Tuesday, October 1, 2019

NM State Aggies vs Midland College Lady Chaps Softball 9-28-19


Aggie Softball roster
Accept with a grain of salt

I’m not sure how to start this, since I can’t finish it and didn’t entirely understand what I saw.  This was a scheduled exhibition softball double header.  I only attended the first game.  I had the foresight to print up a roster before going to the game, but just to foil me and my cleverness, none of the players had numbers on their uniforms.  So I can’t identify several of the Aggie players, and I’m clueless about the opposition.

I have seen the Midland College Lady Chaps (Chaparrals) before (9-30-17).  I had no idea who they were last time.  The team endeared itself to me when they came to the foot of the stands after the game and said, “Thank you for coming to our game!  Bird is the word!”  I got their name off of the Aggies’ exhibition schedule.  I didn’t get it off their uniforms.  Both teams wore the same uniform for the game: black pants and a plain white shirt with nothing on it.  Really.  A couple of Aggies wore plain crimson shirts.  That was the only differentiation. 

On the Aggie side, there was quite a bit of turnover.  Senior star player Kelsey Horton was graduated and gone.  Great senior centerfielder Victoria Castro was here, but only as a student assistant at the scorer’s table.  (A pair of older fans in the stands yelled out “Hi, Tori!” to her there.)  Senior pitcher Kayla Green was gone under a cloud of doubt.  Kennedy Johnson, who’d had some good moments with the team, had also graduated.

Unfortunately, with those expected losses, there’d been some unexpected key losses in the off-season.  As I found out at the first Aggie event of the season (8-23-19), ace pitcher, Samaria Diaz, had graduated early and left for Oregon.  (They’re quite pleased to have her, by the way.)  Freshman of the year, Mya Felder, had also transferred for greener pastures.  Looking over the roster, Kennedi Sorenson had also left.  She hadn’t gotten a lot of work as the third catcher.  (There are only two listed now.)  I was glad to see Caity Szczesny take the field for this game.  She’d had limited playing time last year.  There had been something wrong with her as she won a Comeback Player of the Year award after last season. 

I was sorry I’d missed the team’s exhibition games last weekend.  They’d posted their fall schedule right after the last time I’d checked their social media.  I wasn’t doing anything last Saturday and could have seen them play UTEP.  On Sunday, I was there during their game with El Paso Community College, but had gone to see the soccer match.  I would have come early to watch some of the game, if I’d known.  The Aggies won both series.  Even for today’s game, I’d rechecked the schedule Friday and found out they’d changed the time to an hour earlier.  I didn’t bother seeing if Ron could come for an 11:00am game. 

There were some ominous signs in the softball parking lot restricting parking later for the football game this evening.  Theoretically, I was okay for the afternoon, but it made me nervous pulling in.  Inside, I was grateful that the girls were out warming up and that I wouldn’t be sitting around long waiting for the game.  There were only a handful of opposing fans there at first.  A nice lady with them offered me a bottle of water.  (I’d actually thought ahead and brought my own.)  The crowd would fill out reasonably for an exhibition softball game where the time had been changed.  The Midland bus driver briefly came in to watch.  It was warm and sunny with a cool breeze.  I deployed my umbrella for the game.

Here, it starts getting fuzzy.  I sort of wished I’d brought a scorecard for the Aggie’s batting, but it would have had a bunch of question marks for the batting order and there were subs late.  There were no announcements for the batters, though the scoreboard was working and there was PA music.  Not to mention, some of the girls sort of look alike from the stands, especially when wearing batting helmets. 

Let’s give it a shot anyway.  The ever versatile Jeanelle Medina was leading off and playing shortstop.  Brandy Hernandez moved over to play center and batted second.  Casie Roberto batted third.  Freshman Riley Carley was the DP batting cleanup.   Matalasi Faapito was pitching and batted for herself in fifth.  Kayla Bowen was at first, batting sixth.  Nikki Butler was catching and batting seventh.  (I don’t know why the WAC MVP was batting so low in the order.)  Caity Szczesny was playing left field and batting eighth.  Freshman Hailey Tanori was at second and batting ninth.

(I’m sure this is wrong.  The following game commentary will also likely be wrong in terms of the players.  I apologize.  There was nothing posted online to help.  Sorry.)

Mata was a little shaky in the first.  She put two on and double brought them in.  The ball went over Caity’s head.  Somewhat like last season when Brandy was playing there, I wondered if a taller player might have had a better chance on the ball.  I also have to question taking Brandy out of left with her cannon arm.  She threw out at least a couple of runners at the plate.  She’s probably not going to be able to do that from center.  The batter took third on a bad throw to the infield, but she was left stranded.  2-0 Midland. 

A couple of players from the Women’s Basketball team came in, Kalei Atkinson and Tayelin Grays.  They’d been around before.  There was also a player from Men’s team, who also been there before.  I wonder if he has a girlfriend of the softball team?  I know who this guy is and it’s killing me.  He’s on the team poster.  I didn’t go to any Men’s games last season, but I listened to most of them on the radio.  Thus, I don’t recognize most of them in-person.  The players all sat together and chatted.  I think a booster couple was with them and held umbrellas over them.  That’s going the extra mile to support the players.

The Lady Chaps had a lot of spirit coming out of their dugout in top of the inning.  The Aggies returned it in the bottom.  They had songs prepared for most of the batters.  Jeanelle got the “Hola!  Que pasa!  Aggies in the casa!” chant and they called her, “Nellie.”  When Brandy came up, they did an unexpected slow jam for her.  She drove in Jeanelle with a double.  With a bobble in the outfield, Brandy made it to third.  She was driven in on a fly ball that dropped between three fielders (and probably should have been caught). 

