NM State Aggies vs UTEP Miners Softball 2-9-19

We’re back after a short break.  Ron and I had a couple of apples in his car.  Not exactly baseball food, but they were good.  The scoreboard was still messed up.  The UNM fans from the last game had left and been replaced with UTEP fans.  It was still a good crowd there for the game. 

Chloe Rivas would be starting for the Aggies.  Coach Rodolph tagged her as a two-way player.  Kennedi Sorensen was in to catch her.  Nikki Butler would be the DP.  Chloe gave up hits to the first two batters in the first inning, but worked out of it with a couple of grounders and a flyball. 

Looking over the UTEP roster, I noticed they have a few girls from El Paso, including two from my own high school, Hanks.  They must have a good softball program there.  In the bottom of the first, UTEP pitcher, Julia Flores, had a rough inning with 3 walks and 2 hits.  The Aggies went up 2-0 on an RBI single by Kennedy Johnson and a bases loaded walk by Kayla Bowen. 

Chloe worked into more trouble in the second.  She let on two with a single and a walk and one out.  The bases were loaded when third baseman, Mya Felder booted a grounder in front of the plate.  Mya got the next grounder and made a play at the plate.  Meanwhile, tragedy struck in the stands.  A kid spilled a whole bag of Skittles.  I really love Skittles.  I’m still having flashbacks about this accident.  On the field, Kasey Flores came up big with a double that scored two.  Samaria Diaz came in a bit shaky and walked two batters, which forced in a run.  2-3 UTEP.  Jeanelle Medina ended the inning with a basket catch in short right field. 

Kelsey Horton was pitched around in the bottom of the second.  Victoria Castro also drew a walk.  KJ drew another walk with two outs.  The strategy here seemed to be to stay away from the big bats.  They just didn’t properly account for Mya, who doubled and cleared the bases.  Kennedi singled in another run to make it 6-3 Aggies.

In the top of the third, Mya made a great snag and throw to get the first out.  Sam gave up a hit, but finished the inning with two strikeouts.  The Aggies got a walk and three ground outs in the bottom.  During this inning the baseball stadium lights went out next door, which felt like a power outage.  I noticed several kids in the crowd were wearing some sharp-looking orange UTEP hoodies.  They also all had Aggie posters with them.

On to the fourth.  Coach Rodolph got into the action when a UTEP player nearly hit her in the dugout with a foul.  The girl was mortified and apologized.  The Miners got two runners on.  I had it scored as two fielding errors, but the official line from the PA was one error and one hit.  I’m not sure which was which.  One was a dropped flyball by KJ, the other was a muff at third by Mya.  In any case, the Aggies were fortunate no one scored.  Sam came out of the circle pumping her fist after ending the frame with a strikeout.

The bottom of the fourth brought out the Aggie hit parade as the team batted around.  The bases were loaded with a hit and two walks.  The last walk came after the catcher dropped a sky-high popup.  Wright was relieved after giving up nine walks for the game.  Kayla Bowen sacrificed in one run in with a flyball.  Jeanelle walked to reload the bases. 

With two outs, Kelsey singled to drive in another run.  Tori walked to drive in another run.  (She was walked four times in four innings for the game.)  The big blow came with Nikki doubling in three runs.  Who do you pitch to in this lineup?  They are Murder’s Row.  Keala Brown, who’d come in to pinch run for KJ at the beginning of the inning, actually came up to bat and ended the inning.  (She was out on one of those weird softball rules.)  The damage was six runs to make it 12-3 Aggies.

By this point in the evening, it was no longer pleasant.  It was downright cold.  Ron was a bit despondent as he’d gotten a sudden call that he was going to have to work tonight.  He was also just wearing a windbreaker.  I didn’t say anything at the time, but was pretty sure the game was about to be run-ruled.  Sure enough, Sam struck out two and a flyball ended the inning and the game.  Aggies win 12-3!

Free passes really did in the Miners tonight.  It might have been a strategy to pitch carefully to the Aggies’ big boppers, but it was going to be a hard one to execute.  They were also going to have to keep scoring, but Samaria Diaz did a good job in shutting them down.  Chloe Rivas is still learning as a freshman, but she did a good job.  The defense let her down and wasn’t sharp in this game.  Offensively, Nikki Butler went 2 for 4 with 3 RBI’s, and Mya Felder went 2 for 2 and 3 more RBI’s.  It was a good day of hitting for the Aggies all around.

Ron was pretty happy with the truncated win, as he was getting cold.  We ran into Fan Mike in the parking lot while admiring his new truck.  Mike asked me, “Did you stay for that whole game Friday?”  He’d left early like most people there (the sane ones).  If Ron had thought I was exaggerating about the cold that night that comment might have convinced him. 

Ron wasn’t in a hurry to get to work.  I offered to get him dinner since he was going to have to be up all night.  We brought back Subway to my apartment.  The PA at the softball game had given a halftime update on tonight’s other Aggie game, Men’s Basketball versus GCU in Phoenix.  We listened to the end of the game while eating.  Since I only heard about the last five minutes I can’t do a recap, but I have happy totals as the Aggies won 67-64 in a thriller.  It was that close.  Ivan Aurrecoechea was back playing, which is good news.  The stat of the match was 27, the number of second chance points the Aggies got in the game.  It was a great day for NM State sports.