NM State Aggies vs Northern Colorado Bears Baseball 3-4-24

First off, I have to apologize for my Saturday and Sunday recaps and for today’s recap in advance.  Honestly, while I enjoyed the hitting barrage and other baseball weirdness, it completely got the better of me in the scoring.  Even the radio call couldn’t help.  I butchered it.  I uncritically corrected my scorecards based on the official scoring.  Any inconsistencies on the scorecards or the written recap are basically because I was mentally done with them and stopped caring.  (And if I’m feeling this bad over just scoring the games, I can’t imagine how the UNC Bears feel having actually played in them.)

 

I got up on time Monday morning and got ready to leave on schedule.  That was my biggest concern of the day.  It should have been staying warm.  It was partly cloudy with a cold breeze.  I wasn’t totally unprepared, but I should have done more.  (I was cold for the rest of the day.)  They were handing out free coffee at the park, but that wasn’t to my tastes unfortunately.

 

Aggie Football was out on their new practice field nearby.  (It was actually Day 1 of practice for them.)  There was actually a decent crowd of over 300 for baseball, which wasn’t bad for an 11:00am Monday start.  Surprisingly, there were a few kids running around.  I found Michael at his usual spot.  He was talking to an attractive young woman who looked kind of familiar.

It was Xophia Venegas from the Softball team.  Michael said she was Logan Galina’s girlfriend, which explains why she here for the game.  I’d seen Xophia several times and as I told her, mostly from her cute promotional pics last year wearing a cowboy hat.  Seeing her up close and in person, wow, she’s gorgeous!  And she was a real sweetheart.  Logan should be making serious plans to hold on to this girl.

 

I jumped on the opportunity to chit-chat with a Softball player again.  I mentioned working with former catcher Melika Ofoia and Xophia agreed about how nice she is.  (Melika’s apparently left town.)  I’d heard freshman star, Desirae Spearman, was out injured.  Xophia didn’t give a great prognosis for her, but she might be back.  (Amazingly, Desirae had been performing so well with a hairline leg fracture this season.) 

 

The Softball team had had a rough time in Texas last weekend.  I asked about Coach Rodoph’s contract.  Xophia said it was year-to-year currently.  She thought the coach probably would have retired or left a couple of years ago, but for the team’s poor performance over that time.  The coach wants to go out a winner. 

 

Xophia is 6’1” and well-built.  I commented that I thought she should be power hitter.  She said she had been before an elbow injury and was now a slap hitter.  She’s not happy being a bench player and is looking to transfer after this season (and not happy with the coaching either).  She told me to come out this weekend for their games.  There’s baseball and rain in the forecast, but I’ll make an effort.  (I’ll see them sometime this season for sure.)           

 

Back to baseball, Titus Dumitru was not in the lineup, as expected.  From Adam Young on the radio call, thankfully, Titus didn't have anything broken from getting hit yesterday.  Caden Wagner was off his ejection suspension and back in the Bears’ lineup, but his brother Kai was a scratch today.  

 

Xophia was sitting behind me and I only talked to her a couple of times in the game, but I’m blaming her for my lousy scorekeeping.  It surely wasn’t the cold and the weirdness on the field.  It’s always the woman who’s the distraction.  I was having concentration problems for the whole game.  It was probably the early start, which doesn’t bode well for the future Sunday morning games. 

Cade Swenson started for the Aggies.  He looked good getting the first two batters out.  The third batter was a ground out to third, but Steve Solorzano had issues, double clutched, and overthrew first.  The runner ended up on second, where he was driven in by a Garrett Fisher double.  The bases were then loaded with a walk (Preston Godfrey, in for Titus, made a running dive attempt on a foul ball), a hit (which scored a run), and a hit batter.  Thankfully, another grounder finished the inning.  2-0 Bears.  What is up with all of the two-out rallies in this series? 

 

The Aggies went down in order in the bottom of the first.  The Bears did so as well in the top of the second with three flyballs.  The centerfield flagpole showed the wind blowing out, but in action, it was knocking the flyballs down.  Fielders were shaded to right, but flies kept going to left field.  In the bottom, the Aggies got a runner on from a dropped liner, but did not score.  There were some souvenir tosses to the crowd by a pretty brunette with long dark hair.  (I wonder if the Hot Pan-Am Girl isn’t working at the stadium anymore.) 

 

Cade hit the first batter of the top of the third, but started a double play with the next batter.  He gave up a hit next, but a strikeout ended the frame.  The Aggie offense got going in the bottom.  Jadon Arakaki led off with a high popup to left.  The ball dodged the defenders and dropped in.  Jadon had stopped at first and was suddenly relieved by Austin Corbett.  Adam speculated that Jadon should have run to second on the play, given how long the ball was in the air, and was pulled for not hustling.      

 

Romeo Ballesteros hit the ball to second.  Jackson Romero made a good dive stop, but threw the ball away trying to get Romeo at first.  A hit batter loaded the bases and another brought in the Aggies’ first run.  Nick Gore came up and painted the right field line for a bases clearing double.  There was another hit batter before the inning ended with the Aggies now up 4-2.

