33 combined runs. A
nearly four-hour game. My scorecards
don’t add up. There’s no official
scoring. And a loss. Wow, am I eager to start writing this. I guess we’ll begin with a quick recap of
recent games. The Aggies won two of
three against Seattle U on the road
last week, including a 20-14
pitchers’ duel. They lost to Arizona at home on Tuesday, as
expected. On Friday, they won the series
opener against Dixie State, 6-3, behind a great pitching
performance by Ian Mejia. There were several scouts in attendance
watching him. I’m impressed given that
he’s coming off of an injury and pitched twice last week. That should give you an idea of the Aggies’
pitching depth.
Real life intruded earlier in the week. Ron’s dad died. It wasn’t unexpected, but it wasn’t scheduled
either. Ron wasn’t in charge of handling
his dad’s affairs, but did have a commitment on Saturday to lay some sod. It was such a nice day, I decided to go by
myself anyway. On the way to the
stadium, I saw the berm on the football stadium was bright green today. In the parking lot of the adjoining Softball
stadium, I saw a couple of pavilions being set up for a double header there
later in the afternoon. A bunch of
really hot girls were from the student government doing the construction. Politics might not be so bad at NMSU.
I parked well away from the Baseball stadium because most
of the parking lot was full. However,
there wasn’t much of a crowd inside. I
don’t know where the people were. I sort
of planned on not bothering with concessions, but it was hot enough to make me
reconsider. I picked up a Brisk Lemon
Tea and a Corn in a Cup for good measure.
I must have been latently precognitive, because that was my best move of
the day for surviving a four-hour game.
I found fellow fan Michael there and sat by him for the game. It was a slightly different perspective on
the field by the first base line. Ron went
to the Friday night game. He didn’t tell
Michael about his dad. Michael could
tell something was bothering him.
Assistant AD, Herb Taylor,
came by and struck up a conversation. We
found out that he had been a college football player for Wyoming. “I was more of a
stud back then,” he said. “You’re still
a stud,” I added. Herb was actually from
Alabama originally. He said he lost his
accent when he went away to college.
I give up . . . on these scorecards! I thought I was diligently keeping score, but nothing added up. Then, the official scoring wasn’t posted when I started writing this, thus making this impossible. The loss was bad enough, but losing the scorecard is intolerable. [Sunday edit: They finally posted the official scoring late Sunday afternoon. I missed a pitcher coming into the game.] Weirdly, I only have two pages of notes for this game.
The first inning and a half were pretty quiet. Sports Marketing goddess, Emerson, came out for
a trivia contest. Former Aggie pitcher, Kyle Bradish, made his first start for
the Orioles on Friday, and the
question was, “How many innings did he pitch?”
I knew the answer (6) and didn’t say anything. What’s wrong with me? The prize was one of those Aggie
snowglobes! Michael had also given me
intel earlier that Emerson had indeed broken up with the baseball player she’d
been with. I’ll start preparing my
proposal now. I’ll have them put it up
on the video board.
Oh, crap. They
don’t have a video board. That’s a
problem. Skywriting, maybe? We’ll work on it.
One of the Aggie players was in the stands with a radar
gun, along with a Dixie State player doing the same. They were by themselves and ended up chatting
a bit during the game. The Aggie player
was even talking with a couple of fans.
In the bottom of the second, an adorable little toddler waddled by. His mom followed in pursuit. It all seemed like such a pleasant day at the
ballpark. If you don’t like my little
slice of life anecdotes, you’re in luck, the entire rest of my notes are all
game notes.
The scoring started with controversy in the bottom of the
second. Tommy Tabak hammered one to left.
The ball apparently hit the top of the wall and bounced back on to the
field. I saw it. I don’t know how the physics worked on that,
but it happened, as confirmed by Adam
Young on the radio call. I have
seen a ball sit on top of the wall (4-10-22). Tabak settled for a triple, but Coach Kirby consulted with an
umpire. After a conference amongst with
umps, they ruled it a home run. That is
apparently the ground rule, which Kirby knew well. The Dixie State coach wasn’t happy with the call. Later, AJ
Garcia doubled in Cal Villareal. The throw to the plate, actually beat Cal, but
the catcher dropped the ball. 2-0
Aggies.
Things don’t go well for Aggie pitching from here. Starter Pablo
Cortes ran into trouble in the top of the third. He gave up three hits and two runs to tie the
score. One of those runs, though, came
in on a double steal. Catcher Ryan Grabosch attempted to throw to
second and hit Cortes. The runner on
third scored.
The Dixie State dugout also got into it with the ump on a
check swing call that didn’t go their way.
The appeal ump was out of position to make a call, so the home plate did
it himself. He issued a warning over the
chirping. Between innings, the enmity
increased as the umps went out and checked the Trailblazers’ starter for foreign substances. There was a great play to end the bottom of
the third. Kevin Jimenez was gunned down from right field by Tyson Fisher while trying to take
second after a single.
The top of the fourth was a nightmare. The Trailblazers scored seven runs and batted
around. They led off with a home run and
their dugout erupted. Then there was a
second solo homer to the same spot in in right center. Two singles followed. KJ bobbled a double play ball and everyone
was safe. A ground rule run-scoring
double followed, which actually saved a second run from coming in for a moment.
Adam speculated that Cortes was tipping his pitches. He saw the Dixie State hitters conferencing in the dugout. Cortes came out for a reliever, but four more hits followed and three more runs. 9-2 Dixie State. The Aggies did punch back in the bottom with a run scored on a wild pitch, 9-3. The Aggies brought out a new pitcher for the fifth. Brendon Rodriguez got the first two outs, but a walked batter was then brought in by a bobbled ball in right. Tabak in center got the final out after turning around twice and catching the fly ball on his knees. 10-3 Dixie State.
