NM State Aggies vs Monmouth Hawks Softball 2-9-24

Yikes!  My last Aggie post was in the middle of December.  There was winter break and some road games in-between.  I had the opportunity to go to a Women’s Basketball game a couple of weeks ago, but I’d gone out in the morning with dad and didn’t want to go back out.  I was given two tickets to the Men’s Basketball for the “Pack the Pan Am” event” last week.  I couldn’t find anyone else to go with and didn’t want to go by myself.        

Once again, I’m preempting a post with Football news.  It wasn’t a very Merry Christmas for Aggie Fans.  News came a week after the New Mexico Bowl that Coach Jerry Kill had stepped down.  Further developments were that he was retiring from being a head coach, though he’d be open to work as an analyst.  Add to that, quarterback Diego Pavia had entered the transfer portal.  Ho, ho, ho.

 

AD Mario Moccia had seemed so upbeat earlier in the week.  I don’t think he had any idea it was coming.  He’d just raised $1.1M to sign Kill to a new contract (which may have also included paving the parking lot).  Mario, in an interview, flat out said he’d tried to talk Kill out of leaving.  He was also uncharacteristically feisty and pledged to not let the program backslide.  For now, Tony Sanchez, the wide receivers coach, has been promoted to head coach.  He’d previously been a head coach at UNLV.  Mario had said it was too late to start a national search for a new coach.  

The team had already lost its offensive coordinator to Vanderbilt before the announcement and is still losing more players to the portal after it.  We also wonder how many committed players have now changed their minds.  I think the fans will stand behind the team, at least for next season.  How good the team will be depends on who’s left on it.  Regardless, it’s been a great two years for Aggie Football.  Thanks, Coach Kill.

 

I wrote that football stuff in December and have been sitting on it the whole time.  I’m feeling a bit less hurt now.  Pavia signed with Vanderbilt, along with his backup, Blaze Berlowitz.  (Former starting quarterback, Gavin Frakes, also left.  That’s three of four quarterbacks on the team.)  As mentioned, the offensive coordinator went there to be their new head coach, along with another coach.  Coach Kill, who is still living in Las Cruces right now, will also be working for them.  I saw a Vanderbilt article wondering how their football program got taken over by New Mexico State.  Offensive line standout, Shiyazh Pete, has committed to staying.  I put Twitter to good use and sent thanks to him.        

 

The worst was yet to come.  I lost my home Internet connection two weeks ago.  I won’t go into details.  I’m considering reconnecting, but haven’t decided.  I’ve also lost the will to live without Twitch at home.  Thankfully, I can still get it at work.  The bottom line is that this is going to put some delays in posting about games, since I can’t look up stats and names right afterward. 

 

This brings us up to date.  Today was Aggie Softball’s opening day.  They were starting with a double header that would begin at 2:00pm.  I thought I could probably sneak Game 1 in before having to go to work.  Though it’s early February, the weather was only partly cloudy and cool.  I ended up wishing I’d brought my sunglasses for the glare.  I was also hiding from the sun for part of the game, but it was actually pleasant.  I was bundled up, but ended up taking off the coat and scarf quickly.

 

I picked up the nice new team poster up front.  The stands were full for the game, amazing for a Friday afternoon game.  Monmouth even brought a section of fans.  Officially, it was 257, but that was way low count.  There were some ladies sitting around me that seemed to work for the university.  One asked a friend if this was Coach Rodolph’s last year.  She didn’t know.  On the team, my favorite, Jillian Taylor, was still on the roster.  Unfortunately, pitcher Aydenne Brown was gone.  She’s now with SFA.  Kendal Lunar and Riley Carley were picked as a preseason all-conference.  That’s all of my scouting. 

I’m not sure if these scorecards really add up.  When I had a minute at work, I checked them against the official scoring and changed some calls without questioning them.  That sort of takes the fun out of it.  If the scoreboard at the park was better or if the PA would always give the line at end of an inning, I wouldn’t have any problems (theoretically). 

 

Emily Dix started for the Aggies.  She gave up a walk with two strikeouts in a scoreless first.  During the frame, an ump motioned for a strike without a pitch.  I think this was a penalty strike.  The fan ladies had mentioned that pace-of-play rules were now in effect for softball.  Coaches’ timeouts seemed to be limited in this game, as opposed to constantly going to the circle.  Also, Coach Rodolph was sending pitch calls electronically instead of shouting out in code.       

