It was a great
season on the diamonds at New Mexico
State. Well, sitting in the stands
it wasn’t always great. In fact, it was
miserable at times because of the weather.
It definitely made one grateful for the pleasant afternoons and evenings
later in the season.
Both teams took
steps forward this year. Softball not
only won the conference again, they did it against increased competition,
namely Grand Canyon being eligible
for the tournament. They also played
some top teams and did well. Last year,
those teams just trounced them. Baseball
hammered some inferior competition at the beginning of the season. For the first time, Aggie Baseball beat an SEC school, beat Arizona State in Phoenix, and swept the Lobos. Otherwise, they
stumbled in conference and against good competition. However, their pitching really came together
at the tournament and they rode that to a conference championship.
From here, both
teams can look to trying to win a game in the NCAA Tournament as their next goal.
Of course, there’s no guarantee of continuing to win the conference to
do so. It’s not like the other teams
aren’t going to try and improve.
Coach Kathy Rodolph
and Coach Brian Green seem to take
different approaches in their pre-conference games. Softball takes on the toughest competition
(including the #1 in the nation), while Baseball has a much softer
schedule. There are differences between
who they are able to schedule though.
Softball programs will seemingly take on anybody, anywhere, even if
NMSU’s Softball Complex is nothing special.
Presley Askew Field for
baseball can only seem to attract small eastern colleges that are snowed in
early in the year.
Both coaches seem
to be really gifted in recruiting, which will help tremendously in keeping
these programs competitive. Coach Green
has been nationally recognized for a couple of years. Coach Rodolph keeps finding the right pieces
to put together a winning team. She’s
definitely built a program that should continue to attract talent. Baseball is just starting to get that
respectability. The biggest sell is that
they’ve been able to put nine players in the pros recently. Having Daniel
Johnson as a top 10 prospect in the Nationals’
organization is a billboard for NMSU. Kyle Bradish may do the same for the
program this year with his high draft pick.
Let’s hand out
some season gameballs for softball. Kelsey Horton. Sigh. Kelsey Horton. I don’t even know what to say about how great
she is. Kelsey has this presence about
her when she comes to bat. She’s larger
than life. She also really improved
defensively at second base. Let me toss
out a couple of others. Fahren Glackin black-and-blued her way
on base constantly. (I wonder if Kelsey
moves back to first with Fahren graduating?)
Nikki Butler made a great
compliment to Kelsey pounding out the runs.
Defensively, Jeanelle Medina
was a rock at third.
For the baseball
team, it’s got to be pitching that gets the spotlight. Top prospect Kyle Bradish, WAC Pitcher of the Year Jonathan Groff, big game mid-week-er Justin Dehn, and ironman closer Brock Whittlesey formed an Aggie staff for the ages. The offense, especially at home, was
mighty. Early in the season, they were
insanely powerful. Caleb My Name is Earle Henderson and Tristen Carranza were the anchors.
2-10-18
NM State Aggies
vs Kentucky Wildcats Softball. (Game 1, Game 2) This was the first of
NM State’s poor scheduling this spring.
Here was softball playing a nationally-ranked program at the same time
that the Men’s Basketball team was
playing GCU for the “Pack the Pan-Am” promotion. Regardless, this double-header sweep had to
be the best start ever for the program.
The Aggies didn’t even play that well in the games and still beat them. The Wildcats just didn’t seem properly
prepared.
The Wildcats got
prepared quickly overnight. It was cold
and windy, the Wildcats won in a rout, and team autographs did not go well for
me, but I did get to chat with volleyball Coach
Mike Jordan.
Troy Cox Classic
Softball Invitational
2-16-18 A
rainout is a bad way to start a tournament, especially given that they were
selling tickets right before the inevitable rain started. I’m still a bit angry over this, and I’m not
entirely sure I got my money’s worth.
