Yesterday’s Opening Day’s weather wasn’t bad, but
certainly this Saturday was even better.
Once again, it was clear. The
temperature was probably in the high 60’s with a cool breeze. Driving in with Ron, I got a better look at
the facilities. The structure next to
the visitor’s dugout was an open-air batting cage. Ron said they took out the auxiliary
bleachers there. Ron said the large
open-air batting facility next to home dugout was actually finished. I’d thought when they announced it, it was
going to be an indoor facility. Today, I
noticed that there were large fans hanging from the ceiling and hanging lights. There was also a seemingly unnecessary
catwalk overlooking the cages. Hmm. You could see the field from them. Maybe they should expand it and make it a
party deck.
A couple of visiting teams were playing softball next
door. Aggie Softball was off today.
At the same time, the Women’s
Basketball team was playing at the Pan
Am Center. Ron with his Aggie
Country Pass was cursing this cross-scheduling.
I was cursing that the basketball game was taking my favorite Sports
Marketer, Emerson, away from me this afternoon.
On field, I was startled that the Aggies were wearing
white hats. I’d never seen them in that
color before. I saw some fans today
wearing them. The Sports Accessories trailer was again doing good business by the
grandstand. Maybe they were selling
them. I noticed two Aggie players
hitting each other on the chest to get pumped up after warming up. About half the team, knelt in a prayer circle
afterward. Once again, the Anthem seemed
to catch everyone on field off guard.
Ron reported that James Harris
on the UIC Flames knelt for it. Possibly not coincidentally, he was the only
black player I saw on either team.
A great crowd came for the game. Yesterday was really good at over 700. Today was over 800. (The grandstand’s capacity is 1,000.) The girl with the bob haircut did not
return. I was going to try to sketch her
there. There was a spectacular girl with
long blonde hair on the other side of the stadium. She had to definitely be a player
girlfriend. On the other side of the
stadium, there were a couple of attractive enemy fans as well.
Today’s scorecards worked out a bit better than
yesterday. I took a pregame bathroom
break later than I meant to and missed the PA lineup announcement (and getting
popcorn). There was a fill-in radio
broadcaster today with Adam Young
doing basketball. His name was Anthony, but I missed his last
name. I also managed to miss him doing the
lineups, but I still managed to get everyone listed during the game.
Cal
Kilgore started as catcher today for the Aggies. He’d had a rough day yesterday in only one
inning of work. Kudos to Coach Kirby for putting him back in the
next day. Cal Villareal was also starting after his clutch pinch hit
yesterday. Sammy Natera was our starting pitcher. His family was sitting right below us wearing
jackets with his name on them. Zerek Saenz’s family was likewise in
very cool-looking jersey’s with his name on them. Natera struck out two in a 1-2-3 inning. I finally cracked yesterday’s mystery to
opposing players getting walkup music.
The PA was playing music after strikeouts. The song choices were curious, but later in
the game, they fell back on the standard, Na
Na Na, Hey Hey Hey, Goodbye one.
Since I didn’t get popcorn, I was now smelling it behind
me. I was also occasionally smelling
very strong BO, along with beer and vinegar.
I was getting that vinegar smell at Softball last week. Is it those big pickles they sell? Tyler
Ingram started for the Flames and also worked a quick inning. That’s going to be a theme today.
Natera struck out the side in the second. Even early on with the pitchers dominating,
the crowd and the broadcaster were questioning the umpire’s strike zone. Meanwhile, I was amused by a nearby toddler
kid playing with a baby. Preston Godfrey led off with a hit in
the bottom, but was thrown out trying to take second on a pitch in the
turf. The next two batters struck
out. The UIC fans got jacked up on that
final out.
Natera made a great jump play on a comebacker to start the
third. He gave up a double next that
seemed to be ticketed to go over the wall, but was hit to the deepest part of
the park. The UIC dugout got vocal, but
Natera shut that down with two more strikeouts.
