Lots of Aggie Baseball this week. Let’s get to it.
I saw the Aggies play the Lobos in Albuquerque on Lobovision over the Internet on Tuesday. It was a demoralizing 7-0 loss. At least they weren’t run ruled. The Lobo’s announcer was very congenial and even acknowledged that a bunch of Aggie fans were probably watching the game.
The Aggies had a messy 5-4 win against the Oakland U Grizzlies Friday night. They had three errors and lost four runners on the bases. Aidan Lombardi came up for his first at bat of season in the tenth and the only Oakland error of game came on his hit, which won the game for the Aggies. Saul Soto worked an impressive 2 2/3 innings of relief for the win. There was reportedly a large crowd for the game. They were giving away t-shirts for Country Music night.
There was a cool breeze blowing when I left for the stadium on Saturday. I ran into Fan Michael there. Trey Reese’s charming wife, Robin (I finally got her name), and daughter, Nellie came by. Trey came by a bit later. I wasn’t sitting next to him, so I didn’t get much conversation in. The family was in Albuquerque. Their son, Cooper, almost came in to pitch in that game. He was kind of glad he didn’t because it would have been a bad spot at the time.
The crowd looked light, but was announced at 614, including lots of Oakland fans. Aggie Men’s Basketball was annoyingly scheduled for the same time, but it didn’t hurt attendance apparently. I started listening to the radio call of that game and found out it was going to be Jack Nixon’s final game broadcast in the Pan-Am Center. He’s been there since the 70’s, so this was a big deal. I kept listening to basketball during the baseball game. Jack, characteristically, didn’t want the story of the game to be about him and focused on the play-by-play.
I really crushed it on the scorecards today. Oh, wait. That’s not what that means. I really screwed these up. I was reduced to checking the official play-by-play for corrections . . . of a game I was at and watching and keeping score at. I can’t even explain why. It wasn’t that unpleasant out. I wasn’t super involved in any conversations. The scoring wasn’t even that difficult. I just wasn’t into it. I got a headache redoing the scorecards.
I also wasn’t really taking notes, so this isn’t going to be much of a recap. Maybe the problem was that I was at a baseball game and listening to a basketball game. Hayden Lewis started for the Aggies. I think wasn’t a rehab start for him, but normal start. The Aggies’ erroneous ways picked up where they left off on Friday with an error on the first batter. The runner was doubled in to make it 1-0 Griz.
The wind picked up and started blowing in in the bottom of the first. I was prepared with a coat. The Aggies punched right back. After leadoff double by Jonatan Clough, Steve Solorzano tripled him in. Mitch Namie’s groundout brought in Solo to make it 2-1 Aggies.
It was announced that it was 77-degrees here in Las Cruces. (Actually, with the cool wind, it had to be in the low 60’s here.) In Rochester, Michigan, where Oakland University is, it was 19-degrees. The Oakland fans cheered. The clown show continued in the top of the second. Lewis had trouble with a grounder on the first batter for the first error of the inning. After a single and a sacrifice, a two-base error by Camden Kaufman at short brought in two runs. 3-2 Griz. A double play ended an Aggie threat in the bottom.
Ben Clark cranked a powerful line drive homer in the top of the third. As near as I could tell, he hit it straight into the wind. Lewis was helped out the Aggie defense, as Sheehan O’Connor made a shoe top on a liner at second. 4-2 Griz.
Joey Craig led off the bottom of the third with a majestic home run to left. This towering shot one might have caught an updraft and flew out. Clough walked and Sheehan singled behind him. The third baseman threw to second and didn’t get Clough. He was charged with an error, but it was more poor judgment than a bad throw.
After a daring double steal, singles by Solo and Namie brought in the runners. Oakland catcher, Clark, got clipped on another double steal attempt and went down. After the trainer saw him, the ump talked to him a minute. Namie then stole second with the pitcher looking right at him. I asked Trey, a former pitcher, if that had ever happened to him. It had. The Aggies back up 5-4.
On the radio, Aggie Basketball was up big at halftime, 34-20. They ran a nice tribute to Nixon in the break with messages from several guests. Lewis had more trouble in the top of the fourth. A hit batter and a single were doubled in by Grizzly John Lauinger and he advanced to third on bad throw from right field.
Cooper Reese came in in relief. Trey wasn’t videoing his son this time. I flipped over the radio station and listened to the ballgame. Jeff Matthews said that he remembered calling games with Cooper’s dad playing. I’m not sure if he knew he was in the crowd. I should have turned over quicker. Coop gave up a walk to start. The Grizzlies tried a delayed double steal. The first runner took second, but the runner from third was thrown out at the plate. Oakland fans were angry. They might have had a point, as the runner might have reached around to touch the plate before the tag. Still, the Griz were back up, 6-5.
The Aggies got a walk and a hit batter in the bottom of the fourth. The Aggies attempted another double steal, but the lead runner got caught this time. No problem. Pinch hitter, Gianni Horvat tripled the other runner in. Two of the Griz outfielders collided on the play. The right fielder was laid out. He was okay eventually. Solo would double Horvat in. Aggies up 7-6. (A bit of mystery here. Horvat came in for Sheehan, who had laid down a sacrifice bunt in the first. That’s an odd play early in a game at Presley Askew Field, especially for a guy with 6 home runs in 9 games.)
