inning. The change didn’t help. Tabak singled and EMP drove in a run on a
fielder’s choice to give the Aggies a 10-9 lead. Villareal was pitched around with an
intentional walk. The nerves that the
Trailblazers had had last inning came to fruition this inning. AJ hit an easy grounder to short, but the ball
was thrown away as the throw went to second.
That would have been the third out, instead Tabak trotted home. AJ stole second ahead of Funke singling him
and Villareal in. There probably should
have been another error charged on that play that allowed AJ to score. Funke was thrown out on a probably too-greedy
steal attempt to end the inning. The
dust settled and the Aggies were now up 13-9.
Frank was back out for the ninth. He gave up a single, but struck out the last
batter to end the game. 13-9 Aggies Win! How about that! They were down by six and won by four. The kids went down to the front of the
grandstand and started chanting, “Aggies!”
We’ll toss out those Gameballs. Tyson
Fisher for the Trailblazers went 4 for 5 with 3 RBI’s and 2 home runs. Edwin
Martinez-Pagani was a late sub, but went 2 for 3 with 3 RBI’s and a two-run
homer. (I feel for Ryan Grabosch. This guy has
the most MLB-like physique in the lineup, but I’m worried the position changes
have wrecked his fielding and hitting confidence. He’s going to need some mental
rehabilitation.) Finally, Frank Dickson gets a nod for tossing 2
scoreless innings. The bullpen needed
someone to step up this weekend. (Adam
praised Cam Blazek’s efforts. Cam ate up innings in emergency relief, but
he did give up 4 runs in 5 innings.)
Autographs
I can scarcely believe I’m writing that word about an
Aggie Baseball game. They have teased
autographs only a couple of times in the years I’ve gone to the park, but never
delivered. The PA said there’d be
postgame autographs, but I didn’t believe it until I saw the tables being set
up on the field after the game. I guess
they didn’t want to disappoint the kids, who all ran down to the field.
After three hours and 11 minutes of game time, Ron had no
desire to stand on hot turf for 20 minutes like I did. (I have a new appreciation for the players on
the field.) He went out to his car. As usual for an Aggie autograph session, I
was the only adult standing in line with a bunch of kids. Somehow doing this in front of the Baseball
team made it way worse, and I nearly bolted twice. I don’t collect autographs, but I wanted to
show them some support. I only got to
talk to a couple of players and missed a couple I wanted to talk to. (And didn’t get Logan Galina’s autograph.)
The kids were getting shirts and hats signed, along with balls. I didn’t even think to ask Ron for a
ball. (He’s still got some more.)
Afterward, Ron and I went to Raising Canes, mostly because they were advertised during the whole radio call. While there, I recognized Kevin Jimenez walking by. He was one of the ones I wanted to talk to. We held him up for second and praised his play on field. He was polite and grateful for it. Afterward, Ron and I took a couple of Sonic Blasts back to my apartment. Ron was still gritting through losing his dad and minor issues with his family, but I think the afternoon took his mind off it at times. Even beyond the win, the autographs, and the giveaways, I was just glad I went to the game with him.
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