Between innings, the Pocket contest came up. The items were a lanyard, a penny, and a can
of Pistol Pete ale. Strangely, the beer was the only item nobody
admitted to having. I saw people in the
stands with them. A girl below us was
happy to claim the leftover prize. Three
Flame fielders made a campfire around a high popup, but that leadoff single for
the Aggies in the bottom was left stranded.
In the top of the fourth, Natera got Kevin Jimenez into the action, as KJ made two plays at second. Both involved running to his right and
throwing to his left. On the second
play, he did it with a jump throw.
Shadows of squadrons of birds in formation crossed over the field. It was like we were at Shea Stadium in La Guardia’s
flight path, but more quiet. There was
another 1-2-3 bottom of the fourth. The
last strikeout was looking and got a roar out of the UIC fans.
In the fifth, there was an error on first baseman, AJ Garcia, as he waved off Natera on an
infield popup that dropped in. The
runner stole second afterward. KJ made a
great catch on a shot just over the infield and nearly doubled off the runner
at first. Oh, and Natera started and
finished the inning with strikeouts.
Finally in the bottom of the fifth, Logan Galina, who’d struck out four times yesterday, led off with a
home run. The stadium erupted. The ball went to left center on a low
line. It just kept carrying and cleared
the wall. I thought the left fielder was
going to bring it back momentarily as he jumped at the wall. Right after, Flames shortstop, Ryan Lin-Peistrup, made a great spin
throw to nip Villareal at first and the UIC fans roared back. After a walk, a double play ended the inning,
but the Aggies were now up 1-0.
An older gentleman behind me asked me what the score was
right after. I found this curious as he
was into the game and cheering along with it.
There was a big roar next door at softball as someone hit a home
run. I could see players trotting around
the bases. The second Flames batter of
the sixth, Bryan Rosario, was
declared hit by the ump and awarded first.
It was a little odd, because the catcher was the one who reacted to
being hit. The umps conferenced and let
the call stand.
Rosario stole second and took third on an overthrow by
Kilgore. Coach Kirby and the catcher argued that the batter got in the
way. (Tip: always throw into the player
in that situation, that’s what makes it interference.) Natera didn’t care and struck out two more. Kilgore flipped the ball in anger
afterward. The ump immediately told him
to cool it, but the bad blood (compounded by the wavering strikezone) was
already flowing. The bottom of the sixth
went 1-2-3 for Aggie hitting. Still,
Ingram was unhappy with not getting a call and displayed his displeasure. After the inning, the ump had a quick talk
with him, too.
Top of the seventh, Kilgore, likely at the insistence of
his coach, patched things with the ump before play resumed. Natera had two more strikeouts in his final
inning for a total of 14. In the middle
of those K’s, KJ had the defensive play of the day. He laid out to snow cone catch a line
drive. Due to the quickness of these
innings, both the Aggies and Flames coaches delayed the game to chat with their
third batter of the inning, likely to give their pitchers more time to warm up.
Pablo
Cortes took over for Natera in the top of the eighth and worked
a quick inning, notching a couple more strikeouts. On the first batter, Garcia knocked down a
grounder that rolled away from him to KJ.
Garcia scrambled back to the bag in time to receive the throw and get
the runner. By this point I admit, I was
really kind of cheering on a cessation in scoring. Anthony was doing a good job on the radio
call, but if Adam were here, I’m pretty sure he’d be going through the record
book trying to see if there’d ever been a 1-0 game at Presley Askew Field. I
wanted to be able to say, “I was there.”
I was disappointed, but in the best way. Ryan
Grabosch had come in to catch and batted second in the inning and
singled. Gunner Antillon followed and doubled to left field. Grabosch chugged around third and was waved
home. He reached out and touched the
plate just under the tag. The ump paused
for a dramatic second before ruling him safe.
But it wasn’t over. The Aggies
went on to score four more runs. (Of
note, Cory Moore at first did make
an all-out diving effort on a foul ball trying to stop the bleeding.) Flames pitcher Joey Morris was finally relieved by Matt Zohora, who got the final out as the Aggies batted
around. Did the Flames coach go out for
a beer or something during the inning? I
nearly went to the mound take Morris out myself.