Billie Kerwood started for the Hawks.  She was cute and screamed like a tennis player when she released a pitch.  I almost think the Aggies were caught off-guard by the noise.  They went down in order with two strikeouts.  Newcomer, Desirae Spearman, hammered one foul.  The dugout shouted, “Hit it that way,” while pointing at the outfield.  Des struckout on a good offspeed pitch.

 

Dix gave up a double in the second, but got out of it with a strikeout and two grounders.  In the bottom, Kerwood let on two Aggies with a single and an error, but a double play from a line out and a doubled off runner ended the inning.  There was a t-shirt toss to the crowd between frames, nearly causing a riot.  The crowd was also instantly on the ump over a couple of close calls. 

 

The third inning started with Kayla Lunar (Kendal’s sister) making an errant throw on a bunt to third, which sent the runner to second.  The next batter also hit it to Kayla.  She threw out that runner at first.  The runner at second unwisely tried to take third and was gunned down for a double play.  Kayla made the third out on another grounder.  She came off the field pumped with her teammates congratulating her.

 

In the bottom, Savannah Bejarano came up as the number nine hitter.  After a couple of bad swings, the coach took a timeout to talk to her.  Sav promptly singled.  Good talk.  However, the Aggies still didn’t score.  The fourth began with a walk.  Coach Rodolph took another timeout and Dix came back with a strikeout and two groundouts.  Another good talk.  Kerwood gave up a single in the bottom, but that was all.  She seemed to be getting louder.   

 

The Hawks went down in order in the fifth.  During the souvenir toss, I was hit twice, but didn’t pick up either of them as they were grabbed around me.  They were “Slap Sticks,” which turned out to be inflatable thunder sticks, which some of the fans quickly made use of.  There was no Stretch.  I don’t know if they forgot or got rid of it for pace-of-play.   

 

Kayla started the bottom of the fifth with a single.  Jayleen Burton got on via an error and advanced to second with a stolen base.  Sav laid down a bunt next for some reason, which only resulted in an out.  Dezianna Patmon came in to pinch hit.  Her grounder drove in Kayla for the first run of the game.  Jayleen was thrown out trying to take third afterward to end the inning.  The scoreboard did not show the run.  The ump motioned for it to count.  Perhaps a new crew was running the scoreboard.  It took them a couple of minutes, but they finally had to reset the whole scoreboard to put the run up.  The crowd cheered.  1-0 Aggies.

 

Dix gave up a single to start the sixth, but no further damage.  In the bottom, the Organ Mountain Softball team came in and sat down around me.  Some came in with blankets, so they were prepared for the night cap game.  Des came up and hit a hustle triple.  Riley came up next and hit a grounder that hit the third baseman in the face.  Des scored and Riley was safe at first and then stole second.  Devin Elam drove them with a double, but was then thrown out trying to take third.  (The team was very aggressive on the bases.)  Kendal came up and slapped a home run to left to make it 4-0 Aggies.

 

Before the seventh, the ump and Kendal spoke for a moment.  She flashed him a big smile that I had no trouble seeing through her mask.  There was a liner hit into the Aggie dugout that nearly hit one of the coaches.  The high school girls had a little discussion about the times they’d hit coaches with foul balls.  It’s apparently a pretty common occurrence. 

 

The next batter doubled.  Jillian made it a close play at second with her throw.  The next batter singled.  Jayleen threw out the lead runner when she tried to advance on the play.  After a hit batter, pinch hitter, Ana Rodriguez doubled in the Hawks’ first run, but on the play, Jayleen again threw out the runner going to third.  This ended the game.  Aggies win 4-1!

 

Emily Dix gets an easy gameball for going the distance, only giving up 6 hits and 1 run with 5 strikeouts.  Billie Kerwood was sort of a hard luck loser, as she matched Dix through five innings, but had that bad sixth inning.  Devin Elam went 2 for 3 with an RBI.  Kendal Lunar went 1 for 3, but that one was a homer. 

 

I was pleased.  This was a nice tight game.  I think it only took an hour and 45 minutes.  I made it to work in plenty of time.  I was even early and ate a couple of pieces of pizza from the Superbowl potluck before starting work. 

 

I was a bit less pleased later when I checked in on the stats for Game 2 and suddenly realized there had been radio coverage for the games.  (That wasn’t on the schedule when I’d written down the games last month.)  If I’d had Internet, maybe I would have caught that before I left.  I’d missed Game 2’s coverage, but the Aggies had won that one 10-3.  Desirae Spearman got the win pitching and hit a homer in the game.  I was okay with missing freezing out at the night game and happy with the softball I’d gotten.