Aggie Baseball Regular Season Recap

This season recap went way long, as I commented on games I wasn’t even at or watched or listened to.  That might be questionable.  I’m not any sort of baseball analyst, but I’ll make some general observations.  The team was 38-15 overall and 19-8 in conference.  I wish there was a run differential stat available on their website, because I’m sure it will show fairly easily how the Aggies won most of their games: by pounding their opponents into submission.

That said, I wish they could have had Caleb Henderson for the season, because they could have been much better.  There were many times they put a lot of runners on, but had trouble bringing them in.  Starting pitching was good.  I just wish they’d had even just a marginal starter on the team for those mid-week games.  Relief pitching had their moments, but were mostly leaning on the Aggie offense to carry the team to victory or, unfortunately, giving up the lead.  Aggie fielding was atrocious at times with too many errors.  These guys were a team.  In all aspects, they tended to succeed or fail as a unit.

My favorite games this season were Opening Day and the game against the Lobos here in Las Cruces.  They were festive fun atmospheres with lots of happy fans.  Overall, I’d pick the Xavier win, the win over the Lobos in Albuquerque, and the April 30 win over Arizona as the team’s best wins.  Their best series was definitely against Seattle U.  The low points were, for me, that run rule loss at home to UTRGV and that final game loss to CBU.

Regular Season Recap

2-15-19 vs Texas Southern Tigers: I was there for Opening Day!  It was the first of the cross-scheduling issues with Softball.  The Aggies won in a blow out.  Nick Gonzales and Joey Ortiz set the tone as they both went 5 for 5.

2-16-19 vs Texas Southern Tigers: I was at Softball because of cross-scheduling.  The baseball team scored 24 and 38 runs respectively to win their DH.

2-17-19 vs Texas Southern Tigers: Again I was at Softball.  The game was interrupted by a Braden Williams’ home run coming on to the field.  TS agreed to a run rule before this game, which was a good idea as the Aggies routed them again.

2-22-19 vs Yale Bulldogs: Huge winds were blowing for this game.  Then it started raining and then the temperature dropped below zero.  I was glad I wasn’t there.  The Aggies still crushed it. 

2-23-19 vs Yale Bulldogs: First mention of Emerson in the blog.  The Aggies won Game 1 in a blowout.  Nick and Joey were still lighting it up.  Unfortunately, it was so cold, I got sick and ended up going home between games.  I listened to the Aggies lose a low-scoring game over the radio in Game 2.

2-24-19 vs Yale Bulldogs: Aggies got an unearned blowout win after committing four errors.  Chance Hroch was steady pitching though.

2-26-19 at Texas Tech: The Red Raiders did the impossible and shutout the Aggies.

3-1-19 vs Delaware Blue Hens: Wow!  What a uniform!  For a team with a weird name, they’ve got some fashion sense.  The Aggies took out their frustration over that shutout loss on the Blue Hens with a clubbing. 

3-2-19 vs Delaware Blue Hens: Ron and I missed Game 1 to be at Women’s Basketball.  It was a blowout.  We got there for Game 2.  The Blue Hens had another great uniform on.  The Aggies won this one in another blowout.  Chris Jefferson pitched well here as the starter.  What happened to this guy during the rest of the season?  He basically disappeared.

3-3-19 vs Delaware Blue Hens: After seeing yet another great uniform, I wanted some Blue Hens merch.  Really, you guys looked good.  The Aggies came on late to win this one going away.

3-8-19 vs La Salle Explorers: Another game that was best watched over the Internet because of poor weather.  There was even a short rain delay before the end.  This was a good back-and-forth game, but the Explorers prevailed by a run. 

3-9-19 vs La Salle Explorers: The Aggies won Game 1.  I praised the bullpen in my post.  They won again in Game 2.  Tristen Carranza hit two homers in the game.  Logan Bottrell was 7 for 7 at one point in the double header. 

3-10-19 vs La Salle Explorers: I formally met Associate AD Herb Taylor.  He thought I worked for the team.  Under a threat of rain, the Aggies blew this one out late in the game.  Joey had two home runs and Jason Bush hit a big three-run homer.

3-13-19 at ASU Sundevils: The Aggies ran out three of their starting pitchers for this game in limited outings, but lost.

3-15 to 17-19 at Nebraska Cornhuskers: (No coverage) This series was canceled for snow.  The Aggies were probably hoping to get at least win one and boost their RPI.  Without this series, the program may not have played enough games to even be considered for an at-large NCAA bid.

3-17-19 at Xavier Musketeers: This was a pickup makeup game as both teams happened to be in the same area in Arizona at the same time.  This was a great win against a flamethrower future Major League pitcher.   

3-19-19 at Arizona Wildcats: The Aggies lost a slugfest in Tucson.

3-22-19 vs CSU-Bakersfield Roadrunners: This game went back-and-forth a couple of times.  Ultimately, the Aggie bullpen couldn’t stop CSUB from scoring and the Aggies took the loss.

3-23-19 vs CSU-Bakersfield Roadrunners: After that hard loss last night, the Aggies came back with a 23-1 win.  Let that sink in.

3-24-19 vs CSU-Bakersfield Roadrunners: Chance had a rare bad outing.  The bullpen had issues, but Aggie bats hammered out a home run barrage to win this four-plus hour game.

