I was glad to be at a ballgame today. Last Sunday, I went to the game and I
was sort of sick. I got over it by
Tuesday, but was overwhelmed with work from being out on last Friday. The weather forecast for today was about a
50% chance of rain. Thankfully, it was
only partly cloudy and otherwise nice this afternoon. I felt good and was happy to not be at
work. Let’s play ball!
Before that, I’ll cover a little Basketball. The Aggie Women won a game in the C-USA Tournament, but fell in the next
game. The Aggie Men took an early exit in their first game. I happened to catch the UTEP Miners’ on the radio Friday morning. (No, I don’t know why they were playing Men’s
tournament games in the morning.) The
Miners won it in a thriller and moved on to the championship game, but lost
there Saturday night. When I got home
from baseball today, I also caught the New
Mexico Lobos winning the Mountain
West conference. So, I still have
some regional interest in the NCCAA
Tournament.
Though it was fairly nice, I think crowd was a bit light,
but okay. I caught up with fan Michael
at the ballpark. He’d been there on
Friday. The wind had been blowing hard
and cold for the night game. Michael had
some colorful words to describe the Aggies losing to Sam Houston 10-0 in a run rule.
He also reported that the hot tub in the Student Section was gone. It was just there as a promotion for a local
company.
There was no radio this weekend, so I’d be on my own with
the scorecards. A handsome, well-dressed
young man joined Adam Young in the
booth today for TV. Michael identified
him as former Aggie pitcher, Marcel
Renteria. “Shouldn’t he be pitching
somewhere?” I asked. He’s on rehab right
now.
Yeah, these are in pen again. Even without the help of the radio and even
with some extreme weirdness in the game, it all added up with the scoreboard
totals. As you can tell by the score
though, that was a hollow victory.
Josh
Sharman started for the Aggies and tossed a two strikeout, 1-2-3
first. The Aggie dugout was vigorous in
cheering throughout these opening innings.
They were determined to avenge yesterday’s humiliating defeat. The Aggie offense picked it up in the
bottom. Damone Hale singled and Titus
Dumitru doubled him in to give the Aggies a 1-0 lead. It might have been more of a rally, but Titus
had a moment of indecision about taking third on a wild pitch and was thrown
trying to do it.
Mitch
Namie at first speared a liner to start the top of the
second. Sharman ran down the line to
take the feed from him for the first out.
Josh quickly finished the rest of the inning with a couple of
groundouts. The Aggies also went down in
order in the bottom.
Michael flagged down the pretty souvenir girl and got an
Aggie New Mexico flag for his sister, who wasn’t in attendance. “She’s going to be so happy.” The team photographer girl stood in front of
us for part of the inning. She was in
her usual tank top, yoga pants, pretty hair, and bright smile. It was a distraction. Fan Ken, who was sitting by us, didn’t see
any play on the field while she was there.
Sharman cruised through another inning facing the
minimum. I was feeling some optimism or,
at least, that game would be quick. The
Aggies tacked on another run in the bottom.
Sheehan O’Connor singled and
Hale drove him in. Unfortunately, the
Aggies did leave the bases loaded with two outs. Caleb
Cotton in left field made a great leaping catch on a deep liner by Namie to
end the inning. 2-0 Aggies.
The second time through the order, the Bearkat batters started
figuring Sharman out. After a strikeout,
Walker Janek blasted a solo shot to
center. After a single, there was a
popup on the infield that elicited the use of the Infield Fly rule. Hunter
Autrey, with the coolest name in the SHS lineup, then came up and hit a
two-run homer to the scoreboard. Romeo Ballesteros made an errant throw
to first on an infield hit, but after a walk, Sharman got the final out. 3-2 SHS.
The ump seemed to be squeezing the strikezone a bit this inning.
The Aggies struck back in the bottom of the fourth. Preston
Godfrey led off with a home run to center on a line drive. The wind was also blowing out a bit more with
some clouds moving in. The batters were
taking advantage of it. Edwin Martinez-Pagani singled next and Keith Jones would hit a ground rule
double over the wall to bring him in later.
4-3 Aggies. In the inning, O’Connor
fouled a ball towards the Press Box.
