NM State Aggies vs Maine Black Bears Baseball Game 1, 3-17-18

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  It was a gorgeous day here in Las Cruces, sunny with a cool breeze.  What a glorious day to play two.  Things got off on the wrong foot as I called Ron about going to the game.  He’d been a bit ambiguous about participating.  I woke him up at 11:00 am where he was a bit understandably incoherent.  Ron said he’d meet me at the park sometime, but that didn’t happen.       

At the ballpark, I noticed there was increased and visible security.  Perhaps they were expecting some unruly fans drunk on the green beer being sold there.  They didn’t have much to worry about from the light crowd at initially showed up.  Thankfully, more fans arrived as the game went on.  I picked up a souvenir pennant, which was cool.  I saw Adam Young.  Glad to see he made it out of Laramie.  We would have radio today.

The Aggies won the series opener on Friday, 6-5, against the Maine Black Bears.  The Aggies came back in the seventh with a two-run shot by Tristen Carranza and a go-ahead solo shot by Caleb Henderson.  I remember Maine from a couple of years ago (2-27-16).  John Arel had one of the most dominating opposing pitching performances I’ve seen.  He’s still on the team, though I didn’t see him today.  They did have a guy that looked like a blonde version of Charlie Blackmon.  (And he was in the game.  And I should have gotten his name, instead of being lazy.)

Justin Dehn started for the Aggies coming off his big win over Alabama.  That was the only win on the team’s southern road trip and the first against an SEC school.  He looked a bit erratic at first with a walk and a balk to start the game.  Dehn came right back with two strikeouts looking.  A nice-looking family group came in and sat in front of me.  They were three kids, dad, and grandpa.  The kids ran around getting foul balls.

Nick Silva started for Maine.  He’s Alex Rodriguez’s nephew.  I liked that he worked fast and threw hard.  Danny Casals at third for the Black Bears made a great play on a liner on a force play.  Mason Fishback went down on three pitches, so Silva had some good stuff.

The wind started blowing a bit starting in the second.  It was prone to switch directions, but was going out initially.  Whoa!  What’s this?  Amy Bergeson and Victoria Castro from the Softball team came in.  Amy’s blonde hair had grown out a bit and had some waves in it.  Tori had let her magnificent curly, black locks loose.  They looked nice.  They walked by me up the stairs and I called them by name and said “Hello.”  If I’d known about it earlier, I would have congratulated them on their big win last night against Minnesota, 3-0.  Adam talked about the game later in the broadcast.          

While the game wasn’t as interesting as those two, it did get more interesting.  In the top of the second, a double and a sacrifice brought in a run for Maine, 1-0.  The frame ended with Braden Williams throwing out a runner at second.  He contributed in the bottom by driving in a run to tie it up, 1-1. 

Mini-footballs bombed the stands in the third.  There were a bunch of kids in the crowd and they went crazy for them.  On the other side of the stadium, a lady brought in a Welsh Corgi.  It was so cute it hurt to look at.  There were a few dogs in attendance.  A chocolate lab and his human aide walked by me several times.  Very pretty dog.  Adam mentioned that Maine plays in the America East conference, which was the same as the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.  What sports fan could resist talking about the NCAA Basketball Tournament #16 seed, who beat the tournament #1 seed yesterday, which has never happened before.

The first batter of the inning walked.  He tried to take second when Williams dropped a pitch to the next batter.  Williams threw him out anyway.  Adam had already called the base stolen.  It was a great throw.  Unfortunately, another walk and two hits drove in another Maine run, 2-1 Black Bears.  Carranza would make a great play at the wall on a deep fly.  Maine would load the bases, but Dehn got out of it with a ground out.  Silva gave up two hits in the bottom, but without damage.  He got Carranza to strikeout on a beautiful 12-to-6 curve and then a high fastball.   

Amy and Tori left between innings.  They did have a double header to play later this afternoon.  Sorry, ladies.  I wanted to see your games, but I did have to choose which double header to go to because of the questionable scheduling.  No announcement was made about baseball tickets getting the holder into the softball games.  There was a good reason for that.  The baseball didn’t end until well into the second softball game.       