3-26-19 vs UNM Lobos: Wow, I was there on a weeknight for a packed house rivalry match.  It was awesome.  The Aggies started the game with a Tristan Peterson grand slam.  The Aggies crushed the Lobos.  I got to listen to some co-ed girls talk about their sex lives.

3-29 to 31-19 at Chicago St Cougars: (No coverage) The Aggies took two of three.  That third game was a run rule shutout.  It may have been Chance’s best start of the season, only giving up one hit.

4-5-19 vs GCU Lopes: Errors did the Aggies in tonight as the Lopes took the first game of this big series.

4-6-19 vs GCU Lopes: I missed seeing more of Basia Query playing softball next door for this game.  At least the Aggies won this one to make me feel a little better.

4-7-19 vs GCU Lopes: This was a one-run game until the bottom of the eighth, when Logan Ehnes broke it open with a grand slam homer.  Chance nearly worked a complete game.  (Apparently this game was more important than the last home game, where the Aggies could have won sole possession of a regular season championship.)  Ron recovered Ehnes’ ball and returned it to him.  Logan then kissed his girlfriend Emerson.  I was heartb . . . nah, not really.  It’s cool.

4-9-19 at Texas Tech: The Aggies showed some fight here, but against the #11 team in the nation, Red Raider pitching and hitting mostly dominated.

4-12-19 vs Northern Colorado Bears: Bear Jack Pauley hit the first ball I’ve seen go over the batter’s eye.  The Aggies came back four times in the game to win a close one.

4-13-19 vs Northern Colorado Bears: Carranza put one over the batter’s eye to start the game.  Pauley’s shot yesterday must have inspired him.  Justin Dehn won a shutout here.

4-14-19 vs Northern Colorado Bears: We had a Brooke Salas sighting at the ballpark today.  The Aggies started off the game with a nine-run first inning, which included a grand slam.  Unfortunately, that was not the end of this very long error-prone game as the Bears came back.  At one point, there were 21 total runs scored, 15 were unearned.  The Aggies won on a run rule in this four-hour game.

4-16-19 at UNM Lobos: This five-hour epic took ten innings to decide.  The Aggies got out to a big lead, but gave it all back.  Coach Green got ejected arguing a call.  Ehnes had two clutch hits in the game. 

4-18-19 at Utah Valley Wolverines: The Aggies won in a run rule rout in this one.

4-19-19 at Utah Valley Wolverines: Five errors did the Aggies in in this close game for a loss.  I was listening to this game with Ron after we’d watched Softball in the evening. 

4-20-19 at Utah Valley Wolverines: I listened to the end of this game at while at a Softball game because it ran so long.  The Aggies kept getting the lead in this game, but couldn’t put the Wolverines away until the very end and by only a run.

4-23-19 vs Sul Ross State Lobos: Grrr . . . This game never happened, literally, as far as the record books are concerned.  Let’s just move on.

4-26-19 at Sac St Hornets: This was another big series for top spot in the conference.  I found out they have food trucks at the Sacramento stadium and I’m still jealous.  Brock Whittlesey maybe pitched his best game here, but the Hornets won.  Aggie relief pitching and an enormous number of Aggie runners left on base were the problem here.   

4-27-19 at Sac St Hornets:  No problem with the offense here as the Aggies pounded out an easy win.

4-28-19 at Sac St Hornets: The Aggies won a low-scoring super-tight game. 

4-30-19 at Arizona Wildcats: The Aggies won an epic four-and-a-half hour slugfest 15-13.  I have to put the score here, because was so excited I apparently forgot to do so in my original post.  This was probably the team’s biggest win of the year.  TC had the big blow with a three-run homer.  Whitt probably saved the day with a critical late relief appearance.    

5-3-19 vs vs UTRGV Vaqueros: It was another big series.  There were several good teams in the WAC fighting for first.  The Aggies went down by five early, but came back to win huge. 

5-4-19 vs UTRGV Vaqueros: How do you score 11 runs in a game and still get run ruled in your own park?  It was not a banner day for Aggie pitching. 

5-5-19 vs UTRGV Vaqueros: Ron and I were at a Chihuahuas game during this one.  Chance came out and pitched a seven-inning shutout.  The Aggie offense scored 10 runs in this bounce back, run rule win.

5-10-19 at Seattle U Redhawks: The Aggies killed it today with 21 runs in a runaway win.

5-11-19 at Seattle U Redhawks: Another double-digit win for the Aggies.

5-12-19 at Seattle U Redhawks: Yet another double-digit win for the Aggies.  The SU announcers and myself were very impressed with the team in this series.

5-13-19 at Washington Huskies: Back to earth with this loss to the Huskies.  The Aggies did put up a heck of a fight though and made it close at the end.  A little better pitching and they would have had a chance.

5-16-19 vs CBU Lancers: I met Chico, the Chihuahuas’ mascot, at the game.  Who would have figured on that happening at an Aggie game?  The Aggies lost a close one.

5-17-19 vs CBU Lancers: I met Striking the Wonder Dog at the game.  My life is now complete.  The Aggies won this one in a run rule blowout.  This win would secure the #1 seed at the tournament and a regular season co-championship.

5-18-19 vs CBU Lancers: Blurgh . . . And there went my lunch.  I don’t even want to discuss this loss.