The Aggies came back with a big inning in the bottom of
the fifth. Nolan Funke led off with a triple.
He came in on a double by Brandon
Dieter. Grabosch hit a bloop double
next. Dieter had to hold up to see if it
would be caught and Grabosch nearly ran into him. KJ singled in a run and Tabak sacrificed in a
run before the Trailblazers brought in a new pitcher. Villareal drove in another run to make it
10-7.
Rodriguez walked two batters in the top of the sixth with
one out. One was doubled in. The other came in on a suicide squeeze. The bunt by Matthew Ivancich actually turned into a bunt single. The runner who advanced to third on the play
hung himself out and Rodriguez tagged him on the baseline. 12-7 Dixie State. The Trailblazers went through two pitchers in
the bottom of the sixth. Once again, the
Aggies scored only one run on a wild pitch.
They left two in scoring position with no outs after a two strikeouts
and a line out. 12-8.
(I
still have three more innings to go through.
Groan.)
Rodriguez gave up a single to start the seventh. His mitt came off as he reached for the ball going
past him. The ump went out and talked to
him for a second before the next batter.
I wonder if he was reminding him of Rule 7.05 ( c ), wherein a thrown
mitt at a fair ball is a three-base
(you read that right) error. It has to
be determined that it was deliberately done though. I’m sure the ump also didn’t want to create a
confused, hostile crowd.
(This rule is easy to remember, because there’s only two
three-base errors in the book. The other
is throwing your hat or some other part of your uniform at a fair ball. It’s two bases for using detached equipment
on a thrown ball. I saw that one called
last year on a catcher using his mask to corral a ball.)
Regardless, Rodriguez gave up a two-run homer and was pulled
from the game. Cade Swenson entered the meat grinder
next and his first pitch was also a home run.
15-8 Dixie State. (I’m actually
having trouble adding up these runs inning-by-inning.)
Okay, here we go with another inning where a team bats
around, but this time it’s the Aggies.
The bottom of the seventh led off with Edwin Martinez-Pagani hitting a ball up the middle that was tipped
by the pitcher. The second baseman
dropped the ball and it rolled away and EMP took second. He took third on a wild pitch. The third baseman dropped a high chopper by
AJ that scored EMP. Dixie State
basically manufactured a run for the Aggies there.
After Funke doubled, Dieter came up and blasted a three-run homer to the scoreboard. After a strikeout, a single, and a walk, a new pitcher was brought in. Two more run-scoring singles followed. Tabak’s single actually hit the pitcher on its way to the outfield. Technically, the Trailblazers did strike out the side in this inning. 15-14 Dixie State. In the eighth, Dixie State tacked on another solo home run. That was followed by a double and a stolen base, as Josh Laukkanen was brought in to finish the inning. 16-14 Dixie State. The Aggies went down in order in the bottom.
The ninth was the final back-breaker. Michael left before the inning started. He was hungry and didn’t want to see what was
coming next. Laukkanen came out after a
walk, a single, and a sacrifice. Alex Bustamonte struck out his first
batter, but the ball got away from Grabosch.
The runner on third bluffed running and Grabosch unexpectedly threw to
Bustamonte running to cover the plate.
That throw went wide and the run scored.
Ryan laid out flat on the ground after he threw it, knowing he’d
goofed. Another run was gifted on a wild
pitch to make it 18-14 Dixie State. The
Trailblazers had one more tiff with the umps as a batter was hit by a pitch,
but swung on it and struckout. The
batter got angry and tossed his bat as he was rung up.
The Aggies did not give up. Grabosch
led off with a single. KJ doubled. Logan
Galina, the only Aggie in the lineup without a hit, singled in
Grabosch. With two on and no outs,
Trailblazer pitcher, Jimmy Borzone,
knuckled down and struckout the next three batters to end the game. Trailblazers
win 18-15.
And the fans lose three hours and 59 minutes. This game was a bear to get through just
watching. Credit to both the teams for
playing so hard for nine innings. The
Trailblazers scored in seven straight innings and had the Aggies down by seven
twice. Even then, the Aggies still had
the tying run at the plate at the end.
There was an awful lot of good hitting (or bad pitching)
in this game for Gameball consideration.
For the Trailblazers, Parker
Schmidt went 4 for 6 with 5 RBI’s.
For the Aggies, Tommy Tabak
went 3 for 5 with 3 RBI’s. Brandon Dieter’s three-run bomb was the
biggest shot of the game. Pitchers
didn’t exactly thrive in this game, but I have to single out Jimmy Borzone on Dixie State for
finishing off the game, as he went 2 1/3 innings only giving up 1 run (albeit
while giving up 2 inherited runs).
I was definitely hungry myself by the end. I went to Dominos on the way back home and ordered a Chicken Bacon Ranch sandwich.
(Certainly, I wasn’t going order their overpriced/subpar pizza when they
have a superior toasted sandwich on the menu.)
While waiting for it, I called Ron.
He was at the Softball double
header. It started about halfway through
the baseball game. I was sort of afraid
Game 1 might finish before the baseball game.
Ron hadn’t finished the lawn work he was doing before the baseball game
started, but he was done in time to get to the Softball. I was too cooked from the sun and too tired
to even consider joining him. We made
plans for ***tomorrow’s game.****
I went home and gorged on my tasty sandwich while
listening to the Chihuahuas’
game. They gave up 3 runs in the ninth, which
tied the score, but came back with a two-out walkoff hit. 9,000+ fans were overjoyed that the fireworks
show could now begin. I spent most of
rest of the night delaying writing this.
I felt better about writing after Sunday’s game.
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