Amazingly, nobody scored for the next two innings. Both halves of the fifth inning were 1-2-3 and ended with a great defensive play. I noticed the Volleyball team was here. They chose baseball over basketball. On that matter, about here, the Men won their game, 65-47, over WKU. Not bad, considering WKU had dropped 100 points on them in their last meeting. The call-in show featured several callers wanting to thank and congratulate Jack. “Is this what it took to get people to call in?” he asked. His co-host, Anita Maxwell, and Coach Hooten both offered well wishes on the show, as well.
The wind died down here, as the sun started going down. Jake Carvajal came in for Cooper for the top of the seventh. He hit the first batter and gave up a huge two-run homer to left center. The Griz were now up 8-7. Who’s gonna to win this?
Okay, the bottom of the seventh is where I lost the scorecard. Two walks and a single loaded the bases. Chris Daniels drove in a run on a fielder’s choice. Brandon Forrester had a two-run pinch hit single. Craig doubled him in. After a pitching change, Clough singled in Craig. Clough stole second. The throw went into centerfield and Clough took third.
The most dramatic play was an infield hit by Horvat. Second baseman, Sam Griffifth, made a great bare-handed catch and apparently threw Horvat out at first, but he was ruled safe and a run scored. Given that 4 runs had already scored, the players exploded. The coach ran out and got himself ejected to save them. Just to make it worse, Horvat was picked off, but Griffifth dropped the ball at second. Horvat then took third on a wild pitch. In sum, the Aggies batted around and scored 6. We had our seventh and final lead change of the game with the Aggies up 13-8.
I was finally just listening to the baseball call. Dylan Weekly came in to pitch the top of the eighth. I found out he’s another legacy player. Matthews had called games with his dad, Chris Weekly, who hit .400 one season and went to the Major Leagues. I think Trey said he just missed playing with him. (It was a little loud and we weren’t sitting next to each other.) I got a laugh out of Michael relaying stories about the stadium from then. There wasn’t a Press Box. Matthews called games from the back of a flatbed truck. The stadium had wooden seats that were salvaged from a Pan-Am Center renovation. Those seats rotted outdoors and were tossed.
Anyway, Weekly worked two scoreless innings to finish out the game. The Aggies won the marathon, 13-8. In the top of the eighth, we had a casualty. Grizzly Lucas Day, who’d hit the two-run homer in the previous inning, pulled up lame running out a grounder. He had to be helped off the field. The game finished in darkness after a bit more than 3 hours of play. Outside the stadium, there was a brilliant crescent moon with a rare bottom arc. Jupiter was shining beside it.
Lots of Gameballs. For the Grizzlies, Brandon Nigh went 3 for 5 with an RBI and Blake Sehlke pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings. For the Aggies, Cooper Reese and Dylan Weekly each had scoreless 2-inning efforts. Aggie hitting crushed it. Joey Craig was 2 for 3 with 2 RBI’s and a home run. Brandon Forrester and Gianni Horvat had great games pinch hitting. Jonatan Clough was 3 for 3, scored 4 runs, and had an RBI. (He reached base in all 5 plate appearances.) Steve Solorzano was 3 for 4 with 3 RBI’s. Defensively though, it was a 4-error game for the Aggies. They need to clean that up.
Sunday
The weather forecast for Sunday was for 40mph winds. When I quit writing at midnight, the wind was already howling outside. By Sunday noon, it had settled down a bit, but was still blowing. I assumed it would get worse later in the afternoon and made plans to see my dad and watch the new Reacher series. By game time though, there was only a gentle breeze blowing. Adam Young on the radio call was as surprised as anybody by this weather development.
It was too late for me to change my mind and get ready to go. That may have been for the best. Matthew Yarc made his second start of the week. (He’d also started against the Lobos.) It started well, but the wheels came off with a 3-run homer in the third. The Grizzly hit parade continued to the tune of a 16-3 run rule win. The rest of their runs came mostly on singles, so the wind didn’t have anything to do with it. At least the Aggies had no errors in the game after committing 7 in the previous two games.
Monday
Monday morning I was awakened to a weather alert from my phone for a dust storm. It showed up a couple of hours later and turned everything outside brown. I had abandoned all plans of going to the game last night, after seeing the weather forecast. Imagine my surprise, when I turned on the game broadcast to hear that they were playing today.
Adam Young reported a 20-minute delay for the dust storm. After that, it’d just be windy. You could hear that it was Kid’s Day at the park with 800 students on a field trip. I’ve been there before on a Kid’s Day (4-25-23). The kids were having a good time with their hot dog, popcorn, and drink and not being class. Total attendance was beyond capacity at 1,089.
There was a 20mph wind straight out to center. That was good for the people in the stands, as they were facing away from it. Oddly, it didn’t have much of an effect on the game. Oakland was up 4-0 in the sixth without the aid of a home run. Steve Solorzano hit out a home run in the bottom. Grizzly Daniel Duley, who’d pitched well, came out in the inning. Camden Kaufman hit a two-run homer and Sheehan O’Connor hit a solo shot off the relief to tie it.
Afterward, Oakland added 3 more runs. In the eighth, with gusting winds on the infield, the Aggies loaded bases, but the inning ended on a double play (and the fielder lost his hat in the wind). The Aggies threatened again in the ninth with an RBI by Solo, but the game ended, 8-5 Grizzlies.
This was a pair of discouraging losses that exposed the Aggies’ pitching and hot-and-cold hitting. Next up is a trip to Texas A&M. They’ve gone from #1 in nation to #14 after a bad losing streak. Maybe the Aggies can steal one.