 

Xophia left for a minute.  During that time, Solo began the inning making a “Superman” dive catch at third to prevent a double.  I told her about it when she got back.  (I’d also told her about Keith Jones’ great hitting and fielding over the weekend.)  I mentioned that Jillian Taylor was my favorite on her team, because I’d seen her make a couple of those catches in the centerfield.  We both remembered the TV cameraman unforgivably missing her making one of those plays. 

 

Cade walked the next two batters and there was a passed ball.  Coach Angier had seen enough and brought in Conor Wylde.  He finished out the inning with a fielder’s choice and a strikeout.  That groundout was odd, since Romeo at short was actually shifted to the left of second.  A friend of Michael’s came in wearing an Omaha Storm Chasers hat with their alternate food identity as the logo.  I talked to him for a moment and mentioned Amarillo’s alternate identity, the Calf Fries.  He laughed, because he knew exactly what that was.  (You don’t want to know, if you don’t already.)

 

The Aggie bats were at it again in the bottom of the fourth.  They chased the starter after he gave up a pair of doubles, which scored another run.  Corbett hit the first double and did foul one back into the stands that dropped in front of us.  The pitching change didn’t help.  There was a walk, then Damone Hale reached on another error by Romero at short.  Edwin Martinez-Pagani came in to hit for Solo.  After his great catch last inning, the trainers had looked at Steve, but he’d stayed in.  Solorzano was likely pulled as a precaution. 

 

EMP hit a grounder to second, which scored Romeo from third.  Hale was out at second, but Romero again made a bad throw and EMP was safe and KJ came around to score.  Brandon Sanchez at second made a great play on a liner next, but a bobbled single to center hit by Godfrey brought Edwin home.  Finally, Mitch Namie drove Godfrey in before the inning ended on a flyball from Corbett, who’d started the inning.  That was five runs and three errors.  Aggies up 9-2.

 

Wylde got the first two out in the fifth and got into trouble with a single and a hit batter.  Carter Monda hit a bomb out to center.  It was maybe ticketed to either go out or hit off the top of the wall.  Corbett jumped up at the wall and brought it back in his mitt!  Wow!  That juiced everyone.  (Arakaki may have lost his job here.)  In the bottom, the Aggies went down in order.

 

Kade Benavidez came in for the top of the sixth.  He gave up a single and a double to start.  There was another difficult popup behind third.  The two closest players never seemed to get a bead on it.  Romeo came out of nowhere to snag it.  However, the two baserunners came in on fielder’s choice and a single to make it 9-4 Aggies.

 

Honestly with the cold wind, I was kind of hoping for another run rule game.  The wind did help with that.  EMP led off the bottom of the sixth.  The wind carried his line drive out.  Gore hit a popup to right field that just kept going and cleared the wall.  11-4 Aggies.  Unfortunately, we lost Xophia.  She was either cold or had to go to class.  She waved goodbye and smiled at us.  On field, there was the seventh hit batter of the game before the final out.

 

Saul Soto came in for the seventh and worked a quick inning.  The Bears also brought in a new pitcher for the seventh.  A pretty girl working for Channel 7 also came in to shoot some footage.  She’s Bea Martinez.  She’s new and I hadn’t seen her before.  Hopefully, we see more of her.  Romeo worked a walk to start the inning.  KJ struck out.  He didn’t have a great day at the plate, but after this weekend, he can have an off day.

 

The UNC coach brought in a new pitcher surprisingly.  Damone was also not having a great day hitting, so Galina came in to pinch hit.  Xophia left too early!  I hope this doesn’t cause trouble between them.  I’d asked about him.  She said he was okay to play after his injuries last year, but wasn’t getting much chance to play.  Before the injury, he’d led the WAC in home runs, I think, so hopefully he’ll get back to form.  Logan worked a walk. 

 

EMP singled and brought in Romeo.  Gore hit a grounder to first, who tried to throw to second to start a double play, and instead threw it away.  Galina scored.  Godfrey grounded out for the second out, but Namie was intentionally walked to load the bases to bring up Sheehan O’Connor.  He didn’t take the bat off his shoulder.  On a 3-0 count, the Aggie dugout was going nuts.  O’Connor took the free pass to bring in the winning run.  Aggies win 14-4 in the seventh on a run rule!

 

Let’s drop the Gameballs.  For the Bears, I’ll highlight Garrett Fisher for going 2 for 4 with 4 RBI’s.  It was a tough luck self-destruction for the Bears today (six errors) that have kept them winless so far this season.  They’re going to Georgia next.  I wish them luck and hope they get a win. 

 

For the Aggies, Nick Gore went 2 for 5 with 5 RBI’s and a home run.  The two subs played well.  Edwin Martinez-Pagani went 2 for 3 with 3 RBI’s and a home run.  Austin Corbett went 1 for 3, but scored twice and had a highlight reel defensive play.  In pitching, Conor Wylde got the win in relief with a scoreless 1 2/3 inning effort.  Saul Soto also worked a clean final frame.

    

At two hours and 21 minutes, this would have been a nice tidy game, except for the cold.  I was very happy this game didn’t go all the way.  Chik-fil-a was my lunch destination and I went to work early.  I abandoned any thoughts of walking over to the Downtown Mall for some shopping.  Instead, I was looking up stats and telling co-workers about the games.  This was an entertaining home series for the Aggies.  Hopefully, they’ll continue the momentum into this weekend’s games.