NM State Aggies vs North Dakota Fighting Hawks Softball 3-23&24-19

This somewhat truncated report of this weekend’s softball games was the product of some bad scheduling.  Baseball and the Women’s NCAA Basketball games were going on at the same time.  Something had to give.  Ron and I came into Game 1 in progress directly from Aggie Baseball today. 

Let me back up a little.  Aggie Softball hasn’t had a great March.  They lost four of five at the ASU Classic.  In a double header against UTEP, they won the first game on a run rule, but lost the second on a run rule.  The team has a losing record, but this is the nature of making a tough schedule.  Coach Rodolph wants to challenge the team.  I think this weekend’s non-conference series against the University of North Dakota was scheduled, because this was their bye-week in conference play.  Two games of this series would be on cable TV on a regional network, so there was a full suite of cameras covering the game.  

3-23-19 Game 1

Oddly, the Aggies were wearing their road grays, which I hadn’t seen in person before.  They look good.  The Aggies were still the home team though.  The softball scoreboard had been fixed.  The new lights were shining brightly.  Ron and I missed all of the scoring for the game, which occurred in the first and second innings.  Mya Felder drove in Kelsey Horton in the first.  Kelsey singled in a run in the second and was later thrown out at second, which allowed Brandy Hernandez to score from third.  3-0 Aggies.

I was also listening on the radio to the end of the Aggie Women’s Basketball NCAA game for part of this game.  It was a bad blowout by that time, so it wasn’t much of a distraction.  When we arrived in the fourth (no, I’m not doing any scorecards for a partial game), we got to see the highlight reel defensive play of the game.  Brandy, in the left field, threw out a runner at home to end the inning.  Is nobody scouting this team?  Don’t run on the little left fielder! 

The highlight of the fifth was a huge foul ball by Kelsey.  Her dugout pointed and shouted, “Hit it that way!”  Samaria Diaz was pitching for the Aggies.  In the sixth, she got through the inning with three pitches.  (Ron was counting; I wasn’t.  Don’t blame me if that’s not right.)  Melika Ofoia in right field made great catches on a couple of liners.  The opposing pitcher had a five-pitch bottom of the sixth.  It was a quick inning.  The seventh was considerably more dramatic.  Sam loaded up the bases with one out.  Impressively, she got back-to-back strikeouts to end the game.  3-0 Aggies win.   

3-23-19 Game 2

Ron and I retreated to his car for a snack.  When we came back inside, the girls were in a circle playing catch.  There was a good crowd for both games.  When the game started, nobody was working the scoreboard.  There were mummers in the crowd.  Associate AD Herb Taylor showed up and looked up at the pressbox.  Suddenly, before he even got up the first step of the grandstand, the scoreboard was showing all the correct information.  That’s real power, folks.

For both games, the Aggies were running out a different lineup than they’d had before they’d left.  It feels like Coach Rodolph is still trying to put the pieces together.  Kayla Green started for the Aggies.  She gave up a couple of walks, but came out unscathed.  The Aggies scored two runs thanks to RBI singles by Victoria Castro and Kayla Bowen.  After a pitch hit the ground, the dugout yelled, “We don’t want your dirty balls!”  That said, UND pitcher Jannay Jones had the pitch of the day.  She threw an unreal offspeed that completely froze Casie Roberto for the final out.  The entire crowd gasped at the deception.

The Aggies were still trying to time that pitch in the next inning.  Kennedi Sorensen laid back on the Bugs Bunny changeup and hammered it, but into a groundout.  Hey, did you know that they make Dr. Pepper in tall cans?  I should have asked the fan with one where that came from.  I’m interested.  Bottom of the third, Kelsey go boom.  “That was one too many changeups,” we remarked as the ball flew over the fence.  Lexi Mayhood made great catch on a liner for the first out, but the bases would get loaded.  Casie drove in a run with a walk, and Kennedi drove in a run with a fielder’s choice.  5-0 Aggies.

In the fourth, some enthusiastic visiting fans won the Pocket contest.  The marketing person did come back and gave a prize to a deserving Aggie fan.  It’s just not the same without Emerson though.  During Kelsey’s at bat, the dugout was giving her the Baby Shark song.  It’s becoming inescapable.  Mya doubled her in . . . except that didn’t happen.  Kelsey was ruled out for not touching third.  Oops. 

Catcher Alyssa Rios went down after being hit in the nuts on a wild pitch.  It knocked the wind out of her.  The ump gave her a couple of minutes.  After Kelsey walked, Aggie catcher Nikki Butler (DP in this game) came up next.  I could see her asking, “Where did that hit you?”  Alyssa pointed.  Nikki laughed and tapped her on the helmet.       

From here, it got weirder.  The right fielder dropped Nikki’s flyball, which resulted in a double and Mya scored.  Tori singled and drove in Mya.  KB came up and hit a screamer down the first base line.  The first baseman touched it and deflected it out.  The ball was initially ruled foul.  After some consultation, it was ruled a hit, which put runners on the corners.  Needless to say, both coaches were angry and the argument continued for about five minutes.  The Aggie girls came out on field and started dancing to the PA music.  Then it happened.  Aggie Associate Head Coach Cat Heifner went to the dugout and brought out the rulebook. 

I have now seen everything.

The umps went head down over the book for a couple more minutes.  They ruled the hit a foul and returned everyone to their bases.  KB then got an infield hit, which put runners at the corners.  We were right back where we should have been.  “Ball don’t lie.”  To cap the inning, Casie, on with a single, let herself get picked off trying to take second.  However, she danced around long enough to allow Tori to steal home before she was tagged out.  8-0 Aggies.

