“We’re through! I
can’t believe you fantasy-cheated on me with another woman! An opposing softball player no less!”
screamed Emerson.
“But, it was Basia Query,” I showed her a picture, “See?”
“Wow, she’s totally hot!
I now understand why you did it, but we’re still done. Goodbye.”
Crap.
This is the last time I take advice from a relationship book. “Be open and sharing and don’t keep
secrets.” What a crock! I only hope Emerson can love again after this
betrayal. The rest of this post will
continue on as though this interaction never actually happened (which it
didn’t).
At least it was a gorgeous day with a clear blue sky and
a light breeze. Ron and I arrived way
early for the game. We came in just as
the players were bent over as if on starting blocks, ready to move out the
batting cage to the tune of the William
Tell Overture. I’m not sure if it
was necessary for guys standing over the bent over players to mime pulling a
lawnmower cord out of their butts, but it was funny.
Thank goodness for the TV coverage today. While Adam
Young and Jerry Lujan were down
on the field taping the pregame, the PA turned down the usual blaring
music. What a relief. (At least the music is decent, as opposed the
player walkup music.) A sportscaster
with a camera showed up from an El Paso station. He hung around for a couple of innings to
shoot some footage. He was hard to miss
in the bright orange official station shirt.
Another great crowd showed up for the game. Thanks to the Greeks for coming to support
the team. (And ogling the boys on the field. See, it’s not just me being sexist.) Its good there’s students at the game (who
aren’t just there because they’re dating the players). A good-sized GCU contingent was also present.
Ron left before the first pitch to chase balls. It’s incomprehensible, but he is able to
watch the game from the outfield. Okay,
you’re missing your seat and watching the pretty girls here and Emerson, but
have fun. Actually afterward, Ron
mentioned there was a girl sitting behind us without a bra that had some kind
of hardware in her nips. I never noticed. (I don’t like weird body piercings anyway.)
Also in the crowd, Tom was sitting nearby. Maybe that was why Ron left. This time, he had a little boy with him,
maybe a grandson. He’d tell the kid
about the game and have him hold up his “Go Aggies!” sign. It was wholesomely cute. The fraternity and sorority boys and girls
behind me found Tom fairly amusing.
GCU started off the game fouling off pitches behind the
grandstand. “If that hits my car, I’m
suing GCU!” One of the sorority girls got
anxious enough that she got up and left to move her car. Chance
Hroch worked a scoreless first, though with a tight strikezone today. Eric
Mingus made a great play on a leadoff bunt to start the game.
In the bottom, a kid and his dad came in wearing
matching Royals hats. They were really cool with gold trim on
them. The first noticeable thing about
the Aggie lineup was that Logan Bottrell
wasn’t batting leadoff. He may have been
injured yesterday. Coach Green just moved everyone up a spot. Joey
Ortiz led off. He hit a foul line
drive into the Lopes’ dugout and knocked the hat off of a player. Everyone was okay. Quin
Cotton in right field made a great catch at the wall in the inning.
“Do you know any of the players?” asked one of the Greek
girls to her sister. “No, but I want to,”
she replied. These baseball guys are big
and strong athletes, but not freaks like the basketball and football players
(no offense, but you guys aren’t built to normal human proportions). The number of pretty girls at these games is
unsurprising. Well, thanks to these
girls, I had a close encounter with Emerson, as they screamed for a souvenir
giveaway and she handed it to them. It
was a scoreless second. The GCU pitcher
did make a great diving catch on a Jason
Bush popup bunt.
Hroch got three groundouts for a quick third. For the window contest, the little boy hit
the window square on the first throw with no nonsense. Usually, they pick out a kid who can’t throw. The Aggies loaded the bases in the bottom,
but didn’t score. Tristen Carranza started off with a new walkup song in the first
and then a different one in the third.
He seems to auditioning for the right one. Logan
Ehnes was wrapped a bit tight in his at bat. He was shouting, “Fudge,” after every swinging
strike (only he didn’t say “Fudge).
For the fourth, I saw softball player Victoria Castro holding a wiener dog in
the stadium. I wish Tori could play with
her hair loose. She just looks
spectacular with it down. A GCU fan kid handed
a recovered ball (he must have beat Ron to it) to Tom’s youthful ward. That was so sweet. And it was good karma. Hroch worked into some trouble with a walk
and a hit batter. A single drove both of
them in for a 2-0 GCU lead.
Ehnes had taken over for Botts in center. Daniel
Head came in to cover right. He led
off the fourth with a double out of the eight spot. Austin
Duffy was the DH today and singled behind him from the nine hole. Nice contributions off the bench. Joey doubled them both in to tie the
score. The crowd went crazy. He did get thrown out trying to steal third
later. The team wasn’t able to cash in
two walks after. To this point, they’d
left nine on base.
