Game 2
(Continued from Game 1.)
Between games, we went back to Ron’s car. Lovely Kiley
Tonge from the Aggie Volleyball
team was still around. Ron saw her and seemed to be mentally planning on joining me for volleyball next season. The sun was hitting the car’s windshield and
it was warm inside. I started screaming
as I sat down. It was so wonderful to be
warm again. After a snack, we
reluctantly returned to the ballpark. I
saw a couple of extremes there. One girl
entering was wearing a tank top. I told
Ron and he was shocked. (She did put on
a hoodie after sitting down.) On the
Visitor’s side, I saw one lady wearing a parka, which seemed a lot more
appropriate.
The wind had stilled a bit, but basically any wind in that
cold was miserable. The crowd had
definitely thinned out. My notes became
less frequent as I didn’t feel like writing.
Jonathan Groff got the Aggie
start in Game 2. He finished off the
first with a strikeout looking. The
umpire hesitated, causing a Devil’s fan to comment, “Drama!”
The Aggie lineup was about half different from the last game
with a bunch of subs in. Logan Bottrell led off the game with
perfectly placed infield hit behind the pitcher. Jeremiah
Barr for the Devils hit four batters in the inning, but somehow only gave up
three runs, leaving the bases loaded.
Thankfully, I don’t think he hit anyone hard. Logan
Ehnes had a memorable strikeout, accidently chucking his bat down the third
base line on the third strike. 3-0
Aggies.
Noah Haupt
managed to get a base hit on a sacrifice bunt in the second. Mason
Fishback would drive in Joey Ortiz
from second to make it 4-0. The bases
were left loaded again. In the third,
Ortiz made a good play deep in the hole on a grounder for the final out. In the bottom, Bruno Teramoto got hit on the helmet. Again, thankfully, not a hard hit. Butrell got an infield hit on another sac
bunt attempt. Gotta be really honest,
it’s not just bad pitching for MSVS, they’ve got some fielding issues too. No runs this inning.
One of the guys behind us made the comment, “Hey, there’s a
basketball game tonight at the Pan-Am.” His friend replied, “I bet it’s warmer there
too.” They both agreed that it would be
a lot more expensive as well. By the
fourth, I started listening to the Aggie
Men’s Basketball pregame on my radio.
The Aggie Women’s Basketball team
had won that afternoon. They’d be
playing for a chance at the WAC regular season championship next weekend.
AD Mario Moccia
came on and was asked about the current NCAA scandal. He told everyone not to worry about it
reaching NMSU, “We don’t have any money to bribe anyone.” It was also mentioned that tonight’s
opponent, UMKC, was reevaluating its
Division I status. With Chicago State’s shaky footing, the WAC may have some problems. The
Roo’s, for now at least, came into this game, the Aggie Men’s last home
game, with a four-game winning streak.
The Aggie Men had a chance to clinch their regular season championship
tonight.
It had also gotten cold enough that I was only able to keep
up my scorecard. Scribbling notes became
too much effort. The Aggies put up a
couple more runs to make it 6-0 after four.
Caleb Henderson, aka “Earl”,
drove in one run, but was thrown out trying to take second. Ehnes struck out again and this time helicoptered
his bat into the Aggie dugout on the third strike. Try using some of that furniture glue
spray.
In the fifth, Jancarlos
Aponte on the Devils got a triple as Tristen
Carranza missed the ball on a dive, but he was left stranded. The Devils brought in a new pitcher for the
bottom. Seven batters came to the plate
before he got an out. The Aggies sent 18
men to the plate in the inning. Coach Brian Green put in some subs, but
most of his subs had already started in the game. MSVS finally put in another pitcher to get
the last out, but by that time 14 runs had scored. The PA had to take a minute before giving the
inning totals. 20-0 Aggies.
Chance Hroch
relieved Groff in the sixth. No problems
there. The Aggies went down in the sixth
without scoring, though Carranza almost made it to first on a dropped third
strike, when the catcher nearly forgot to make a play. For the seventh, I finally noticed that MSVS
didn’t have a first base coach. At the
basketball game, it was 40-28 Aggies at the half. I was listening, but not even attempting to
take notes on the action.
After the Delta Devils’ at bat ended in the top of the
seventh, instead of the stretch, regular between innings music started
playing. Both teams then went out on the
field and started shaking hands. The
music suddenly switched to the Aggie fight song. The PA announced the final score. It was over.
Aggies win 20-0, but even
better, I was still alive. I was pretty
sure I was going to expire before the ninth.
Ron later told me that his teeth had started chattering at the start of
the inning. His windbreaker and hoodie were
insufficient against the wind. I had
heard this was going to be a 9-inning game yesterday, but that could have been
wrong. I have been there for 9 and 7
inning double headers. Whatever. I don’t feel cheated, though Death might feel
differently, just missing out on a couple new recruits.
For this game, Jonathan
Groff gets a gameball for going 5 innings, giving up no runs, three hits,
and getting 7 strikeouts. Once again, Mason Fishback gets another for going 3
for 5 with 4 RBI’s. Logan Bottrell went 4 for 5 with three runs scored. And like the last game, the Aggies got all of
their runs without a home run. I missed an
error somewhere on my scorecard. The
official scorer must have changed their mind after an inning at some point,
because I did hear the PA giving the after-inning stats.
For my part, these two games just about sucked the life out
of me. The next day, I was still nearly
too exhausted to write or do anything.
As I told Ron afterward, if it had just been me going, I wouldn’t have
gone. When I stepped outside in the
morning to get the mail, I figured out this going to be a mistake. Long, blowout games against bad opponents
aren’t that great to sit through to begin with, much less when it’s freezing. Frankly so far, this hasn’t been a very
enjoyable Aggie Baseball season with some unpleasant weather, uncompetitive
wins, and a couple of bad losses.
After the game, we went to Jack-in-the-Box, mostly since I
had a coupon for free tacos. Our meals
were good. (I especially liked my
chocolate shake.) We finished listening
to the Men’s Basketball game. They had
started out hot and had a 20-point lead for much of the game. Near the end, the seniors were taken out of
the game, one at a time. The Aggies won in a 82-58 thrashing. They
won the regular season WAC title. I was
so tired, just writing down the score and a little “Yea!” was all I could manage.
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