2-17-18 More scheduling issues. I had to choose
between a baseball double header and using my expensive softball ticket
from yesterday. I did both, sort
of. I missed the second baseball game
(which was okay, since they lost in a shocker after utterly creaming Towson 24-4 in Game 1). I also missed the upset of the softball
tournament with Boston U beating #1 Oklahoma. That said, I saw the Aggies play two good
games and the biggest crowd I’d ever seen at the softball complex, which was
officially beyond capacity. The girls’
game against the Sooners may have been one of their best played games of
the year.
2-18-18 In
spite of my high opinion, Aggie Softball did lose both games the day
before. Thankfully, they won today,
making me feel better about my pricey ticket investment, but I did have to get
to the park at 9:00am to see it. I also
missed Aggie Baseball, scheduled at the same time. I didn’t remember until I looked at my post,
but me and Ron went to an Aggie Women’s Basketball game that afternoon.
Again, scheduling, but damn, I’m certifiably insane going to all these
sports.
NM State Aggies
vs MS Valley St Delta Devils
Baseball. The Aggies won 39-0. Let that sink in. Noah
Haupt went 6 for 7 and had a program record 10 RBI. What happened to this kid? Where did he go for the rest of the season?
2-24-18
NM State Aggies
vs MS Valley St Delta Devils
Baseball. After winning 15-4 in Game 1, me and Ron nearly froze to death watching them win 20-0 in Game 2.
NM State Aggies
vs Arizona Wildcats Baseball. The Aggies nearly won this one, but lost
5-4. They only had one bad inning where Bruno Teramoto committed two
errors. He lost the second base job for
the rest of the season after this game.
NM State Aggies
vs the Harvard Crimson Baseball Game
2. More scheduling issues. We missed Game 1 while at an Aggie Women’s Basketball game. (Hey,
it was indoors, and they won the regular season championship today.) This game was a tough loss after two close
wins.
NM State Aggies
vs the Harvard Crimson
Baseball. Great bounce back win
23-4. It’s like a really weird football
score.
NM State Aggies
vs Maine Black Bears Baseball. Aggie Softball had a big win over Minnesota the previous night. (I had no coverage of it unfortunately). Aggie Baseball also had a big win on the road
versus Alabama last week with Justin Dehn shutting them out. (I got no coverage of that either.) Once again, I had to choose between the
baseball double header and a softball double header. Your baseball ticket wouldn’t get you into
the softball for free either. I made the
right choice. This was a great
game. Braden Williams started at catcher and threw out four runners. In Game 2, I caught a foul ball, my
proudest moment at the ballpark (kinda).
NM State Aggies
vs Seattle U Redhawks Baseball. Baseball had a bad loss at Arizona on Tuesday, 3-20-18, but
Brett Worthen made his first
pitching appearance in two years and looked good. On 3-21-18, Aggie Softball beat the Lobos in Albuquerque. I almost got to watch that one. On Friday, 3-23-18, Baseball had a good
comeback win against the Redhawks.
Today, on a day
with free frozen custard and a bunch of cute dogs for Bark at the Park, it was
a terrible day to be at the stadium.
What started as a nice afternoon, turned into a windy, freezing cold
rain by the end. I abandoned the game in
the eighth, fleeing for my life, as I hadn’t dressed for that weather. Across the street, eating lunch, the Aggies
almost made a comeback while I was listening on the radio. I might have lost my lunch if they’d
won. At least they won the next day (3-25-18).
Aggie Sports
scheduling issues reached their zenith today as their home baseball game
against Texas Tech was
canceled. The conflict had something to
do with where Easter fell this year.
This was entirely foreseeable and affected both teams, so they mutually
canceled the game. How disappointing.
Just to make it
worse, Softball was going to be playing UTEP here at the same time. A game you
couldn’t play, cross-scheduled with a rivalry game. Brilliant.
The girls swept another double header from the Miners this season. I probably should have gone ahead and taken
the afternoon off to see them.
NM State Aggies
vs Sacramento State Hornets
Baseball. An appearance by the Easter Bunny was a highlight
today. The crowd almost didn’t show up
because of a start time change. And the Aggies
lost.
This recap is
going way longer than I intended. We’ll
finish this in Part 2.
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