NM State Aggies vs SD St Jackrabbits Baseball 2-17-24

It was a busy day in Aggie Sports.  Softball was playing a pair of games, along with Men’s and Women’s Basketball and Baseball.  All of these games were basically happening at the same time and overlapping, so I had to make some choices.

 

I decided to skip a Visitor’s softball game with Nebraska and the early Aggie Softball game, since they’d conflict with Baseball.  Darn it!  One of the reasons to get the Aggie Country Pass was for the Troy Cox Classic, so you didn’t have to buy an expensive tournament day pass.  I had some idea of going to the late game, which I figured would start after the Baseball game.  No, the baseball game was still going at that time.  Also, it was freezing and I had no thoughts of staying any longer. 

 

I got the scores later from local TV news.  The Aggie Softball girls won their first game 8-7 over North Dakota.  Thank God, I didn’t stay for the second game.  They lost 20-10 to Sac State!  I’m sure it took quite a while to get to that score in the freezing cold.  I heard from a fan there the next day.  He only managed to stay to the fourth inning.

 

I was listening to the Men’s Basketball game on the radio before going to baseball.  They were on the road and playing WKU.  Earlier in the season at home, the Aggies had their biggest ever comeback win in the Pan-Am Center against them.  They were down 23 points in the second half!  Today though, the road curse continued.  I periodically checked the radio call and they lost 72-58.  The Aggie Women at least won their game against WKU at home 64-61.    

 

It was sunny outside, but there was a cold breeze blowing.  I brought a coat with me, but left it in my truck (mistake).  By happenstance, I’d parked closer to the Softball Complex and could actually see my truck where I was sitting inside baseball stadium.  This was a cruel taunt, as it got colder.  

 

This first thing I did was pick up a program and check the stats.  The scoreboard was wrong yesterday and I was right!  Ha!  The Raising Cane’s people had set up their Prize Wheel next to the table.  Last time, this didn’t go well, but I took another spin.  I got lip balm.  Hey, I’ll take it.  That’s useful.  (Not as good as a free meal, though.)

There was a capacity crowd for the game (attendance 700) with quite a few South Dakota State fans.  I sat by Michael again.  He took off before the Anthem.  He always does that.  It’s like he plays for the Women’s Basketball team.  I got a call right before the music started.  It was my out-of-state friend, Andy.  I ended up singing the Anthem over the phone for him.  I really would have loved to have talked to him, but I couldn’t hear him at all over the large crowd and the PA music.  I had to try to tell him to call me on another day and couldn’t even hear myself do it.  Hopefully, he’ll call back soon.

 

I recognized a familiar voice for the radio call, but it wasn’t Adam Young.  He was calling Women’s Basketball at the Pan-Am Center.  Our guest host was long-time border sportscaster, Lou Romano.  Lou said he hadn’t called a baseball game since college, but he did have two kids playing baseball.  To say this now, I enjoyed the broadcast and he sounded like he was having a great time (he really liked today’s mostly “small ball” game), but boy, was it rough. 

 

He couldn’t see the dimly lit scoreboard.  This is a problem everyone is aware of during daylight hours.  He couldn’t see the Aggies’ uniform numbers because they were only outlined in crimson and not solid.  He couldn’t see the field at times because the fans in front of him were blocking the view.  Lou was getting the players out of order continuously and wasn’t able to keep track of pitching changes.  I nearly tried to force my way into the Press Box to help.  If my scorekeeping is better than yours, you’ve really got a problem. 

 

Lou kept trying to talk about the transfer portal, NIL, and other new aspects of the game, but the pace of play kept interrupting him.  By the end of the game, I’m not sure he ever really finished his thoughts about it.  He did think that Nick Saban may have retired over having to keep track of these things, in addition to coaching, recruiting, and keeping boosters happy. 

 

Lou did was talk about today’s Aggie starter, Josh Sharman (sounds like the tissue paper).  Josh is running a faith-based merchandise business for college athletes and has at least one big name signer.  He then donates the profits to religious charities.  That’s a pretty ambitious.  Lou also mentioned that the new student section of seating was put in, so that they could move the visitor’s bullpen to a place where the Aggie coaches could see who was warming up.  Before, it was behind their dugout and hidden from view.   