Once again, the visiting fans screamed the loudest and got souvenir Aggie hats between innings.  Facing the run rule, UND singled to start the fifth.  I didn’t realize it until after I’d looked over my scorecard later.  That was their first hit.  Kayla had a no-hitter going through four innings!  The Hawks threatened, but Kayla preserved the shutout and the Aggies won 8-0.  It was a great game for Kayla Green and Victoria Castro, who went 3 for 3 with 2 RBI’s. 

After the game, the girls came up to backstop and shouted at the crowd, “We’re doing autographs!  Come over by the clubhouse!”  Here’s where I’d like to write about talking to some of the girls.  I would have liked to congratulate Kayla and then criticize her driving skills for almost running me off the road earlier.  I still want to ask Kelsey if she actually does collect baseball cards.  I got a good look at her and noticed her left hand was really bandaged up.  I’m amazed she could play with it. 

As it was, I let all of the 10-year old girls I was in line with go first.  The players signed a bunch of posters and left before I got one handed to me.  One of the coaches referred to disjointed signing effort by saying, “The girls are a well-oiled machine.”  It was a bit disappointing.

Oddly, Ron and I did meet some of the North Dakota players later at Jack-in-the-Box.  It wasn’t the whole team.  I’m not sure how these girls got there (Uber?).  They were happy pleasant group.  I asked about their catcher.  “She’s taken worse.  She was laughing back in the dugout.”  We wished them “Good luck” when they left.  Afterward, Ron took me back to my apartment and I invited him in.  I wanted to show him a video about Zack Hample, the ballhawk guy.  He was fascinated.  I’d hoped to give him some goals in life with his ball collecting.

   

                   

3-24-19

This weekend’s Aggie sports scheduling was brutal.  Writing all this stuff up has become a low point for me in doing this blog.  You’d think four hours would have been enough time for a baseball game, but not this Sunday.  Ron and I came directly from that game to this one, a half hour after it had started.  Associate AD Herb Taylor met us on the way in and said, “You guys are late.”  “We thought they’d wait for us,” I said.

 

We’d missed some scoring by showing up in the bottom of the second.  UND scored in the first off an error and scored in the second off a single.  Nikki Butler doubled in a run in the bottom of the second to make it 2-1 UND when we came in.  The girls were in their crimson tops today.  Volunteer coach Karysta Donisthorpe was looking exciting at the scorer’s table in her tank top and shorts with her very long blonde hair going down her bare shoulders.  Kennedi Sorenson’s attractive mom and her grandparents were there for the game.  Once again, a full camera crew was there to broadcast.  It’s too bad commentator Adam Young left after Game 1 yesterday.  He missed the whole rulebook episode. 

Going up the grandstand, we met a cute white dog with black spots.  He was on the leash of a really hot chick.  Ron and I both petted the friendly dog.  He got a little too intimate with me when I crouched down.  He jumped in my lap, licked my face, and knocked me over.  After we got up the grandstand (there was a good crowd again), I realized I’d left my stadium chair back in Ron’s car.  He offered to go back and get it.  Ron came back about 15 minutes later.  He’d impulsively driven back to the baseball stadium to look for more foul balls.  However, he’d ended up going back inside and gave a guy on the team a couple of recovered home run balls back.  Well, maybe Ron took away something from that Ballhawk video.

 

On the field, Jeanelle Medina drove in the tying run with a fielder’s choice to make it 2-2.  Between innings, there was a “Guess the number of tattoos” contest?  I’m not sure I want to know the details about that, but two fans won with the same number, 800.  Yikes?  Analise de la Roca was pitching for the Aggies.  For the top of the third, she worked a long, but three up, three down inning. 

Kelsey Horton came up in the bottom of the third.  The front of her uniform was covered in dirt.  She’d had a busy day.  Victoria Castro tripled in Mya Felder to make it 3-2 Aggies.  Mya looked like she was about to collapse as she rounded third.  Chloe Rivas, DP instead of pitching today, singled in a run to make it 5-2. 

Caity Szczesny came in to play right field.  It’s been a revolving door out there.  Analise had a quick 1-2-3 fourth inning.  “Does anyone have a cute dog in their pocket?”  That’s like the best item they’ve asked for in Pocket contest between frames.  There was a winner.  I hope the TV microphones were picking up the Aggie dugout.  They were singing up a storm.  Brandy Hernandez got a virtual Broadway musical serenade.  Kelsey drew a walk in the inning and stole second.  Her uniform got even dirtier.

It was currently 29 degrees in Grand Forks, North Dakota, where UND is, according to the PA.  Some horrific screaming and barking came from the Hawks’ dugout.  Maybe.  I’m not sure where the noise came from, but it was unnerving.  (Did they miss home and the cold?)  OMG!  Near tragedy in the fifth.  A foul ball went over the net and nearly hit the friendly dog at the bottom of the grandstand.  “Save the dog!”  Brandy made two good flyball catches in the top of the inning.  The Hawks left one on base.  Nikki Butler came up to bat in the bottom to the serenade, “Big booty Nikki!”  I hope she’s really good friends with her teammates and that moniker is affectionate.  The Aggies left one on base.

Analise had another in-order inning for the sixth.  She made a good play on a grounder for the final out.  The Aggies left one on base again this inning.  In the seventh, Analise gave up a leadoff hit and was pulled.  Samaria Diaz came in.  She got a strikeout, but another runner got on by an error by Casie Roberto at second.  I really like Jeanelle’s defensive work, but she seems overmatched at short at times (especially yesterday).  I’d move her back to second, where she was great, and try to groom someone else for short. 

A single loaded the bases.  Suddenly, this became a close game.  A sacrifice fly brought in a run.  Tori made a great catch on it though.  Then the game was over.  What?  The runner at third apparently didn’t tag up properly.  Okay, Aggies win 5-2 and complete a three-game sweep before starting conference play.