Tuesday, February 14, 2023

NM State Aggies vs Colorado State Rams Softball 2-10-23

Sorry for the lousy picture quality because Gabby Aragon’s smile is tremendous in the picture.  (She’s in the center.  Felicia de la Torre, left, and Kayla Bowen, right, are lovely as well.)

 

Opening Day for Aggie Softball!  We are feeling somewhat optimistic for this season.  Last year was an anomalous losing season for the program.  They’d lost some pitchers to the transfer portal and just didn’t have the arms.  This year, Coach Rodolph recruited a bunch of new pitchers to go along with her good returning position players.   



My co-worker and former Aggie catcher, Melika Ofoia, was positively giddy.  She was watching a big time College Softball game at work the day before.  A couple of weeks ago, I cued her in on an Aggie Coaches Show where they were interviewing Coach Rodolph.  The Coach said she had one of the best catching corps ever for this season.  I was offended on Melika’s behalf.  (She laughed at my outrage.)  I had a random thought and asked if softball players would rather wear regular hats instead of visors.  Nope.  The girls want to show off their hair.  

 

I did not take Friday off to go to today’s tournament.  (I’m planning on taking off a Friday for the next tournament with better opponents.)  One of the Aggie games was scheduled to start in the early afternoon.  I decided to try and take in the game before work.  Ron was already there and watching the visiting teams playing each other, Colorado State and Bradley.  I called him before leaving and the game was running late (CSU won 3-1).  I ran late as my toilet suddenly overflowed right before I was about to leave.  It was about a half hour cleanup, but I still arrived before the Aggie game started.   

 

It was 48-degrees and sunny.  I was probably overdressed in my heavy winter coat and a sock hat, but I kept warm.  There was also radio call for the Aggie games this weekend and some others for this season, which is a nice addition.  A great crowd materialized for the Friday afternoon game (attendance 427).  As you’d think, there was just a few kids in the crowd.  Colorado State brought a good number of fans.

 

Pistol Pete and a few Cheerleaders put in an appearance at the beginning of the game.  Coach Kill and the Football coaching staff were also there along with player, Shiyazh Pete, who I met at the Downtown rally.  (I wonder if he has a girlfriend on the team.) 

 

I noticed Women’s Basketball player, Lucia Yenes, while I was coming in.  Ron was sitting up on the top row.  He might not have been able to sit where we usually sit.  I ended up walking past Lucia to get to him and said, “Hi.”  She didn’t know what to make of it and probably didn’t recognize me from when I got her autograph last week.  Ron was a bit cold, but doing okay for now.         

 



These aren’t complete scorecards.  I’m posting them, since I got most of the game.  It ran too long (3 hours) and I had to go to work (and was a little late).  I was there for the pivotal moment in the game, so I felt satisfied.  The CSU Rams came back out to play this game against the Aggies. 

 

They should have taken a picture of the adorable Jillian showing off her batting skills.

Aggie pitcher Jordan King started the game off well with a looking strikeout.  From there, it went downhill.  Normally sure-handed centerfielder, Jillian Taylor, bobbled a hit that was scored as a double.  New second baseman, Jessica Carreon, and right fielder, Riley Carley, nearly collided on a popup, which resulted in an error.  The next batter walked to load the bases.

 

The bullpen was now active and the Coach came out for a talk.  I noticed catcher Hannah Lindsay was wearing black war paint on her face.  On the next batter, a wild pitch scored the Ram’s first run.  On the next batter, there was an amusing appeal call that went around the diamond to two different umps.  Not as amusing, the batter was eventually plunked on the knee, which clearly hurt. 

 

Coach Rodolph had seen enough and put Felicia de la Torre in.  Felicia gave up a single, which scored another run.  Jill had trouble cleanly fielding the ball again.  The next batter was struck out, which got the Aggie dugout going, but the next batter scored a two-run single.  Inexplicably, Jill bobbled the ball again.  It wasn’t scored an error, but not for trying.  A groundout finally ended the inning.  (There were a few hits through the infield during the game that were caused by bad hops.)  Rams up 4-0.

 

The Aggies' dugout was in full song to start the bottom of the first.  Jordan West at third for the Rams made a great play on a liner on the first batter.  If Jillian was having some Opening day nerves, she got over them in her first at bat with a home run to deep center.  4-1 Rams.  Oh, that pretty camera girl from the Pan-Am Center was working here.  Here I am cheating on Emerson again.  (Don't take any of this too seriously.  I'm just mentioning the attractive features at the ballpark.)   

