Baseball Journal May 3-13, 2019

5/3/19

First place was on the line for this Aggie Baseball series against UTRGV.  Logan Bottrell would be back in line up to help.  In other Aggie news, Aggie Softball won 9-0 over Bakersfield, but Seattle U already clinched a share of conference regular season championship.  Women’s Basketball star, Brooke Salas, was signed by a WNBA team, the defending champion, Seattle Storm.  Congratulations to her.

The Vaqueros were up 5-0 in fourth and had no-hit the Aggies through three.  At that point though, their pitcher got wild.  The Aggies scored four.  This was with their first run waved off by the ump, but they still came back and scored after that call.  In the fifth, Nick Gonzales tripled.  Tristen Carranza was then hit for second time in the game.  He was laughing on the way to first after taking an 88-mph fastball to the bicep.  Logan Ehnes singled to tie the score.  An error on a Tristan Peterson grounder drove in a go-ahead run, 6-5.  The Vaquero starter was chased with the bases loaded.  Kevin Jimenez hit a blooper to drive in two to make it 8-5 Aggies.

In the sixth, Nick hit a two-run homer that might have gone over the scoreboard and on to the softball field, 10-5.  After a rough couple of innings, Brock Whittlesey made it into the seventh, but came out after giving up a two-run homer to make it, 10-7.  No problem, the Aggies came back in the bottom and scored five, 15-7.  In the eighth, KJ hit his first college home run to make it 16-8.  17-8 Aggies was the final.  Nick Gonzales hit for the cycle in an impressive come-from-behind win.  Joey Ortiz also has a cycle this season to give you an idea of how good Aggie hitting is.  UTRGV and the Aggies were now tied in the conference standings.

I was distracted from watching the Aggies play by the Reds and Giants game going on on MLB.TV.  The Reds took an 8-0 lead, but by the ninth, the Giants finished a comeback to tie it at 9 on a no-doubt solo hr by Stephen Vogt.  In the slow motion replay, you could see a fan behind the plate slamming his hat down after Vogt had hit it.  They went to extras and an Evan Longoria solo shot in the eleventh that won it 12-11 for the Giants.  Joey Votto went 0-7 in the game for only second time in his career.  The Cincinnati fans booed as the Reds lost and were quite correct in doing so.

5-6-19

After attending this weekend’s Sunday game, I was listening to the Chihuahuas play again on Monday.  Back to their regular identity, the pups won 15-0 over the Bees.  This was their biggest margin of victory ever.  They hit seven home runs, tying a record they’d set just a couple of weeks ago.  They also had 19 hits and turned four double plays.  I heard Aggie Nick Gonzales’ walkup music in the game used by one of the Chihuahuas players.  (Or it was during another game on the weekend.  It all runs together sometimes.)  That song is getting a lot of play.

The pups are leading all of professional baseball in home runs.  The next day on KROD’s Sportstalk, Steve Kaplowitz interviewed one of their pitchers, who outright said that the home run explosion in the minors and majors was because of the balls.  They’re using a new ball from Latin America instead of China.  He could feel the difference immediately and you could see the difference with a well-struck ball.  It’s not because the batters are studying launch angles.  Tuesday night (5-7-19), the team added three more homers on their way to victory over the Isotopes.  Michael Gettys led off another game with a first pitch homer, after doing that on Monday too. 

5-10-19

This baseball game between the Aggies and the Seattle U Redhawks was originally set for 3:00, which was about a half hour after the WAC Softball Tournament game between these same two schools started.  The time for the baseball then changed to 5:00.  Perhaps this was to accommodate softball viewing, which would have been a good idea.

Just to sum it up quickly, the Aggies won 21-7.  Brock Whittlesey got the win, going seven innings, giving up five runs.  Joey Ortiz went 4 for 5 with 3 RBI’s and a triple, which was good.  Then there’s Logan Ehnes’ day, as he went 4 for 6 with 5 RBI’s and two triples.  Freshman Daniel Head, who’s from Washington state, came in as a pinch hitter late and doubled to clear a bases loaded situation.

 

The Aggies nearly run ruled in the eighth, but the Redhawks came back to extend the game.  That was a mistake.  In the ninth, the Aggies piled on more.  It could have even been worse as the Aggies left 14 on base.  21 runs and they didn’t even hit a home run.

5-11-19

Today’s baseball game between the Aggies and Seattle U was played at a nearby junior college.  There was a scheduling conflict at Seattle U’s own baseball facility, which doesn’t make them sound very smart.  The junior college is apparently a good program and has a really good facility.

It was another game without a home run for the Aggies.  Nick Gonzales was hitless for a second game in a row.  The Aggies won 17-5 on a run rule in eight innings anyway.  They bolted out to a 7-0 lead, but in the bottom of the third, SU scored five.  Justin Dehn gave up a three-run homer and the first six batters got on.  That was all he gave up, as he went six innings for the win.  Pretty much everybody had a good day hitting.  Even Nick scored 2 runs and had an RBI.  Daniel Head pinch hit late in the game again and got another hit.