What a mess these scorecards were after the game!  There was plenty of weirdness in the game and I got no help from the radio announcing.  I spent some time after the game to get them to add up.  Then I found out the next day that the Aggies were charged with four errors, which weren’t posted on the scoreboard.  Two of them were Catcher’s Interference on Kade Benavidez.  I didn’t catch those.  Lou had no chance over the radio. 

 

I had to go over these with the official scoring later.  That was a mistake.  The official scorer may have done a worse job than I did.  I would have gone with my originals, except that I erased and rewrote a bunch of my scoring.  Now they’re completely hashed.  So who knows what really happened at this game.   

 

Okay, do I finally get to talk about the game now?  It was quite the spectacle.  As mentioned, Sharman started for the Aggies and began the game with a hit batter.  He got the next two outs, but a tough error on first baseman, Mitch Namie, allowed the runner to score.  The batter fell down trying to get to second and was tagged for the final out.  1-0 SDS.

A co-worker came by and said, “Hi.”  While I was shivering in two layers and a pullover hoodie, he was wearing shorts and a t-shirt.  (Though he did go get a hoodie himself later.)  The Aggies answered back in bottom of the first.  Keith Jones singled, got to second on a wild pitch, advanced to third on a flyout, and scored on grounder by Namie.  1-1.

 

The top of the second went 1-2-3, but with a scary moment.  A foul ball hit an iron pole holding up what’s left of the canopy.  (AD Moccia said he’s still waiting for insurance to pay for replacement panels.)  The ball ricocheted straight back into the crowd and nearly hit a guy in the back of the head, who was holding his infant son at the time.  More encouraging, the Hot Pan-Am Girl came out wearing shorts and a tank top and tossed something to the crowd.  I was completely mesmerized.  A double play ended the Aggie frame.

 

The Jackrabbits scored again in the third between a walk, a fielder’s choice, a hit batter, and a single.  2-1 SDS.  Namie did try the Hidden Ball trick with a runner on first, but was sussed out.  The Hot Pan-Am Girl came out for another toss.  I probably said something to Michael about her replacing my previous sports marketing crush, Emerson.  He sort of knew her, since he was friends with her baseball player ex-boyfriend.  “Yeah, Emerson was a bitch.”  Apparently, she won’t speak to him for some reason.  She’s still working in sports marketing, Michael mentioned.    

   

To start the bottom of the third, Jadon Arakaki struck out, but made it to first on a wild pitch.  I think Keith was then given first from being awarded a ball from the pitcher taking too much time.  Damone Hale cashed them in with a hit-and-run double.  The final out in the inning was a batted ball went off Jack pitcher Jake Goble.  Second baseman Cade Stuff stayed with it, caught the grounder, and threw out the runner.  3-2 Aggies.

 

Sharman walked a couple of batters on in the top of the fourth, but got out of it.  Aggie second baseman Gianni Horvat made a nice effort in running down a foul ball for the final out.  The bottom was a bad inning for Jack right fielder Cael Frost.  The Aggies turned two walks, three singles, and a wild pitch into four runs.  During this, Frost dropped a flyball, overthrew second base badly, and then later juggled a single that allowed a run to come in.  He did start a double play from the outfield to end the inning.  Aggies up 7-2. 

 

Saul Soto came in to pitch for the Aggies in the fifth.  He gave up a single to start, but quickly finished off the rest of the inning.  There’s that Hot Pan-Am Girl warming me up again with a hat toss to the crowd, as the wind starts to blow harder.   

 

The Jacks also brought in a new pitcher for the fifth.  Alex Koep got the first two outs, but then walked the bases full.  Arakaki then hit a grounder up the middle.  Koep lost his hat during the pitch and caught it, but couldn’t field the ball at the same time.  Two runs scored on the single.  (Several players lost their hats during the game.  I didn’t even bother keeping track of every time.)  The next batter, Romeo Ballesteros, nearly took out his third base coach on a foul swing.  (The coach was okay.)  Dawson Parry at first made on nice play on a foul the other side of the field to end the inning.  9-2 Aggies.

