NM State Aggies vs St Thomas Tommies Baseball 5-20-23

 

 Aggie Baseball finished their season this week with four games.  Here’s a quick recap of the three games I didn’t attend.

 

5-16-23 vs UNM Lobos

This was the rescheduled rivalry game from earlier in the season.  It was supposed to be played at Tuesday 6:00pm, but was moved up to 3:00pm to accommodate the Lobos’ travel schedule.  This change happened late Monday afternoon.  I had already decided to not take the night off, because their last meeting.  If they’d moved it to noon or 1:00pm, I would have gone. 

 

Surprisingly, the Aggies won 8-0.  Cade Swenson, in his second start of the year, pitched all 7 innings of the shutout.  There was a Lightning delay in the bottom of the seventh, though no rain fell.  After about a 45-minute wait, the game bumped up on the Lobos’ travel curfew and the game was called.  There were a couple of scouts at the game.  They might have been looking at Keith Jones II on the Aggies.  What a strange I-25 series this season.  The Lobos won two blowouts.  The Aggies took this game in a blowout and won a 2-0 nail biter behind Darius Garcia’s pitching.  

 

5-18-23 vs  St. Thomas Tommies.  It was a 9-12 loss to a team transitioning to D1.  Wait.  Didn’t we do this at the beginning of the season?  St. Thomas isn’t even a good team, but neither are the Aggies.  (And isn’t their name a little on the nose, by the way?)  The game started off with a 4-0 lead for St. Thomas, including 2 unearned runs.  The Aggies came back and made it 9-6 in the sixth off a grand slam by Preston Godfrey, but St. Thomas came back for the win.  In the game, Kevin Jimenez fouled a ball that that hit a light stand and shattered the glass on the blub.  The crowd loved it (and the light still worked afterward). 

 

5-19-23 vs St. Thomas Tommies.  This was 13-12 win for the Aggies, at least avoiding getting swept by another team transitioning to D1, but it was a close thing.  St. Thomas built up a 5-0 lead in the first.  There was nearly another weather delay with blowing dust from the next door construction site.  This was the precursor to another storm that, again, didn’t materialize.

 

The Aggies came back and took the lead, but lost it in the ninth and were down by 1, 11-12.  Christian Perez came up the in bottom with a runner on and jacked out a walk off two-run homer to win it.  I kind of questioned the strategy before the home run, when they didn’t bunt over a leadoff runner, but clearly, what do I know?  

 

That brings us up the present Saturday morning game.  The time was adjusted to 11:00am from noon for the Tommies’ travel schedule.  I wanted to see the Senior Day ceremony, which was going to take place an hour before the game.  I had to get up an hour early to make it.  What a sacrifice!

 

It was a cool 70-ish degrees, a little muggy, and partly cloudy.  Rain was in today’s forecast.  A large cloud kind of hovered nearby for the whole game, but there was no rain from it.  (It rained later in the evening.)  The clouds never really blocked the sun at the stadium, though.  Thankfully, it never got terribly hot.  There was a wind blowing, but it didn’t seem to affect the balls in flight much.  Also, I noticed that a loose section of the canopy had finally disappeared.  I don’t know if it was taken down or blew off.  The whole thing needs to be repaired (or better, replaced with a roof).

 

Driving in, I ran into Fan Michael in the parking lot.  He had a sack with him of autographed posters, which he distributed to player family members.  I think he knows everyone involved with Aggie Baseball.  Inside, I picked up a Brisk tea and corn-in-a-cup for the last time this year.  Both of the previous games had gone over three hours.  I figured the pitching would be about the same today, so I’d better have something to drink and eat.  

 

The Aggie Dugout was full of players, their families, and their friends.  I felt a little silly wearing my Aggie Baseball jersey, but several of the parents were also wearing theirs.  There were hot player girlfriends, hot sisters, and even hot moms in attendance.  Not to mention, hottest of them all, the hot Pan-Am Girl was working the event.  Her golden brown hair seemed to be waving even when she was standing still.  The university Provost was also there in full regalia.     

 

There were eight grads that came out to get their diplomas: Preston Godfrey, Nolan Funke (who was injured and had trouble walking), Hayden Johns (came out with his blonde flow and with a couple of kids), Kevin Jimenez (a hot, exotic girl was taking his picture at the ceremony), Cal Villareal (who’d already had a grad ceremony last year and he had a section of girls cheering for him), Pablo Cortes, Will Sierra (who came out with some teammates), and Noah Estrella. 

