This is going to be a bit of a short report. By the time the Aggie Women’s Basketball game let out, this game between the Aggies and Lobos had been going on for probably over an hour-and-a-half. However, I will be providing more coverage
than the local newspaper. I just looked
over Monday’s paper this morning, in addition to the weekend papers, which all
had zero coverage of this softball tournament.
Shame. I’m offended and I’m not
even on the team. Come on, they were
playing their rivals UNM and UTEP here.
The weather today was cold, but not windy, so it was
fine as long as you were bundled up like I was.
Ron had left his house in a hurry.
He forgot his seat cushions and only had a windbreaker. Ron has a lot more natural padding than I do,
but after hearing about what happened to me on Friday, he wasn’t sure he
was going to make it through tonight’s games.
The parking lot was again full. By strange coincidence, Ron ended up parking
in the same space I did yesterday. The
grandstand inside was full with Aggie and Lobo fans. Here, you would expect me to update you with
the score and inning of the game in progress.
Instead, the scoreboard was showing Ghost
in the Machine-like gibberish. So,
we were in the dark as to the game status.
I suppose we could have asked the senior couple behind us, since they
were really into the game. In fact, they
were providing nonstop commentary on the game, whether we wanted it or
not. It felt like the right decision to
not engage them.
On field, Kayla
Green was pitching for the Aggies. I
saw her finish the inning with two strikeouts and a big smile. The PA started playing Take Me Out to the Ballgame.
Ah, so it was the middle of the fifth.
For whatever reason, neither group of fans were into singing today. We still didn’t know the score.
But Kelsey Horton
knew what time it was! Pow! She hammered a moonshot to left field that
also drove in Brandy Hernandez, who had
walked in front of her. Let’s do that
again, but this time with Victoria
Castro! Kaboom! It was another high-arcing shot that just cleared
the wall. Wow, did we arrive at the
right time to see the fireworks. And the
score is . . . I don’t know. I wasn’t
going to bother with a scorecard for a partial game anyway, but it’d be nice to
know who was winning.
Unsurprisingly, the Lobos brought in a reliever. The lefty hit the backstop with her first
warmup pitch. Un-intimidated, Nikki Butler stepped in and hit a
double. Kennedy Johnson would then drive in pinch runner Keala Brown. The Lobos nearly turned a double play next. The Lobo first baseman did the splits
stretching for the throw. The Aggies
scored another run from third on a bad throw to second, but the inning did end
with a caught stealing.
Ah, we had an update from the PA. After five innings, the Aggies were up
6-3. At last, I could put some context
to the game. Starting off the sixth, it
was hard to ignore a screaming Lobo player in the dugout. She was going insane cheering for her team. She had reasons to cheer. The Lobos loaded the bases. Nikki made a bad pickoff throw to third that
brought in a run. On the next pitch, the
batter cranked a three-run homer to make it 6-7 Lobos.
“Not in my house!” screamed Kelsey Horton as she banged
another home run! Okay, she didn’t
actually shout anything, but the actual event was more dramatic. Brandy had drawn another walk in front of her
to start the inning. With her short
stature, opposing pitchers are going to have trouble putting it in her strike
zone. The home run ball actually hit the
left center light pole in the outfield.
I told you she was “The Natural.”
The PA needs to get that music from the movie for her home runs. There were guys from the Aggie Baseball team standing behind the outfield wall
watching. They got a good view of the
homer and cheered on the girls.
8-7 Aggies, oops . . . pardon, 9-7 Aggies, as Nikki
piled on with a solo shot. Welcome to
Aggie Softball batting practice UNM.
After this, the Lobo coach took a cue from her maniac player and started
going insane over balls and strikes. She
was lucky she didn’t get tossed. Her
pitcher got two strikeouts looking to end the inning anyway.
The Lobos weren’t done yet. The seventh started with a foul ball nearly
hitting a bird sitting on the grandstand netting. The next solid hit was a homer that hit the
malfunctioning scoreboard, which would have read 9-8 Aggies if it was
working. I wonder if there was an earlier
homer that knocked it out of whack to begin with. That shot did knock Kayla out of the
game. Samaria Diaz came in in relief and struck out the side with one
walk.
Aggies
win 9-8! I have no stats
other than Kelsey Horton is awesome,
which isn’t a stat, it’s a fact. Practice
for the baseball team ended and they came in for the last inning. They’d be back after the between games
break. Ron and I retreated to his car
for some snacks. Hey, if Concessions did
corn-in-a-cup at the Softball Complex, I’d buy more of their food. Next up, another rivalry game, this time with
UTEP.
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