5-12-19

I took a bunch of notes for this Sunday baseball game between the Aggies and Seattle U, unlike the last two games, even though I also pretty much listened to the whole of all three games.  I was watching the US Women’s National Soccer team playing South Africa during the game radio broadcast.  Actually, I was just watching Alex Morgan, my ultimate sports crush.  I don’t have any notes on the match, I just sighed over Alex the whole time.  I had to look up the final score later (3-0 USA!  USA!)  I don’t even know if the game counted for anything.  I thought the girls were on strike for more money or something anyway.  Who cares?  As long as I got to see more Alex.          

Oh, the baseball.  Hey, Seattle U is in Bellevue, Washington.  It’s like a complete misdirection.  They have a turf infield there and a grass outfield, like here in Las Cruces.  We have a turf infield here, because it’s a desert.  How hard can it be to grow grass in the rain-soaked Pacific Northwest?  Unlike here, their mound is also turf.  The pitchers seem to find it odd, which is I guess why not everyone has one.

What’s embarrassing for me is that I forgot all of these games were on the WAC Digital Network and I could have been watching them.  After the soccer, I brought up the video coverage and kept listening to the radio, in spite of the lag between the two.  Jake Prizina started for SU.  He’s the best pitcher in the conference, which was probably one of the reasons the Redhawks were picked to be better than they’ve been this season.  He’s coming off of a spleen injury, the cause of which was not explained.  For the Aggies, Chance Hroch was going for his tenth win with no losses. 

Daniel Head started, after his good performance in front of friends and family for the last two games and to give Logan Bottrell a day off.  He singled in his first AB.  The Aggies took a 4-0 lead over the first four innings.  Nick Gonzales drove in a run in the fourth as part of a 4 for 5, 4 RBI day, his first hits of the series.  Nick was thrown out at the plate later.  That may have been the third time over the weekend that an Aggie got thrown out at the plate.  At one point, there was complete confusion on a batter’s count.  The scoreboard and the home plate ump disagreed.  He had to consult with the other umps, the coaches, and the pressbox.  Majority ruled and that was the official count.

In the bottom of the fourth, SU got their first hit off of Hroch.  Eric Mingus, at third, made a great effort on the play.  Head was hit by a pitch in the fifth.  It sounded like the crowd cheered.  Maybe that was his entourage in the crowd.  A wild pitch and a two-RBI single by Logan Ehnes made the score 7-0 Aggies. 

During the sixth, the game was stopped to bring out one of the SU seniors from the field, a nice gesture.  In the bottom, Hroch ran into some problems with an error, a single, and a walk loading the bases.  A double cleared the bases to make it 7-3.  The Aggies left the bases loaded in the seventh for the second time in the game, part of 17 left on base altogether.  Hroch came out of the game with two outs in the bottom.

In the ninth, more seniors were taken out.  The Aggies scored 6 runs.  Joey Ortiz doubled to clear the loaded bases.  Nick tripled to set a team program record.  I think Joey tied the individual record for triples in the last game.  Freshman Mark Lopez closed out the game.  16-3 Aggies was the final.  Again, they did it without hitting a home run.

I listened to the SU postgame, rather than the Aggie one, as the video showed the Redhawk players coming to the stands to applaud their fans.  Their announcer referred to this as a “forgettable” series where the Redhawks were “taken to the woodshed.”  He also said that the Aggies’ gaudy offensive numbers were no illusion, they can really hit.  That’s always awesome to hear your opposition sincerely praise your team.  He also thanked the university for the opportunity to call games and how much he enjoyed it.  That was a great way to end his final broadcast for the season.           

5-13-19

Tonight was Aggie Baseball versus the Washington Huskies, or “U Dub” as Adam Young called them on the radio broadcast, or the “Diamond Dogs” as the Wash announcers called them on their video broadcast.  This was Tim Lincecum’s old university, and they retired his number there.  Their stadium in Seattle bordered a river.  Between innings, the video showed a couple of longboats rowing out there.

I’m going to have to admit, I wasn’t entirely paying attention to either broadcast, since I was busy with work.  The Aggies scored on an RBI walk in the first.  The Huskies came back with 5 runs against Aldo Fernandez in the bottom.  Nick Gonzales drove in a run in the second.  In the fourth, Joey Ortiz broke the team record for triples and drove in two runs.  That play may have been about as excited as I’ve ever Adam making a call.  A wild pitch brought in Joey to tie it at 5.

Unfortunately, it was short-lived, as the Huskies put up another 5 runs in the fifth.  Logan Bottrell in center probably hurt himself laying out trying to catch a double.  During a pitching change, he was kneeling as Tristen Carranza and Logan Ehnes, his fellow outfielders, came over to him.  Botts ended up diving for another ball in the inning.  He caught it and showed the second base ump, who ruled it a no-catch.  The home plate umpire, who also saw the play, called the umps together and overruled the call to end the inning.  10-5 Huskies.

With a bunch of scouts in attendance, the Aggies did not give up.  Eric Mingus drove in a run in the eighth.  TC sac’d in a run in the ninth, as the Aggies made it interesting, but the Huskies won 10-7.  The Aggies really need to develop a fourth starter for these mid-week games somehow.  Even with a great offense, it’s really hard to win on a bullpen day against a really good team or your rival schools.  And, I did hear that right that this was the eleventh four-hour game the Aggies have played this season?