 

During the ceremony, Hayden Walker’s dad came over and chatted with Michael.  He talked about his son’s eligibility.  I tossed out my pet notion that college athletes should just be given five years of eligibility and forget red-shirting.  He didn’t think that was a bad idea.

 

The crowd was kind of light at 480.  The students are already gone for the semester.  The Tommies did bring some fans with them.  I could hear them over the radio for the past two games.  Michael had made friends with them.  Players in the Aggie dugout once again razzed the umps when they came out.  I know Friday’s home plate ump had a high strike zone, but it was consistent for both teams.  Maybe it was good-natured ribbing?  I really don’t know.  (It’s weird.)

I can't believe it.  With all the runs and hits today, everything added up on the first try.  The scoreboard at the end of the game was wrong, but the radio call corrected it.  The scoring was all pretty straight forward.  Errors and other weirdness usually derails my score keeping efforts.

 

Pablo Cortes was starting today.  He’d thrown 6 pitches last night to finish the game.  Tyler Hoeft had been scheduled, but was a late scratch.  This was probably unfortunate.  Very unfortunate.  The Tommies began the game with five straight hits scoring three runs.  The last hit was off Cortes’ leg.  As Coach Zuniga and the trainers looked at him, there was already someone warming up in the bullpen.  Pablo got three straight outs to finish the inning, 3-0 St. Thomas.

 

In the bottom, Mitch Namie was apparently hit by a pitch.  On the deflection, umpire Jacob Gustafson was hit on the wrist.  It was hard enough that the trainers had to come out for him and wrap up it up so that he could continue.  (I was wondering if this would impede his ability to motion for strikes.)  Adam Young on the radio call said it was the catcher’s job to protect the ump.  Also, the St. Thomas coach had to wait a couple of minutes to argue Mitch getting hit.     

 

A wild pitch went to the backstop and got lodged under the padding there.  Mitch took third, but was sent back to second.  Kevin Jimenez worked a walk afterward.  The bat boy almost ran off with his bat, before Christian Perez came up and asked for it back.  Unfortunately, no further damage was done.

 

Romeo Ballesteros at short made a jump catch to start the top of the second.  Cortes then gave up a three more singles, which brought in two more runs.  Alan Aguero came in with two outs.  He threw one pitch for a flyball out.  Keith Jones II made a running catch at his waist.  5-0 Tommies.  The Aggie went down in order with two strikeouts in the bottom. 

 

There was a constant beeping noise next door from construction machinery throughout the game.  It was annoying.  I had earbuds in with the radio call, but I was still getting it.  The top of the third destroyed my scorecard.  Aguero gave up a walk, two singles, and a triple.  That was four more runs. 

 

Aaron Treloar came in and didn't do any better with two singles, two doubles, a walk, and four (!) wild pitches.  That was another four runs.  I think the St. Thomas fans actually got tired of clapping and cheering by the end.  Far too late, Darius Garcia came in and got the final out.  13-0 St. Thomas.  Senior Day was up in flames.

 

Between innings, a fan came by and asked me why a pitcher on the program had a 99 ERA.  If you're sitting at a ballpark with a scorecard, you're going to get questions like this.  Not knowing the formula off the top of my head, I said that pitchers will get a high ERA if they give up a bunch of runs without getting an out.  I thought that 99 was a misprint, but I looked it up later.  No, that was correct.  It wasn't 99 runs given up.  It was a numeric placeholder to show the pitcher had an “infinite” ERA.  Ouch.      

 

The Aggies punched back in the bottom of the third.  St. Thomas pitcher, Walker Retz, gave up three walks in a row.  Perez drove in a run with a grounder, but that was all.  13-1 St. Thomas.

 

Darius gave up a leadoff single in the fourth, but worked three outs after.  In the bottom, Preston Godfrey jacked a homer to left.  Finally the crowd had something to cheer about.  If you can believe it that was the first Aggie hit of the game.  Hunter Antillon, DH'ing today, walked and stole second.  The throw from the catcher went into the outfield and Hunter took third.  He was brought in on a groundout by Cal.  KJII singled and stole second as well.  Mitch brought him in with a single.  13-4 St. Thomas.

