During the Senior Day ceremonies at the Aggie Women’s Basketball game, I tuned
into the Men’s Basketball game
against the Chicago State Cougars on the road, which was going on
at the same time on the radio. I nudged
Ron, who was with me, that it was on. We
started listening at halftime and the score was 43-15 Aggies. Ron and I both looked at each other. Did you
hear what I just heard? The guys had
a good first half. They’d win 92-58.
Ivan Aurrecoechea led the
team with 17 points. Four Aggies sat out
the game with minor injuries. Jack Nixon sounded a bit bored during
the game call. Alternately, he may have
been in a hurry to get the game over with.
There was a truncated postgame.
Him and the team had to rush to catch the flight home.
After the basketball game, we went to Zeffiro’s Pizza. We learned there not to order triple
pepperoni. They’ll give it to you, but
won’t tell you it’s not an optimal arrangement.
While listening to the end of the Men’s game, Ron checked out Game 1 of Aggie Baseball’s double header against Delaware. The game was functionally over, but still had
a while to go. The Aggies won that one 17-3.
Via online stats, Eric Mingus
had a modest performance going 3 for 4 with 5 RBI’s and a home run. As you might suspect, the rest of the team
hit well too. Starter Justin Dehn went six innings only
giving up three runs. Aldo Fernandez and Chris Barraza pitched three scoreless innings of relief.
I admit I nearly gave Ron a fake excuse to get out of
going to Aggie sports today. On the TV
at the pizza place was the reason. US Women’s Soccer was on this
afternoon. You know what that means
right? Yes, it was a chance to indulge
in worshipping my favorite female athlete, Alex
Morgan! (Sorry to all of you female
Aggie athletes.) Oh, Alex. I did get to see a bit of my soccer goddess
in the pregame, but we left a bit after the match actually started. Unfortunately, I didn’t think I could talk
Ron into staying without embarrassing myself.
Also, I wanted ice cream. Did you know that the frozen yogurt place next
to the pizza place was closed? We found
that out the hard way. How
disappointing. (Crap really, I’ve run
into the Volleyball team there
twice.) Caliches was open down the road.
I instantly picked the key lime with cheese cake. Thank goodness it was back in season. Heaven.
Okay, it was great but probably not as great as watching Alex Morgan,
but let’s forget about it and go see Aggie Baseball. Whatever.
(The match was a 2-2 tie
versus England. Typical soccer.)
We arrived at Presley
Askew Field between games. Inside,
that older gent who works for the sports department walked by me. He saw me with my scorecard out, as usual,
and told me to “Keep up the good work.”
I’ve finally made it into the big time.
As happened Friday night, the Blue Hens won the fashion show. They looked exceptionally sharp with their
yellow tops with blue letters and numbers.
Nice.
Alexia
was back as the PA. Welcome back. There were some fairly entertaining Greek
boys and girls in the center section.
Good to see them out supporting the team. They sang out the fight song when it was
played before the game. Gasp! Kelsey Horton and the Softball
team came in (though not all at the same time).
They walked passed me in an intimating enough manner that I kept my
enthusiasm to myself. Oh, well. The team and the frats were part of a really good
crowd tonight.
The Aggies got the scoring started in the first on a
passed ball. I’d noticed the Delaware
catcher, #44 Jack Goan, was
huge. He was a foot taller than the
ump. 1-0 Aggies. I had a pencil for the “What’s in your
pocket?” contest, but I wasn’t sure about the prize, so I avoided participating
again. The Aggie defense was good in the
top of the second. Joey Ortiz got the first out with a 360-degree spin on the catch
and throw. Starter Christopher Jefferson helped himself out by fielding a comebacker
and getting the lead runner at second to start a double play. In the bottom, Eric Mingus got a hustle triple off a deep flyball to center that
nearly went out. He was cashed in with
an error to make it 2-0 Aggies.
In the third, a little girl won the window toss
contest. She got a cheer and high-fives
from the Aggie dugout. Nick Gonzales, with his modest .600+
batting average, only had one hit in this game, but it was a leadoff home run
in the bottom of the inning. Caleb Henderson followed that up with a
solo homer. The “There’s no crying in
baseball!” clip played during a mound visit.
Goan missed catching a foul ball. It wasn’t an error, since it wouldn’t have
been “ordinary effort” to catch it.
However, that didn’t stop the frat boys from going after him. “Nice hair, bozo!” The girl with them said she liked his
“flow.” “That’s why we’re making fun of
him.” Mingus drove in a run to make it
5-0 Aggies. Joey struck out on a check
swing with the bases loaded to end the inning.
Politely, the Aggies only sent nine men to the plate, and not more, so
as not to destroy my scorecard.
Jefferson cruised through another inning. Nick started the fourth with getting hit hard
enough that I could hear it clearly in the stands. Ouch. Three
more runs came in for the Aggies, including one off an error. 8-0 Aggies.
Joey got a free pass the hard way too to start the fifth. He was brought in on a sacrifice by Tristen Carranza to make it 9-0. Jefferson continued to pitch from a rocking
chair. Two more Aggie runs came in in
the sixth, including one off a wild pitch, 11-0. My highlight of inning was the PA playing I’m Too Sexy. Apparently, I was in the mood for bad
nostalgic pop.
During the next musical interlude, the Old Gent was
dancing for the crowd to a techno tune.
Jefferson’s final inning was another gem, as he made two good plays on
comebackers. As part of a four-run bottom
of the inning, two runs scored as Logan
Bottrell got a hit on an infield single.
Jason Bush caught the defense
sleeping and scored from first on the play.
Second baseman Erick Bowren
for the Hens made a great play to end the inning. The ball hit the base and popped up. He smothered it and managed to throw out Nick
at first.
The eighth was uneventful. The Blue Hens finally broke through in the
ninth during Andrew Edwards’ second inning
of relief. Bowren drove in a run on a
single, but was thrown out trying to stretch it to a double. For the final batter, I don’t think I’d seen
this before. There was a delay for the
pinch hitter. The original batter and
pinch hitter went behind the dugout to exchange something. Batting helmet? Gloves?
And we’re done. 15-2 Aggies in a spirited batting
practice session. That wasn’t too
competitive. How did this game last
three hours and 40 minutes? Half the
game was the Blue Hens having eight innings of three and four batters. The Aggies never even batted around in any of
the innings. Delaware issuing 10 walks
probably didn’t help. It was a long day
at the university for sports today.
Let’s hand out some game balls. Chris
Jefferson looked very good going seven innings while only giving up two
hits. Caleb Henderson was seeing the ball well, as he went 4 for 4 with a
home run. Eric Mingus went 3 for 5, driving in two. Okay, let’s do this again tomorrow after I’ve
gotten some sleep. At least this recap
didn’t run as long as the game did.
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