NM State Baseball and Softball Recap 2018 Part 2

Continued from Part 1.

4-7-18

NM State Aggies vs CSU-Bakersfield Roadrunners Softball.  Ms. Legs made an appearance in the stands as Aggie Softball run-ruled Game 1, and shutout the Roadrunners in Game 2.  

4-10-18

I missed the Aggies playing the Lobos, and not for the last time this season, and they won 9-0.  Coach Brian Green got his 100th career victory.

4-13-18

Aggie Softball had a double header in the Phoenix against Grand Canyon.  They won the first game in a close contest and suffered a crushing loss in the last inning of Game 2. 

4-14-18

NM State Aggies vs Chicago St Cougars Baseball.  I missed out on a free t-shirt for this game, but I’m not bitter.  I also missed out on seeing Aggie Women’s Tennis and gorgeous Eli Arnaudova for the final time this year.  I hope she isn’t graduating this spring.  After a solid season defensively, the baseball team really butchered this game in the field with four errors and barely managed to beat a team win-less in conference play.  They won more convincingly the next day (4-15-18).   

4-17-18

Aggie Baseball had an early evening game against Sul Ross State.  The game featured three sets of brothers, including having a Munden brother on each team.  The Aggies won, but not very convincingly against a DIII school.

4-20-18, 4-21-18, 4-22-18

Aggie Baseball endured cold, wind, rain, and even darkness to win two of three on the road from a bad Northern Colorado team.  I was unimpressed, even with the wins.  I probably should have cut them a bit of slack because of the conditions there.  Matt McHugh did a good job doing color commentary on the radio.

4-25-18

What a change.  From 40 degrees and lower in Colorado to 97 degrees in Arizona.  The warm temperature did the Aggies good as they got their first victory against Arizona State in Phoenix.  Okay, I was back on the bandwagon.

4-27-18

My first look at Grand Canyon’s new baseball stadium via GCU’s video feed came at the cost of an Aggie run-rule loss on Friday.  The Aggies came back with a run-rule win on Saturday, but lost the series on Sunday.  Meanwhile, Aggie Softball was playing Seattle U here for the regular season championship Friday.  They lost this game, meaning they’d have to win twice on Saturday for the championship.

4-28-18

NM State Aggies vs Seattle U Redhawks Softball.  As of Game 1, I have officially seen everything in a ball game.  The fans in the stands corrected the ump on the score and he agreed and had it changed.  The Aggies won this game on a walk, which run-ruled the game in the fifth.  They won Game 2 on a convincing run-rule as well.  Kelsey Horton added to her legend with a walk-off grand slam that won them the championship.  The feel-good moment of the game was Caity Szczesny homering and nearly jumping out of her shoes.  Senior Day ceremonies were held afterward.    

5-1-18

Poor scheduling with Aggie Softball playing Arizona and Aggie Baseball playing the Lobos next door.  Softball even had to cancel one game of their double header to accommodate baseball.  Doesn’t anybody take a close look at the schedules before making these commitments?  I saw this coming right after the schedules came out.  The girls played tough, but lost 5-1.  The guys had a great win, 13-2.

5-4-18

Aggie fans totally “Stuffed the Skew” with over 2,100 showing up for their Friday night game against Utah Valley.  I don’t know how they got them all in there, but they did.  And they saw a great, close game with the Aggies coming out on top 4-3.  Coach Brian Green in the post-game interview credited the crowd willing the team to victory.

5-5-18

NM State Aggies vs Utah Valley Wolverines Baseball.  It was a great day for baseball.  The Softball girls were there and were nearly taken out by errant foul ball.  I heroically jumped over four rows of seats to catch the ball and save them.  In gratitude, they took me out and we partied all night.  What a great season this was!  (That story might actually be less embarrassing for the team than what actually happened.)  Oh, and Aggie baseball won.    

5-6-18

NM State Aggies vs Utah Valley Wolverines Baseball.  The last home baseball game of the season was a good one.  It was a great day for a game and a big crowd for a Senior Day sendoff.  I finally got to see the female PA, Alexia, as she was introduced to the crowd, since she was graduating too.  Nolan Fox on the radio, another graduate, thanked Adam Young for his tutelage.  Then there was the bird that was nearly hit by a foul ball, but didn’t move.  He was an Aggie Baseball bird, “We don’t move.”  The Aggies would win on a walk-off grand slam by Nick Gonzales.  He must have been watching Kelsey Horton last week.       

5-8-18

Kelsey Horton won WAC Player of the Year . . . again.  Unlike last year, she didn’t trip while dancing at the banquet and enter the tournament injured.  Well, that was the other teams’ only hope.