 

Darius began the fifth with two strikeouts.  He hit a batter and then gave up a single, but got out of it with a groundout.  Again, the Aggies led off the bottom with a homer.  This time it was Christian hitting one to left.  He blew a kiss passing second base.  That's his thing.  That was also my last view of the hot Pan-Am Girl, as she threw out a home run t-shirt to the crowd.  13-5 St. Thomas.

 

Darius only gave up a single in the top of the sixth.  I was surprised that Retz came out for the bottom, as he'd looked a bit shaky and already qualified for the win.  He gave up a double, but that was all.  It was a quick inning for a change.  The top of the seventh went 1-2-3.  The odd “4U” on the scorecard came about on a grounder to first.  It got past Mitch.  KJ snared it and slid into first ahead of the runner.  This play happened again in the next inning, but Kevin wasn’t able to get there in time.  First isn’t Mitch’s normal position.

 

The PA was late on the Seventh Inning Stretch.  We almost thought they'd forgotten about it.  Retz was relieved in the inning by Jeremy Klick.  He gave up a couple of walks before Preston came up and hit his second home run.  It was a three-run shot into the trees in center.  His dad walked by.  Michael identified him and gave him a high-five.  It was now 13-8 Tommies.  A little light ginger-haired boy started running around the front of the stands.  He'd grab the fence watching the action on the field.  It was too cute.

 

Adam on the radio was almost making me believe that the Aggies were going to come back.  Unfortunately in the top of the eighth, the Tommies added on.  Darius hit a batter and gave up two singles to load the bases.  He was taken out to a big round of applause, even from the St. Thomas fans. 

 

Matt Maloney, who'd had a bad, stressful outing on Thursday, came in and gave up a double and a single, which scored everyone on base.  I was briefly worried what to do with my scorecard if the Tommies batted around again, but Matt got a strikeout to end the inning.  17-8 St. Thomas.  The Aggies went down with a double play in the bottom of the eighth. 

 

I was mildly annoyed that this game didn't end in the seventh with a run rule.  As long as the game went to the ninth, Coach Zuniga decided to honor a few players.  He pulled Cal Villareal and Kevin Jimenez off the field individually so that everyone could give them a round of applause.  After two outs, he put in local kid, Saxon Marr, to pitch.  He threw five straight balls, but got a groundout end the inning.  I felt a little better about the game being extended.   

 

In the bottom, the Aggie first base coach ran by and got some contact information from Michael before taking his spot on field.  Christian wasn't done.  He hustled a leadoff triple to start the bottom of the ninth.  Nick Gore drove him in with a grounder.  That's where we end it.  St. Thomas wins 17-9.

 

Our final Gameballs.  For St. Thomas, Ben Vujovich went 5 for 6 with an RBI.  He was only a home run short of a cycle.  Brigs Richartz went 4 for 6 with 4 RBI's, and Charlie Bartholomew went 4 for 6 with 3 RBI's.  After 17 runs, Aggie pitching obviously wasn't very effective, but there were only 3 walks.  (There were also 2 hit batters and 5 wild pitches.)  The Tommies did it without hitting any homers today.  It was just a hit parade with 16 singles out of their 22 hits. 

 

For the Aggies, Christian Perez went 2 for 5 with a home run and 2 RBI's.  Preston Godfrey had 2 homers and 4 RBI's.  Darius Garcia saved the game with his 5 innings of relief.  He had 3 earned runs, which all came in after he left.  It was good to see him return to something like the form that he'd shown in Albuquerque against the Lobos earlier in the season.  It wasn't a good day for Aggie (or Tommies’) pitching otherwise.  That's pretty much been the story all season.  I appreciate that Aggie hitting made a game of it, at least.

 

The game was a tick over three hours.  It certainly wasn't boring.  Fan Michael and I said our goodbyes.  I was going to go up and see Adam in the booth.  I noticed him hanging out of the window after the game, so I waved to him instead.  He waved back.  Good luck with the baby this summer. 

 

On the way out, they were handing out coupons to Raising Canes since the Aggies had scored 7 or more runs.  Thanks again to Aggie hitting.  I cashed in on that on Sunday, but went to Burger King for lunch today.  They want my business with those coupons they send out.  It was pretty good, especially the fries. 

 

Aggie Baseball was a disaster this season.  There's my season recap.  I do have an Aggie Sports in general season recap coming up next and the usual Memorial Day Sport report after that.