 

Felicia worked a 1-2-3 second.  In the bottom, the Aggies loaded up the bases in a two-out rally.  There were two singles and a hit batter, as Devin Elam was plunked on the foot.  Unfortunately, the inning ended on a groundout to first.  I compliment Paige Knight on her walkup music, Kenny Loggin's Dangerzone.  Lucia left.  She was only wearing shorts and hoodie out in the cold.  (Nice gams.) 

 

A leadoff walk in the top of third was erased as Paige caught a liner at third and doubled off the runner.  Laurali Patane came in to pitch after the walk.  There was a single and a stolen base on a ball in the dirt, but Laurali ended the inning with a strikeout looking. 

 

Adam Young on the radio call was reporting he could hear Coach Kill yelling at the umpire about balls and strikes.  Next door, the Soccer team was out running laps on their field, and Baseball was having a scrimmage beyond the softball outfield wall.  Jill led off the bottom of the third with a single.  She was thrown out trying to take second on what may have been a blown hit-and-run.    

 

The pretty Marketing intern and a marketing major Football player (maybe, I didn't recognize him) tossed out some cool black and white Baseball hats.  This was going to be the giveaway at the next Men's Basketball game . . . was.  We'll get to that later.  CSU had another quick inning.  Laurali made two putouts.  Adam talked about the Ram’s stadium which was currently undergoing renovations.  They were going to be playing on the road as much as possible and were playing at local high school fields at home. 

 

The Bradley team was still here watching the game.  They got up to go get dinner at this point.  In the bottom of the fourth, Carley singled.  Paige came up and blasted a shot to left field.  The radio call said the ball hit the top of the wall and bounced over.  Ron and I saw it as the ball hitting the fielder's glove and then bouncing over.  Either way, it was a two-run homer, 4-3 Rams.  Left fielder Molly Gates went down hard on the warning track on the play.  Trainers from both teams went out to her.  After a few minutes and some work on the wall, Gates stayed in the game.  She might have just had the wind knocked out of her.

 

It was 42-degrees and sunny in Fort Collins, home of CSU.  Not much difference.  The Rams threatened in the top of the fifth with a single and an error on Jessica at second, but Laurali worked out of it.  I sang out Take Me Out to the Ballgame loudly during the Stretch.  Ron pretended he didn't know me.

 

Jessica bunted her way on to start the bottom of the fifth and advanced on a wild pitch.  The Rams brought in their DP to pitch.  Jill singled off her.  Kayla Bowen thumped a double off the wall to drive them in.  (The Aggie girls nearly ran into each other at home.)  The Aggies were now up 5-3. 

 

Unfortunately, this is where I had to leave.  I did see Volleyball player Ryleigh Whitekettle coming in as I went out.  She is a statuesque beauty, but very tall and intimidating.  I didn't bother greeting her, though I would have liked to have complimented her on her game against UTEP.  I did grab a couple of the new softball posters.  As soon as I got to work, I gave one to Melika.  She was delighted and immediately put it up at her cubicle where she was watching the game over the Internet. 

 

I kept listening to the game on the radio.  The Aggies tacked on another run in the fifth and another in the sixth to win it 7-4.  I'll toss a gameball to glamorous Ram catcher Brooke Bohlander for going 2 for 3 with 2 RBI's.  You wouldn't think catcher would be a glamor position, but then there’s Basia Query (ignore the terrible sketch) and, of course my co-worker, Melika.  Kayla Bowen gets one for her clutch two-run double, and Paige Knight for her 3 for 3 with 3 RBI's performance.  Laurali Patane got the win and Emily Dix got the save as the two combined for five shutout innings.

 

I listened to the next game against Bradley.  I was busy with work, but kept up with it.  The Aggies nearly run-ruled it early, but the Braves came back.  The Aggies finally won 14-11 with Bradley having the tying run at the plate.  The game took 3 and a-half hours, after their first game, which went 3 hours.  Given that these were both 7-inning games, it was brutal.  There were various reasons, but Coach Rodolph was responsible for a bunch of delays for calling time.  There may need to be a rule about visits like in baseball.

 

Also brutal was the weather.  Ron stuck it out till the end, but a cold wind kicked up at night and was blowing in.  He said it cut right through him.  By the end, he was shivering uncontrollably.  I've been there in similar circumstances.  (I can't remember the date of the post to link it, but it was bad.)

 

Much more brutal was a phone call I got from dad right before the end of the game.  Dad was watching the news and Aggie Men's Basketball had just suspended their whole coaching staff and canceled their next game.  The rest of their season was up in the air.  This didn't even have anything to do with the shooting.  This was a new problem.  There were some kind of repeated hazing incidents that resulted in a police report.  A couple of guys had left the team.  I don't know all the details, but I'm sure more will come out.  

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