5-9-18

The Aggie Baseball beat the Lobos to sweep them for the season.  Shamefully, I completely missed the game.  When I realized that, it was one of the low-points of the season for me.

5-10-18

The WAC Softball Tournament begins.  I am there.
Game 1, Game 2

5-11-18

Aggie Softball won their first game in impressive fashion.  I impressively made it through 13 hours of softball that day.
Game 3 (Aggies), Game 4, Game 5, Game 6

5-12-18

Nikki Butler homered twice in the Aggies’ second win of the tournament. 
Game 7 (Aggies), Game 8, Game 9

5-13-18

Kelsey Horton set the program record for home runs and led the nation in the stat as well, as the Aggies won the WAC Softball Championship.  It was a great game to win the tournament on. 

5-18-18

Aggie Baseball won their second game in a row versus UTRGV, keeping their regular season championship hopes alive.  Meanwhile, Aggie Softball played their first NCAA Tournament game.  They lost 2-0 to Arizona State.  There was no coverage of the game for me, not even Statcast.  Thankfully, the team at least tweeted updates during the game.  Adam Young was busy in Edinburg, but couldn’t Jack Nixon have gone and called the game or somebody else?  They’ve broadcast their NCAA games the last couple of the years.  If the team doesn’t feel slighted, then I do.  At least the baseball guys supported the girls with a great tweet.

5-19-18

Rough day for Aggie fans.  Baseball lost out on first place and second place in the WAC with a gut-wrenching loss in Edinburg to UTRGV.  I’m still stinging from listening to that loss.  We’ll never know, but I think this loss may have motivated the team for the WAC Tournament.  Softball lost 9-0 on run-rule to Long Beach State and ended their NCAA Tournament run.  I’m sure Coach Rodolph told them afterward what I’ll say now, “Girls, you had a great year.  I’m very proud of you all.”

5-23 to 25-18

I really did start working on this post before the WAC Baseball Tournament started.  After that last lost and their early exits the last two years, could you blame me for being skeptical about how Aggie Baseball was going to do here?  Well, they sure showed me by going 3-0 and steamrolling right into the Championship game on Saturday.

5-26-18

I’d sort of like to forget this game for the result and how long it took to get there, but then I’d be overlooking Brock Whittlesey’s heroics.  This was his signature moment in the program, going over seven innings in relief.  And this was after pitching two of the last three days.  

5-27-18

After five hours of ball late yesterday and a crushing defeat, I’d like to say that made today’s championship win by the Aggies over Sacramento State even more sweet, but that’s not the case.  This game was tension-wracked all the way through.  I could only enjoy it after that final out.  The possibility of losing was almost unbearable after having made it to this point.   

6-1-18

The Aggies finally got their third game against Texas Tech today.  Unfortunately, it was in Lubbock in 104 degree afternoon heat.  It was even hotter on the turf.  Neither team lost to the heat, but the Aggies lost 9-2 to the #9 team in the nation.

6-2-18

Kyle Bradish pitched one of his finest games of the season, going into the eighth inning versus Kent State.  It was hot there again, but Kyle threw 120 pitches and only yielded one run.  Unfortunately, that one run came on a heart-breaking, first pitch two-run homer off of reliever Brock Whittlesey.  That was enough for Kent State to win 2-1.  The Aggies’ season ended, but what a ride!

6-5-18

And two more final accolades for Aggie Sports this season. Kyle Bradish was drafted in the fourth round by the Angels.  This was the highest an Aggie had ever gone in the draft.  With several players from the last couple of years playing pro ball, this is going to have a lasting positive impact on the program.  Kyle, if you make it into the Bigs with the Angels, I will root for them (on days you’re pitching, otherwise no way, I’m a Ranger fan).  Nick Gonzales was also named a freshman collegiate All-American.  And he didn’t even start at the beginning of the year.     

Cody Decker, a former player of Coach Brian Green and a baseball icon, started this season with a good luck tweet.  He ended it with another tweet of congratulations for a great season.    Adam Young called this the greatest year in NM State sports.  Certainly baseball and softball helped to make that possible. 

I really hope that the university can hold on to both the coaches.  Kathy Rodolph is responsible for all of the success that Aggie Softball has ever had.  I was actually worried about Coach Green’s job going into the WAC Tournament.  He’s a good recruiter, but I don’t know if he’s able to manage the team to a championship was what I was thinking.  I happily apologize.      

Not only did I start writing this too early, I stopped and started on it three times, just to make it harder on myself apparently.  I probably should have made separate posts for baseball and softball, but there was some intertwining between their games and ultimately, they mirrored each other in winning their WAC Tournaments.  I don’t want to pick a favorite game or moment for either team this season; it’s just going to be remembered as 2018 and a pair of championships.