Let’s break this down.
This game was scheduled to be played on Easter Sunday. The game
start time was moved up an hour to 11:00am.
Finally on the radio call, Adam
Young started off by saying that the game was going to be limited to seven
innings and there was a 2:00pm stop time if necessary for the visitor’s travel
considerations. As I mentioned for
yesterday’s game, this series with UTRGV
didn’t count in the conference standings, though they are conference
opponents. (And you couldn’t miss them in
their painfully bright orange tops.) So,
this game really didn’t need to be played.
That’s about how it worked out with the Aggies’ efforts
today. With the seven-inning cap, it was
like they’d already been run-ruled. I
only took about a page of notes, so I was low-effort, too. I credit the 500-plus fans (Aggie and
Vaquero) for showing up. I was glad to
see that some kids were present for the Easter
Egg Hunt after the game. Initially
before the game, Ron noted there weren’t any.
“More for us,” I said. The
weather was good. It was warm and sunny
though a stiff breeze was blowing in.
This would affect game play and knock down most of the flyballs.
Also affecting the game, Gunner Antillon was back playing, but out-of-position at second
base. Kevin Jimenez, the regular second baseman, was still being
DH’d. Sunday starter, Ian Mejia was out. Ryan
Grabosch was out of the lineup after a bad experiment in putting a catcher
in the outfield. I hope his fielding and
hitting confidence haven’t been destroyed.
Most importantly, the Easter
Bunny was in the dugout. Yep, EB also
shook his little cotton tail and threw out the first pitch. I was briefly hopeful that he might actually
be today’s pitcher. Things probably
would have ended up the same, but it would have been more entertaining getting
there. A little later, Sports Marketing
goddess Emerson suddenly appeared. I
keep wondering if that’s her under those bunny ears. If it was her, I hope this doesn’t awaken
something inside me. I don’t want to be
a furry.
At least these scorecards added up quickly. Frankly, nothing much happened in the first
two innings. Preston Godfrey struck out on a check swing in the second. Somewhat comically, he was in disbelief and
didn’t want to leave the box. This
started a chain of questioning the umps for the game.
Aggie spot starter, Cam
Blazek’s, wheels came off in the third.
The first five Vaquero batters hit their way on. This included Chris Mondesi, who is the nephew of the Major Leaguer Raul Mondesi. His name got butchered by the PA initially,
but was corrected on the next at bat. Mondesi
led off with a double. The next batter
tried to sac him to third. It was a good
enough bunt that there was some confusion on it and it became an infield hit. Three singles followed, including one that
went by second base that I think KJ would have gotten to and stopped.
Noah
Estrella came in with two on and no outs. One runner advanced on a foul out and was
nearly thrown out at third. Two wild pitches followed. I had one as a passed ball, which only makes
a difference in terms of earned runs. In
any case, I think Grabosch would have done a better job catching the last two
days, if he’s healthy enough to catch.
There was a walk and then two scored on what was ruled a triple, which
involved a double and then the ball getting kicked around the infield, but I’m
not the scorer. It was 6-0 Vaqueros by
the time the inning ended with Mondesi coming back up to bat for a second time.
To start the top of the fourth, the PA left the music
playing during the first pitch. There
was the dreaded glare at the pressbox from the ump over that. There is the famous incident of the 80’s El Paso Diablos’ PA, Paul Strelzin, getting ejected for
playing a sarcastic song at an ump. I’ve
also seen an umpire in a Chihuahuas’
game force a do-over because of the music playing. This rubbed out the game-winning out and
instead led to the Chihuahuas rallying and winning the game. PA, you have been warned. Before grounding into a double play, the
third batter of the inning fouled a ball off his foot and let out a loud curse,
which got a snicker out of the crowd, which is why players shouldn’t curse in
play.
The bottom of the fourth brought the Pocket Contest. I was actually interested in winning. Last series, they gave away something in a
box. Fellow fan, Michael, identified it
as an Aggie snow globe. Alas, what
Emerson was giving away was just clear fanny packs. (Me and Ron had already declined the clear bags
they were giving away at the gate.) I
was even wearing the first item called for—an Aggie t-shirt.
Vaquero starting pitcher, Jesus Aldaz, struck out the side in the inning, but Gunner did
single in the middle of it. Gunner stole
second, even though the throw beat him there.
The throw went into center and he took third. For a terrifying moment while I’m listening
to the radio call, I thought the scorer wasn’t going to hand out an error on
the play and space/time was going to collapse.
During the inning, I found from the radio that KJ played
for Nogales High School in
Arizona. Their nickname is the Apaches, so hashtag-cancelled. Their name next season should be the
Guardians or the Commanders. Logan Galina was another strikeout
victim. A fan guy sitting below us
looked back at Ron, and Ron looked at him and nodded. They’d been doing this during Logan’s at bats
the last two days. They’d had some
discussion on Friday where they’d agreed that Logan should cut down his swing
and focus on contact.
We’ll skip to the bottom of the sixth. By now, fans of both teams were chirping at
the home plate ump over his strikezone, sometimes on alternating pitches. Aldaz finally showed some vulnerability. After getting the first two batters out, gave
up a single, a walk, and then two run-scoring singles. He finished the inning and his day with a
looking strikeout. 6-2 Vaqueros.
Lyle
Hibbitts came in for the top of the seventh, our final inning
today. He gave up a run that was mostly
self-inflicted. After giving up a
single, he concentrated too much on trying to pick the runner off and threw the
ball away for a two-base error, which was cashed in on a ground out. There was no Stretch. Fans in attendance might have been clued in
that the game was about to end at that point.
Cal Villareal singled in the
bottom. The ball was bobbled in the
outfield and he took second. On the bad
throw back to the infield, Cal was able to take third. Only one error was given on the play, which
was probably wrong, but whatever. Vaqueros win 7-2.
There’s an easy gameball to toss to UTRGV’s Jesus Aldaz. He pitched 6 innings, only giving up 2 runs
with 10 strikeouts. It’s Easter. Of course, Jesus was the star player. (I’m sorry.
That was too easy. This is why
they shouldn’t have played on Easter.)
For the Aggies, I’ll give one to Noah
Estrella for his 4 innings of relief.
He gave up 1 run of his own and 1 inherited runner.
The best I can say about this game is that it only took
two hours. Ron was so disgusted, he
wouldn’t stay for the Easter Egg Hunt. I
was crushed. I thought he’d enjoy
watching kids stumble around the field looking for eggs. We were done way too early to hang out
waiting for the NASCAR race this
evening. I’d been hinting at going
across town to the Dairy Queen to
sample their new Stack Burger. Mine was kind of disappointing to be
honest. Ron had two and thought well of
them. We both loved our Blizzards. (Strangely, I don’t think Caliches offers cookie dough as a
topping.) I was surprised how nice it
was inside given how shabby the restaurant looks on the outside.
More honestly, much like Softball this season, I think I’m mentally done with Aggie Baseball
this season. It’s hard watching them
lose and look pathetic. I’ve been
critical of the personnel shuffling. The
truth of it may be that some players may be too hurt to play their normal
positions, but are still in the lineup trying to contribute. This likely means that the bench players have
been deemed too green to play. The
Aggies seem very thin. I may be looking
for excuses not to go to the remaining games this season (especially the GCU games), but I’ll probably feel
obligated to show up.
No comments:
Post a Comment