Sports Journal March 1-8, 2019

3-1-19

I feel a bit dumb actually writing this thing out after writing out and posting about the later three games of this series.  It’s been a long week of catching up after last weekend.  In any case, Aggie Baseball took on the Delaware Blue Hens on this Friday night.  Our visitors were so far winless this season with a sub .200 batting average.  Apparently, when this series was scheduled the Hens were a better team.  (Seriously, I don’t think Coach Green meant to schedule a bad team to come here.) 

For whatever their terrible record is and their funky name, the Blue Hens had one of the most awesome visiting uniforms I’ve seen here.  Their Friday tops were basically the Astros’ 70’s throwback jerseys, but with a blue, black, and gray bands.  They were just incredible.  Their hats featured the Olde English “D” that the Tigers wear, which I, as someone who likes the Tigers, just loved.  Their Saturday and Sunday uniforms were also simply superb.

Meanwhile, the Aggies were leading country in several offensive stats.  They’d had a hard game at Texas Tech (2-26-19), but they’re still a good team.  Coach Green had had his surgery on his Achilles right after.  He was sitting in a golf cart for this game.  Caleb Henderson was out for the game for a funeral.  Bruno Teramoto was in at DH. 

Brock Whittlesey started for the Aggies.  I was watching the game via Aggievision over the Internet.  Commentator Coach Jerry Lujan was critical of Whitt (2-22-19) last Friday because he looked cold out on the mound.  That was until the coach walked out to his car in the cold, then he understood perfectly how bad it was.  Tonight at least, the weather was reasonably pleasant. 

As usual, I was busy with work and only watched in bits and pieces.  In the second, the Aggies got on the ump’s bad side with a cross up.  Whitt accidently drilled him as catcher Braden Williams missed the ball.  The ump patted Braden on the rear and gave him a friendly warning.  Whitt and Braden did combine on a strikeout-throwout at second in the inning.

In the third, Nick Gonzales hit a solo home run.  It bounced off a tree behind the fence and came back on the field.  Tristen Carranza homered back-to-back with him.  He had showed up ump on a presumed walk and was called back.  In the sixth, an Aggie run came in on a balk.  In the seventh, Tristan Peterson cranked a three-run homer.

It was a good night for pitching too.  Whitt went eight innings.  He gave up 6 hits, and 2 runs in the fourth off a home run.  He had 12 strikeouts and no walks.  Nick added an RBI single in the eighth.  Carranza also hit his third homer of the night in the eighth.  I saw that last one.  It was a monster to left.  The Blue hens tacked on a run in the ninth, but were never really in the game.  11-3 Aggies in a tidy three-hour game.

3-5-19

Maybe if I’d thought through the WAC Softball Tournament being held out-of-town, I might have thought to go to tonight’s Aggie Softball double header versus the AZ Wildcats.  This would have been a good event to go and watch.  I’d checked on the live stats for Game 1 before work.  Stupidly, I didn’t realize that there was actually a TV broadcast of the game.  I somehow missed the link until I caught up with the game at work.

The video showed a big crowd.  There was a bunch of little girl softball players there.  I came in with game basically over.  Samaria Diaz had a rough day pitching.  It was 1-10 AZ in the fifth.  I did see Kelsey Horton getting her second home run of game which avoided the run rule in the bottom of the fifth.  Kayla Green came in in the sixth and gave up a homer, which did lead to the run rule after that inning.  I think she’s been relegated to a relief role for this season.  3-11 AZ in six was the final.

Brian Cox joined Adam Young as a commentator for the game.  He addressed something I’d always wondered about.  He said that the underhand throwing motion is actually a lot less stressful on the arm, even though the throwing motion looks really violent.  This is how the girls can pitch so much with less rest than the baseball pitchers.

For Game 2, there was video from a single camera, but no commentary.  You did get the crowd sounds and could hear a strong wind blowing.  Maybe it was a good thing I didn’t go.  Analise de la Roca started.  She gave up a three-run homer in the first.  The crowd went nuts for a t-shirt toss.  They went even crazier for some country concert tickets given out next inning.  I was amused by the intermission music as the PA played the Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

In the third, the Aggies nearly loaded bases, but Brandy Hernandez got picked off at second from overrunning the base.  Kelsey filed out to end the inning.  Victoria Castro did solo homer to center to leadoff the fourth.  In the fifth, AZ loaded the bases with one out.  There was a bad throw home by Analise that brought in a run.  Kennedi Sorenson at catcher was immediately taken out for Nikki Butler.  Was Kennedi injured trying to reach for that throw or did Coach Rodolph think she should have caught that ball?  It was then 1-6 AZ when they loaded the bases again with 2 outs, which were then cleared with a double.  I think Arizona didn’t want to keep playing in the wind.  It was 1-11 AZ when dust cleared (except it didn’t because of the wind) and that was the run ruled final.

Coach Rodolph, on the Aggie Coaches Show the next day, was actually pretty upbeat.  She’d told the girls that this stretch was going to be hardest of the season for them.  Now they have a stick to measure themselves and future opponents by.  I hope she was being encouraging to the girls after a couple of tough losses.  The coach also thanked Arizona for coming.  Certainly they are doing the Aggies a favor by continuing to come here.  Their coach really likes the crowds that show up for these games.

3-8-19

It was not a good night for baseball.  There was weather clearly on the way, and it was very windy and overcast with dust and cold regardless.  I’d planned on finally going to at least one Friday night Aggie Baseball game this season.  Thank goodness I picked the right one (2-15-19) and not these last two Friday night games.  I watched via the Internet from the comfort of work.  Ron was there and reported 40 fans at the start of the game.  He counted.  He upped the crowd 100 at its peak.

Tonight’s game was against the La Salle Explorers.  They were surprisingly good this year compared to their last season, so Adam Young was expecting a good game in terrible conditions tonight.  Brock Whittlesey started a bit wild for the Aggies.  He gave up a walk, hit a batter, gave up a single, and a run.  In the bottom, the La Salle pitcher gave up his first walk of the season after two starts.  With two on, Nick Gonzales got it into jetstream to left.  3-1 Aggies after one.

I had some spotty watching after that because of work.  In the fourth, Tristan Peterson hit a two-run homer.  However, Whitt was chased in the fifth after two runs and a 7-5 La Salle lead.  In the bottom, Caleb Henderson put the Aggies back up with a three-run homer, 8-7, and he chased off their starter. 

The turning point of the game was the bottom of the sixth when the Aggies left the bases loaded.  They’d need those runs later.  In the seventh, Logan Bottrell in centerfield just missed a diving catch and two runs scored to make it 9-8 La Salle.  The rain started here, but then let up to a drizzle.  The Aggies had a shutdown inning in the eighth with a double play and Aldo Fernandez getting a strikeout. 

The rain started again in the bottom and finally got hard enough to cause a delay after one out.  As I gathered from Ron, it was actually hailing.  He’d finally left at that point.  The delay was only 12 minutes.  It was a short shower and the artificial turf dried out quick.  Unfortunately, the Aggies couldn’t mount a comeback and lost 9-8. 

It was a good game, except for the hail and the four-hour 20-minute running time.  There were six lead changes in game.  La Salle bullpen was good.  They didn’t allow a run.  The Aggie defense committed four errors, which was what did them in.  Nick Gonzales went 4 for 4.  He was the national hitter of the month, hitting over .600. 

This was a big win for La Salle.  Thus it was a bad loss for the Aggies.  This was going to drop their RPI.  (I don’t know what RPI is, but they think it’s important.)  Once again, I’ve written up this recap after writing up the other three games of the series.  I do truly question the way I’m doing this.