The bases were loaded when Kayla came up.  The Midland pitcher was throwing very hard.  One of Kayla’s fouls went straight up and back.  The Midland catcher shouted, “Heads up!” to the people in the stands as the ball landed up and behind me, just missing a bunch of people.  With my umbrella out, I had no track on the ball in flight.  Scary.  Kayla drove in a run on a fielder’s choice.  Nikki drove in a run.  The Midland catcher took what sounded like a hard foul.  The ump called time and cleaned the plate.  The dugout called to her, but she gave them a thumbs up.  After that, Nikki stole a base.  I’m a little surprised to be writing that too.  The Aggie dugout hooted and hollered for her.  4-2 Aggies.

Some of the Baseball team was practicing on their field next door.  They were guests at the local speedway for Aggie Night Friday night.  To start the second, Jeanelle looked good on her first grounder.  A foul ball almost went over the backstop on the other side of the grandstand.  Kalei and the guy basketball player went diving for cover.  Caity shagged a couple of fly balls to end the inning.

Hailey started off the bottom of the second.  She got on and was then thrown out trying to steal second.  Or not.  Associate Coach Cat Heifner argued and talked the ump into changing the call.  I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen during the season.  Jeanelle hit a bouncer on the line and took first.  She tried for second, as Hailey got to third.  Jeanelle drew the throw to run her down, which allowed Hailey to break for the plate.  There, she was tagged out.  Or not.  The ump immediately said the catcher missed the tag.  I think throw beat her and the tag was in time, but the ump’s call works for me here too.

Brandy drove in Jeanelle.  I think she’s been working on her hitting.  Brandy rounded first and headed to second with the throw slow to come in.  She pulled up just slightly, realizing she about to be thrown out, but she made it in anyway.  Casie came up to the “Big Booty” serenade.  I don’t know why some of the players put up with this.  Finally, the Aggies don’t get a call, as Brandy was thrown out trying to take third. 

Cleanup hitter, Riley, then came up and banged one out to center and hit the top of the scoreboard.  What a great first impression!  Somewhere, AD Mario Moccia felt a cold chill run through him, “I feel like there was nearly some expensive damage done to the facilities here.”  Mata singled. She looks good at the plate.  Keala Brown came in to pinch run.  She stole second and took third on a bad throw.  The Aggies went up 7-4. 

Mata gave up a hit in the third, but finished the inning with a strikeout.  She looked good pitching too.  A new Midland pitcher came in for the bottom.  She hit Nikki leading off.  Caity hit a beauty of a bunt, but was called out for the ball touching her out of the box.  Once again, Coach Heifner argued.  The umps conferred, but the call stood.  I was surprised arguing even worked once.  I suppose the umps need their preseason work too.  The new pitcher hit the backstop on another pitch.  Nikki moved up to second, but ended the inning there.
 
In the fourth, it sounded like a guy was leading the cheering in the Midland dugout, but I didn’t notice any male assistant coaches.  Maybe a girl with a really deep voice?  A new Aggie pitcher came in for the fifth.  The girls were calling her, “Chloe.”  Chloe Rivas is the only “Chloe” listed on the roster, but this girl was shorter than Nikki and didn’t look like Rivas.  So, the roster wasn’t entirely useful either.  In any case, she could pitch.  She started and ended the inning with strikeouts and seemed to have a good offspeed.

Kayla got on with an error in the bottom of the fifth.  She was erased, but Nikki and Caity got on and were driven in by Jeanelle.  That made it 9-2 Aggies, though the scoreboard said, “19-2.”  A new first baseman came in for the sixth.  Chloe got two more strikeouts, both looking.  In the bottom, Casie got on as the Midland third baseman took the liner off her foot.  She was left stranded.  For the seventh, freshman Gabby Aragon came in to play center.  Chloe finished off the game with another strikeout.  9-2 Aggies was the final. 

I’m going to have to say it: it’s just not the same without Kelsey Horton.  She just had that magnetism out there.  You had to stop and watch her play, especially her at bats.  This new group might be just as good as last season’s team, but we’ll have to see if anyone breaks out as a star player, and who has the charisma.  I was impressed with Riley Carley and Chloe (?) in this short exposure to them.

With the end of the game, I left.  Don’t take it personally.  I wasn’t feeling great by the end of the game.  I don’t know why.  I felt better after I’d left, so maybe it was just sitting in the sun, even though I had sunblock on and was under an umbrella.  Maybe it was because my arm was getting cramped holding the umbrella.  Maybe it was the parking uncertainty.  I might have also been frustrated.  I didn’t want to take a bunch of notes for another game where I couldn’t identify all of the players.  I felt bad about leaving, but I couldn’t stay for another two-and-a-half hours in this condition for a game that didn’t count.

I talked myself into going to What-a-burger to try their Mushroom Swiss Burger.  I had a coupon for a free one (after buying drink and fries) that expired today.  I had some trepidation, mostly because I thought it’d be too much food.  At about 1:00pm, I wasn’t the only person wanting a burger.  Their parking lot was full.  My backup plan was going to Jack-in-the-Box to use another coupon for free tacos.  They were okay, but ironically, I spent the rest of the day hungry.  That was an unnecessarily long way to go get home finally. 

Right after I got there, I didn’t stay.  I walked over to the closeout sale at Sears at the mall and bought some clothes and a pair of shoes.  As I walked out, I looked at the time and realized Game 2 was probably just ending.  I felt fine even after all that activity.  Now, I really felt bad about not staying.  I’m only in preseason softball shape myself.  I’ll have to work on it and be ready for the start of the season next year.

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