 

The top of the sixth didn’t go well for the Aggies or me.  Soto gave up two runs before being lifted for Zach Zwaschka with the bases loaded.  Zach gave up a single and an inherited run, but would finally close it out.  The Jacks were back into it.  9-5 Aggies.

 

As the inning dragged on, I finally got up and went to my truck for my coat, as I could no longer tough-out the cold.  Though I could see my vehicle, I was not parked nearby, which was why I kept delaying going.  I had the radio (such as the radio call was) and my scorecard with me, but still missed at least one play.  Actually, it was kind of amazing that was all I missed, since I also went to the bathroom when I got back. 

 

The Aggies punched back in the bottom of the sixth with doubles by Namie and Steve Solorzano which scored a run.  10-5 Aggies.  The Jacks came back with a solo homer in the seventh by Davis Carr, 10-6. 

 

In the bottom of the seventh, Titus Dumitru came in for Benavidez.  (I’m guess after those two Catcher’s Interference calls.)  Titus struckout looking for the second out of the inning.  He then started arguing with the ump.  That’s a bad thing to do in a college game.  They don’t put up with much arguing from the dugout, much less face-to-face.  Titus was lifted for Nick Gore, last night’s catcher, next inning.  That was probably Coach Angier’s message to him.  I think I saw Titus come back out to warm up a pitcher between innings and then apologize to the ump. 

 

For the rest of seventh, even with two outs and a pitching change, the Aggies loaded the bases with three walks and a hit batter.  This forced in another run, 11-6 Aggies.  For the top of the eighth, as warned in the last game, Solorzano was a two-way player and moved from third to pitch.  He was a bit shaky in his first inning giving up a walk, a wild pitch, and three singles, which resulted in three runs.  (He also kept losing his hat on the mound.)  Encouragingly around all of that, “Solo” did strikeout the side.  11-9 Aggies. 

 

The Aggies weren’t done scoring yet.  For the Jacks, it was more self-inflicted wounds.  The Aggies got one hit in the bottom of the eighth, but converted three walks, a hit batter, and a wild pitch into two more runs.  14-9 Aggies.  I saw a guy in the crowd wearing an Arizona Diamondbacks National League champs shirt.  When it gets warmer, I plan on wearing my Texas Rangers World Series championship hat and AL champs t-shirt. 

 

Solo came back out for the ninth.  There was no further heroics, as he went 1-2-3 to finish the game out.  14-9 Aggies Win!  This seemed like a long game and it was at nearly three-and-a-half hours.  How bad would this have been without new pace-of-play rules?

 

Taking 10 walks (no wonder this game took so long) and having 3 hit batters with only 8 strikeouts, the Aggies were good at waiting out the Jacks’ pitchers.  (Maybe a little too good.  4 of those strikeouts were looking.)  Aggie hitting was light (3 doubles), but plentiful with 10 hits.  The offense covered problematical fielding issues and a shelled bullpen. 

 

Gameballs!  For the Jackrabbits, Dawson Parry gets an easy one going 3 for 5 with 3 RBI’s (by my count).  Aggie pitcher Josh Sharman didn’t get the win (except on the official scorecard, which is wrong), but did well in 4 innings only giving up 2 runs (1 earned). 

 

It was good group effort by the Aggie bats.  Keith Jones really hustled for that first Aggie run and went 2 for 4 with an RBI.  Damone Hale drove in 3 runs with a double and a walk (again disagreeing with the official scoring).  Jadon Arakaki had a big 2-run single in the fifth.  Lastly, let’s highlight the local kid, Steve Solorzano.  He went 2 for 5 with an RBI and pitched 2 innings.  He gave up 3 runs, but had 4 K’s with only 1 walk.  I have a feeling he’ll get better.   

       

These last two games were the kind of the games that the Aggies lost regularly last year, so this is encouraging.  I stampeded back home as fast as my frozen legs could do so.  I was glad for the win to make it worth getting cold.  Let’s warm up and do this again tomorrow.