NM State Aggies vs CSU-Bakersfield Roadrunners Baseball 3-24-19

I was missing Day 2 of the Overwatch Tournament on TV this Sunday, but I needed to go to this baseball game anyway.  Ron came by and picked me up.  Outside of the stadium, there was a Caliches stand set up handing out free frozen custard cones.  Well, now I felt much better about coming.  Much like the autographs yesterday at softball, I wonder why they didn’t advertise this beforehand. 

Hey, even better!  I found half a bag of Skittles jammed into the seats where we were sitting at.  Skittles are my favorite hard candy.  The bag was sealed.  This is totally okay.  (I obviously have no pride or shame.  I picked up some food out of the trash barrel at work last week.  But in fairness, the donuts were still the box and the bunch of grapes were on a plate and they were sitting on top of everything.) 

It was a clear beautiful day with a cool stiff breeze.  Several dogs were in attendance.  One of the umps playfully slapped the bills of a couple of Aggie players as they walked past their dugout.  I’d noticed yesterday, the Aggies had started doing their simultaneous dismiss after the Anthem again.  It looks good.

It was four hours until Aggie Softball’s game next door.  A few members of the team came in to watch for a while.  Boy, Keala Brown has a great smile, just like her autograph picture.  The Roadrunners’ dugout got fired up early after two swallow little hits and then some hustle by Noah Barba taking third.  Chance Hroch, starting for the Aggies, picked off the runner at first, but they had to let him go because of the runner at third threatening.  Another short hit drove in a run.  A spoiled double play led to another run.  2-0 Roadrunners.  The game slowed to an absolute crawl during this inning.  The crowd was extremely quiet.

In the bottom, Logan Bottrell was hit to leadoff.  A terrible pickoff throw advanced him to second.  Nick Gonzales had a bad at bat for a guy hitting over .500.  He was pressing so bad, he couldn’t have hit a ball off a tee with that swing.  A wide strike zone by the ump didn’t help.  Tristen Carranza got plunked hard and that fired up the Aggie dugout.  The bases were loaded with two outs.  Their first baseman dropped an easy throw to score a run.  2-1 Roadrunners.

Hroch gave up a leadoff walk to start the second.  As per the baseball maxim, this walk did score on hit by Barba.  Later, another walked runner made it to third.  He tried to take home on a wild pitch.  Catcher Braden Williams, throwing to Hroch, got him at the plate.  The guy shouldn’t have gone in standing up.  3-1 Roadrunners. 

Eric Mingus hit a great shot down the right field line.  Unfortunately, he tripped on the first base bag while rounding it and was held to a single.  Botts attempted to sacrifice him over and ended up with an infield hit.  Joey Ortiz, up next, took a hard foul off himself.  The trainer had to come out and look at him.  He stayed in and then hit a line drive straight into his dugout.  Everyone was okay, but he was mortified.  Joey ended up striking out.  The Aggies weren’t able to score. 

I swear these first two innings took an hour to play out.  Suddenly, making the 4:00 softball game next door didn’t seem like a sure thing.  The Roadrunners went down on six pitches in the top of the third.  Maybe they were tired of long innings too.  The Aggies brought out the hammer in the bottom.  Tristan Peterson solo homered into the trees in center.  Noah Haupt hit a moonshot to right.  Mingus then finished with a three-run homer to left.  Wow, they sprayed the homers everywhere.  6-3 Aggies.  After each one, Marketing intern Emerson came out to throw out a couple of t-shirts to crowd.  The softball girls screamed for one and got it.   

Unfortunately, Hroach walked two of the first three batters of the fourth and had to come out.  Andrew Edwards came in and gave up two more walks, which forced in a run.  Closer Mitchell Allen came in and hit the first batter, which forced in another run.  Thankfully, he got the next two outs to end the inning, 6-5 Aggies.  Good Lord, the Roadrunners almost batted around and never got a hit. 

Braden also got hit on the hand while catching, and the trainer had to come out again.  The Aggies loaded the bases in the bottom thanks to two more hit batters and a single, but two strikeouts ended the inning.  I’d noticed a very pretty, fashionable girl (she was rocking those Converse sneakers) sitting in the center section.  She was fairly quiet, but did let out a little “Come on, Braden!” when he was at bat.

In the fifth, Allen gave up a single, a Texas Leaguer that turned into a double, and another single.  This resulted in two runs, a 7-6 Roadrunner lead, and another pitching change.  Justin Schubert came in and finished the inning with a strikeout/throwout.  He came off the mound pumped. 

Barba homered to start the sixth.  Peterson answered in the bottom with a leadoff home run.  8-7 Roadrunners.  The Scooby-Doo theme song was the fan song pick.  It was really weird as a ballpark tune.  AD Mario Moccia walked by.  I got his attention and complimented the job that substitute commentator, Russ Eisenstein, did for the Aggie Women’s NCAA game.  “Yeah, he did a great job.  I could replace Adam with him.”  Whoa, that wasn’t where I thought the conversation would go.  I didn’t know our commentator Adam Young was on thin ice.  Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything.  (I’m still in some small amount of shock.)  

The Aggies went through a couple more pitchers in the sixth and seventh.  I heard a “Be the bat!” yell from the Aggie dugout in the seventh.  Like what happened to the Roadrunners earlier, Joey got thrown out at the plate trying to score on a wild pitch.  Matt Munden came in and worked an efficient eighth. 

Ahem, cue the Aggie hitting barrage.  Peterson and Haupt started off the inning with singles.  Actually, Haupt was trying to sacrifice, but the pitcher fielded the ball and held it and didn’t throw.  (You’d think that would be an error, but mental errors don’t count as errors on the scorecard.)  Pitcher Davonte Butler did make a good play on the next batter by cutting down the lead runner at third on a bad bunt attempt.

However, the bases got loaded on a walk and Mingus hit a sacrifice fly to bring in the tying run.  After another walk to reload the bases, Joey hit a bases-clearing double.  The crowd was lit for that.  Awesome hitting.  Some little girls sitting in front of us began an adorable, but disjointed, “Go Aggies!” cheer.  Nick would tack on by driving in Joey with double.  12-8 Aggies!

I’d avoided wondering what time it was, but I had a suspicion this game was running very long.  This was confirmed in the bottom of the eighth, as I could see and hear the softball game next door had started.  We were four hours in.  I told Ron, “Maybe they’re just practice cheering.  They’re surely waiting for this game to finish.” 

“It’s almost over,” the mom and dad of the little girls kept saying.  I wanted to tell them to shut up, because the Roadrunners came out hitting a pair of doubles in the ninth and had scored a run.  The crowd was still really into the game though.  Thankfully, Munden finished it off with the next three batters.  Aggies win 12-9!

While that was about a four hour and fifteen minute game, and Ron and I were going to be late getting to the Aggie Softball game, that was a great game.  The Aggies pieced it together using seven pitchers, so Aggie hitting definitely saved the day.  Tristan Peterson was 3 for 3 with two home runs.  Eric Mingus was 3 for 4 with 4 RBI’s.  Joey Ortiz went 1 for 6, but that one was the game-winner with 3 RBI’s.  Props also to Noah Barba on the Roadrunners for his 3 for 4 performance with 3 RBI’s and a home run.    

No time for further rumination.  It was off to Aggie Softball, joined in progress.