Nick
Gonzales wasn’t having a great day at the plate, but for the
fifth, he made three straight putouts in the field. Also, Tristan Peterson had three unassisted
putouts at first and Mingus had three putouts from third. In other words, Hroch was inducing lots of
grounders. The Aggies also went down in
order in the fifth. Mingus was halfway
down the first base line before the ump called him out for a looking
strikeout. The crowd was in an uproar on
that call.
Two adorable Pomeranians came in for the sixth. Emerson had been around earlier to take
pictures of people’s dogs for social media.
For Emerson’s Pocket contest, the generous GCU kid got an Aggie visor
from her. I noticed he took his GCU hat
off first before going over. There was a
near double play in the top, but Nick threw the ball wide to first. However, the ump ruled Runner’s Interference,
which must have caused the bad throw, and the Aggies got the DP anyway. The Aggies didn’t score in the bottom.
Lovely Sarai
Mejia and Keala Brown from the
Softball team came in and went over to Tom.
(Sarai was in a tube top and Keala was in a tank top.) They got selfies with him and then thanked
him for supporting their team. I was a
bit jealous, but I chuckled imagining Ron’s reaction to this incident, so I planned
on telling him later. A hip,
handsome-looking young man, sitting with his girlfriend and her family, asked
them a question about the players, “Do they all pick the most annoying songs for
their walkup music?” See, it’s not just
old fart me saying it.
For the seventh, Joey had the defensive highlight of the
game, diving to stop a grounder by second and then throwing out the
runner. Peterson made a great stretch
for it. That play ended the top of the
inning. The crowd cheered and Hroch came
off the mound pumped. Peterson got a
leadoff double in the bottom. Mingus
drove him in to give the Aggies a 3-2 lead.
Cotton did make another great catch at the right field wall.
Hroch got another 1-2-3 inning in the eighth. I’m not surprised he nearly got a
seven-inning perfect game last week.
Another cool MLB hat appeared in the crowd. It was a psychedelic tie-dyed Mariners’
lid. Just too cool. Freshman Kevin
Jimenez pinch hit in the eighth and singled. Joey singled after him and Nick drew a walk
to load the bases. Carranza drove in run
with a walk. This time the GCU fans were
irate over the call.
Up to this point, the wind had been steadily blowing
in. It finally died down a bit as Ehnes
came up. That was all an Aggie hitter
needs at home. He hammered a line drive
to right. It just kept carrying and flew
over the wall. Grand slam home run! And there was Ron. I could see him going after the ball behind
the fence. The Aggies weren’t done
yet. Mingus singled and was driven in by
Jason on a hit down the right field line.
It was an aggressive send. The
throw to the plate was offline. Mingus
missed the base, but crawled over and slapped it. 9-2 Aggies.
The kid in the Royals hat had come back disappointed
from trying to get a foul a couple of times.
When he left though, I noticed he did get ball. Apparently, Ron missed one. Hroch came back out for the ninth. He got the first two outs before issuing a walk. Pitching Coach Anthony Clagget came out and talked to him. The crowd applauded when Hroch was left
in. The crowd tried to help him on the
next batter and will him through it, but he gave up another walk. Matt
Munden came in and got a strikeout looking on three pitches.
9-2
Aggies win! That score is
nowhere near indicative of how close the game was until the eighth. Let’s hand out those gameballs. Joey
Ortiz did a good job leading off, going 3 for 5 with 2 RBI’s. Logan
Ehnes stole the show offensively with that huge back-breaking grand
slam. The wind cooperated and he took
full advantage. Chance Hroch gave it everything over the course of 124
pitches. For seven of his eight and 2/3
innings, he only faced three to four batters.
Chance kept his thumb on the Lopes for most of the game. Great job.
I found Ron later by the Concessions. I asked him if he got Logan Ehnes’ home run
ball. He had. He’d been just about to come back in the
stadium when he saw it coming. I held up
his seat cushion, which I barely noticed to grab before I left my seat. “Why did you even bring this?”
We went into the big crowd in the “Kiss and Cry” area by
the dugout. Ron found Logan and
presented him with his grand slam ball.
Logan thanked him and then kissed his girlfriend . . . (wait for it)
Emerson. Thank goodness she could love
again. This wasn’t exactly a
surprise. I thought she was going out
with a player, but I didn’t know which one.
Hey, he’s strapping handsome young man with great hair, who just hit a
grand slam home run. I can’t even be
jealous. He totally deserves the hottest
chick in the stadium. With that, I’m
probably retiring this running gag with Emerson. It’s reached its logical conclusion. If something really interesting happens with
Emerson at the park, I’ll mention it.
We went to McAlisters
for dinner. I told Ron about Tom having
a youthful ward there with him. Ron
grumbled that he could hear his yelling all the way beyond the outfield. Then I told him about the Softball girls
coming to see him. Ron’s face went red
and, I think, I could see steam coming out of his ears. Thankfully, his large sandwich and tea calmed
him down, not to mention dessert at Orange Leaf.
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