With over an hour between games, I decided to go get
dinner rather than risk the concessions.
While my beloved Schlotzsky’s
was nearby, McDonald’s actually sent
me some coupons earlier in the week.
Since they wanted my business, I decided to give it to them. The quarter-pounder and fries were okay. If it’s possible to screw up ice cream,
McDonald’s almost found a way. The
“Mcflurry” isn’t going to cause anyone at Dairy
Queen or PQ Treats or Caliche’s to lose any sleep. The best thing was the Powerade drink, which tasted terrible, but I’d lost enough fluids
out in the heat that I didn’t care.
The air-conditioning at the restaurant also helped
tremendously while I was eating. A
couple of guys, who were at the game, were there too. They were talking about getting teachers
passes to the tournament or to a Chihuahuas’ game in return for passing grades
for some players. Umm. . . Hopefully, they weren’t talking about the
Aggies, maybe some high school players.
Okay, that doesn’t sound any better.
Apparently, this only worked because the teachers agreed that the
players were putting in the effort with schoolwork.
Back at the stadium, I ran into a happy Adam Young, who was broadcasting all
the games for the WAC network. He seemed
to be enjoying it. I was wearing my Cardinals hat, his favorite team, so he
was glad to see me. I wasn’t wearing any
Aggie gear today. I had on my very cool
Peanuts shirt, which I never seem to have any opportunity to wear.
With the next game starting at 7:00, it became cooler
and much more pleasant quickly. I sat
next to Danny again and we were in the shade.
There were two women umpires for the game. They were dancing out on the field to the
pregame music. A bigger crowd came in. Seattle
U and the UMKC both brought in
quite a few fans. Both teams’ fans were
highly partisan and active in the game.
The reduced temperature probably helped the crowd’s energy. At one point, I even saw a Roo fan lady
nearby holding up an iPad with a video feed to show relatives back home.
The Utah Valley
Wolverines team also came in to watch.
Suddenly, I caught my breath. It
was her, my favorite opposing softball player, their catcher, Basia Query. (Admittedly, I have other favorite opposing
players in other sports.) A year later,
I had not forgotten her at all. In fact,
I’d been looking forward to seeing her.
She is gorgeous. Unfortunately, they all sat behind us. Danny would, over the course of the game,
chat up some of the girls directly behind us.
Basia was seated higher up, so I had no chance of any interaction with
her. Even worse, I spilled my entire cup
of water in my lap right as she walked by.
I got it all over notes.
Everything dried quickly, but after the game, I found out my pants and
underwear were still soaked.
The first inning was nervous for both teams. The Redhawks had an error in the top. The Roos had two tough plays that could have
been called errors, but were later ruled hits.
(This started a series of disagreements I had with the official scorer during
the tournament.) On one play, shortstop Morgan Bryn took a bouncer to the
face. A Roo fan nearby helpfully shouted
out, “That didn’t hurt!” Sports parents
. . .
Defense picked up in the second. Redhawk right fielder Cherise Silvan made a great catch at the wall. Their shortstop Maddie Kristjanson made a sliding play from her knee. The Utah Valley didn’t seem entirely
impressed with the game. They didn’t
really talk softball at all. They
weren’t even sure when they playing tomorrow.
The girls did sing along with the PA music. They also piped up during the game to join
Roo fans in heckling the umpire after a questionable pitch call, so they were
watching.
In the bottom, a Redhawks runner was called out for
leaving early, I think. Plays requiring
a footnote don’t occur very frequently in baseball. In softball, it’s almost every game. There was a trivia question for a WAC goody
bag about the Roos. (I don’t even
remember an Aggie question during the tournament.) A Grand
Canyon fan got it, right before a Roo fan could. The GCU guy gave it to the lady anyway.
After three and a half innings, Danny made the
observation that we’d seen a game and a half, but only one team had
scored. In the fourth, a hit batter, an
error, and a walk loaded the bases for the Roos. Alex
Larson singled in one run, then Sydney
Garcia doubled in two more. The UMKC
fans went nuts. 3-0 Roos. Third base Ashlin O’Brien followed that up with a great shoe-top catch in the
bottom.
Olivia
Fluehr led off the fifth with a home run. Let me also mention here that she was the
Roos’ starting pitcher too. Their fans
went crazy. The Seattle fans and their
bench got up in arms over a ball call.
They let out a sarcastic cheer on the next strike. Two walks and another error got driven in by Faith Willis and Sydney and a wild
pitch. 7-0 Roos.
Mid-inning was the best fifth inning stretch of the
whole tournament. The Wolverine girls
stepped up and sang it out. It was
great. After that, a couple of girls
seemed to be having a conversation about opposing players hitting on them. They didn’t like it. (How about opposing fans? More specially, how would Basia feel about it?)
Cherise on the Redhawks led off the bottom with a walk
and Nicole Bolasky drove her
in. Actually, it was a little more
complicated than the box score. First
base picked up an infield hit and threw it to the second baseman, who was
covering first, except she wasn’t. The
runner scored from second and Nicole was thrown out trying to take second. 7-1 Roos.
Between innings was the second biggest controversy of
the tournament. (We’ll cover number one
when it comes up later.) There was a
song contest. The PA mis-identified the
artist doing the song and invalidated the contest. How do you confuse Kenny Rogers and Kenny
Loggins? Utah Valley girls were shouting
out, “It’s Kenny Rogers!” (Now that I’ve
written that, I say the “Valley Girls” should be their nickname.)
You’d never have guessed the score from the opposing
fans cheering. Both sides were all
in. For the sixth, the Redhawks’ fans
got a loud “Let’s go Redhawks!” chant going as they got two runners on. A run nearly scored on a fielder’s choice,
but the batter was called out when she backed up on the baseline to avoid a
tag. The runner was sent back to
third. They weren’t able to score.
The Redhawks committed their third error of the game
that let a runner on first in the seventh.
(The official scorer didn’t cut them any slack. The Valley Girls didn’t either and laughed at
the play.) Cherise ended the top of the
inning with a great play on a slicing fly ball in right. (I didn’t actually see it. It was out of my field of view.) The Roo fans even gave her a hand.
Our final was 7-1 Roos.
The game honestly felt a lot closer because of the passion of both sets
of fans. Olivia Fluehr is the easy Player of the Game, going the full seven
innings and only giving up one run. And
she hit a home run. Sydney Garcia also had a good game with three RBI’s. I’ll call this an upset since it was the last
seed in the tournament beating last year’s runner up. I wonder if Seattle is still in shock from Kelsey Horton’s walkoff grand slam last
month (4-28-18).
As the Valley Girls were leaving, Danny promised to root
for them tomorrow. I mentally promised
to root for one of them tomorrow. And
that ended Day One of the WAC Tournament.
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