A couple of singles and a sacrifice got Maine another run in the fourth, 3-1 Black Bears.  The Aggies answered back in the bottom with Nick Gonzales singling and stealing a base and Logan Bottrell driving him in, 3-2.  During his at bat, Joey Ortiz argued with the ump over a call.  This doesn’t usually happen in a college game.  Joey beat out an infield hit, but was picked off to end the inning. 

Caleb Henderson made a great play on a bunt in the fifth, and Williams gunned down another runner to end the inning.  In the bottom, Silva started losing some control and walked a couple batters with two outs.  He made one bad pitch to Henderson.  The ball carried beautifully over the left field wall.  5-3 Aggies.  The crowd loved it.  The dogs were barking their approval.  Silva was knocked out of the game.

For the sixth, Williams picked up his fourth caught stealing.  The Black Bears went 1 for 5 in stolen bases in this game.  They did not scout the Aggies’ backup catcher well.  The music started next door at the softball complex.  They were warming up to play, which meant this game was going into its third hour, but it was a lively game, so it was okay. 

In the seventh, there was an Aggie Baseball t-shirt toss.  I stood up for it, but I think they only threw one into the crowd from the press box.  Justin Dehn was pulled from the game after giving up a hard hit to the second batter.  Good defense and grit carried Dehn today without his best stuff.  Unfortunately, the next two relievers gave up two runs only pitching to three batters.  Chance Hroch was brought in on short rest from last night.  He induced an inning-ending double play, but Nick overthrew first, which allowed a run to score.  Black Bears back up 6-5.

The bottom of the seventh started with Carranza getting hit with a fastball on the shoulder near his head.  He was okay.  Next up, Logan Ehnes doubled.  Carranza was waved in and slid just under the tag.  The catcher immediately complained to the ump.  Carranza said something to the catcher, perhaps something about his bruised shoulder.  Words were exchanged.  Coaches and umpires got between the two, while both dugouts started yelling at each other.  No punches were thrown, but not from lack of desire.  Ehnes made it to third, but was thrown out on a squeeze play at the plate.  He might have missed the sign or couldn’t believe the sign was being given.  (I didn’t.  Small ball isn’t the Aggies’ forte.)  We were tied at 6.

The temperature dropped a bit in the eighth as the sun went behind a cloud.  Hroch had a quick top of the inning.  Marcus Still came in and led off the bottom and was promptly hit by a pitch.  It seemed really unintentional, so tempers did not flare.  Joey tried bunting him over and ended up with an infield hit.  Carranza worked out some more anger by singling in Marcus.  Trey Stine came in as a pinch hitter.  He only saw one pitch, which he apparently liked just fine and didn’t need to see any others.  The wind carried it over the right field wall for a three-run homer.  10-6 Aggies.  I think I heard on the broadcast that the team is second in the nation in runs scored.  I can believe it. 

Hroch stayed in for the ninth.  He walked the second batter.  Next up, Casals accidently tossed his bat on a swing all the way to the net by the Aggie dugout.  He got on via a tough error given to Joey.  (I thought it should have been a hit.)  Hroch was un-rattled with two on and finished out the game.  Aggies won 10-6 in front of a 500+ crowd in a 3 hour, 20+ minute game.  It went long as usual, but was fun.  (The nice weather helped too.)

Let’s hand a gameball to Black Bear, Nick Silva.  He pitched well until he ran out of gas.  Justin Dehn didn’t allow a big inning and kept the Aggies in it.  Braden Williams had a great game behind the plate, catching four runners, and had an RBI.  Caleb Henderson and Trey Stine each had critical and crushing three-run homers.  I still can’t believe Stine came off the bench and whacked the first pitch he saw over the fence.  The Aggies showed some good resilience coming back twice in the game, though their bullpen definitely has some shaky parts.

Let’s have some more.  On to Game 2.