With a 6-1 lead in the top of the ninth, the drama and
weirdness still wasn’t over. Cortes
struck out the first batter. Grobosch
made a great effort to get a foul popup and slid into the turf. He came up smiling. Then the weirdness started. KJ caught a very high popup at second . . .
and then dropped it. He looked in
disbelief at the ball on the ground. We
all did. Perhaps trying to make up for
not taking out his pitcher, the Flames coach pinch hit for the first six
batters of the inning. Cortes got a
flyball out for the second out, but then lost all feel for the strikezone and
walked the next two batters. Then James Harris came up with his
grass-stained knees and cleared the bases with a double. 6-3 Aggies.
Then it got even weirder.
Cortes was left in and came back with his hardest stuff
and struck out the next batter to end the game.
The Aggies celebrated on the field . . . as the home plate umpire waved
the batter to first. He claimed Gorbosch
had dropped the ball and not thrown out the runner. Gorbosch and Coach Kirby protested to no
avail. Cortes was left in to again get the
final out. The crowd had been loud
before, but now they were hysterical.
The next batter was fighting the Cortes and the fans. Cortes did not disappoint and notched another
strikeout. Gorbosch and the umpire
exchanged words afterward, as the team and the crowd were celebrating. Gorbosch got in the last word in that
exchange. Scoreboard: Aggies win 6-3.
The game took two-and-a-half hours. That’s almost unbelievable for a game at the
Skew. That should give you an idea of
how quick all those 1-2-3 innings were.
Let’s hand out those gameballs.
Let’s see, Sammy Natera, 7
innings, 1 hit, 14 strikeouts. That’s an
easy one. Logan Galina went 3 for 4 with a home run and 3 RBI’s, a day after
striking out four times. The pregame
show the next day said that they’d made an adjustment to his swing. Tyler
Ingram for the Flames had a great effort today, going over 6 innings and
only giving up 1 run. James Harris should get one for his
pinch hit 3-run double, but it also comes with my personal disapproval.
I was not at the Sunday game as the Daytona 500 was being run that day.
I listened in on the radio instead.
After a disappointing meal at What-a-burger*
dad and I were watching the race, and he asked me why I wasn’t at the
game. “Well, I can listen to the game,
but I can’t watch the race at the game.”
“You probably made the wrong choice,” he commented. He may have been right. Much of the race was either single or
double-file uncompetitive racing. There
were some spectacular wrecks and a dramatic ending, but I probably could have
gone to the game and still watched half of the race. Congrats to rookie, Austin Cindric, on his win and his enthusiastic postrace
interview.
(* Which is really rare.
They’re normally great. This time
they got the order wrong, but close enough.
The burgers and fries didn’t taste that great though, and their Dr.
Pepper was inexcusably watered down. Ron
and I even had poor frozen custard at Caliches
after the game Saturday, which is almost impossible. I blame that we tried different sundaes than
we usually have.)
As for the game, it was another pitcher’s duel. It was 1-1 into the seventh. Edwin
Martinez-Pagani came in to pinch hit with two on and upon seeing his first
pitch in D1 baseball smacked a no-doubt three-run homer. I talked to Ron, who was there, and he
reported that it went into the trees in right field. Adam
Young, on the radio, gave an incredible call of the homer. Edwin did a huge bat flip and thumped his
chest rounding the bases to the ire of the Flames. They threw at the next batter in anger.
The Flames loaded the bases in the eighth, but the batter
took a swing on a 3-0 count and made a flyout to end the inning. Alex
Bustamonte, who’d failed to record an out in Friday’s five-run inning, came
in for the ninth and shut the door for a 4-1
win. Ian Meija didn’t get the win, but did go 6 innings, only giving up
a run. Ron also reported that Zerek Saenz did not play. I don’t know what that means. He also didn’t see the girl with the bob
haircut today. Now, we’re both obsessed
with her.
Overall, this was a heck of a series win for the Aggies
against a quality opponent. After the
last few years of video game-like hitting, their starting pitching may be their
biggest strength this season. I think
the hitting will come around, but the team will only go as far as their
pitching. Ah, it’s good to have baseball
back.