With the window open, Adam was ready to make a play with his arm out,
but it just missed going in.
Sharman gave up a double and a single to start the fifth
and was lifted. The Coach was probably
trying to get him through five for the win.
Cho Tofte relieved him. A sac fly brought in the tying run.
Next was the strangest play of the game. Malachi
Lott hit a line drive to the right field wall. Titus leapt for it as it was going over and
fell to the ground. Where the ball ended
up was uncertain for a few moments. The
first base ump eventually signaled home run, however on delay, Lott passed the
first base runner. The call on field
would be solo home run and an out (credit 3 unassisted). Needless to say, everyone was in the dark,
but eventually a fan came by with the play call. 5-4 SHS.
The Aggies were not about to quit at this point. After two singles in the bottom of the fifth
off a new pitcher, Godfrey doubled them in.
EMP doubled him in. Romeo came up
and took a bad hack at the first pitch.
Hitting coach, David Bellamy,
called for time and had a chat with him.
Romeo then smacked a run-scoring double.
Good talk. The Bearkats brought
in another pitcher to finish the inning.
8-5 Aggies.
Tyler
Hoeft came in for the top of the sixth. Michael called him a “hard luck case” with
his injury history. The bad luck
continued. Romeo knocked down liner from
the first batter, but had no play. This
was followed by another infield hit.
After a walk which loaded the bases, Titus knocked down liner to right
and held the batter to a single to just bring in one run. The next play was a hard grounder to
first. Namie whiffed on it and two more
runs scored.
Hoeft was pulled with two on and without having gotten an
out. Aaron Treloar came in and got a grounder to third. O’Connor threw home and prevented the run,
but wasn’t able to start a run down to get an out. Treloar struck two with the bases loaded, but
then gave up a two-run scoring single.
SHS batted around and tied the score at 8.
Hale singled to start the bottom of the sixth. The Aggies loaded the bases, but would not
score, even given an extra out. The
shortstop forgot the number of outs and started to run off the field on a sure
double play ball that would have ended the inning. I think I heard the SHS coach cursing from
the dugout. Ominous clouds were
gathering overhead, but we’d stay dry for the game.
Well, the top of the seventh was a complete
unraveling. Hale misplayed a liner to
center that went to the wall for a leadoff triple. Treloar got a comebacker next and underhand
tossed it into the opposing dugout. (I
wonder if he’s got one of those yip things about throwing to first, because
that’s what it looked like.) A run
scored. This was followed by five more
runs and a pitching change in the middle of it.
The Bearkats ran wild with three stolen bases in the inning. You know you’re not having a good day
defensively when you get a get grounder into a drawn-in infield and still don’t
get an out at home. 16-8 SHS. The Bearkats even left the bases loaded.
New Bearkat pitcher, Wyatt
Tucker, struck out the side in the bottom of the seventh. Okay, now it looked like the Aggies were
giving up. Freshman Ty Acton did come in and get his first career college hit. The Aggies brought in a new pitcher for the
eighth, but the Bearkats were smelling run rule. Autrey jacked a three-run homer, which would
seal it, as the Aggies went down in order in the bottom. 19-8
Sam Houston wins the truncated game.
Well, it was a good game until the dynamite went off. Surprisingly, the game was just under three
hours. More surprising, during those
Bearkat rallies, they weren’t getting all that excited. Usually, there’s a lot a dugout noise in
those kind of situations. It’s like SHS
expected to win. With some costly
errors, the Aggies sure helped them out.
Here’s some Gameballs.
For the Bearkats, Malchi Lott
went 3 for 6 (in an eight-inning game) with two RBI’s and a homer. Hunter
Autrey, get this, 3 for 5, including two homers, for 8 RBI’s! Wyatt
Tucker also pitched effectively for the win in scoreless relief. For the Aggies, Damone Hale went 3 for 5 with an RBI, Titus Dumitru went 3 for 4 with an RBI, and Preston Godfrey went 2 for 4 with a homer and 3 RBI’s. The defense was shaky, though there was some
good efforts. Outside of Josh Sharman’s first three innings, the
pitching was not asset today.
I walked by the umps on the way out. I thought about saying, “Good game,” but to be honest, I questioned the strikezone. I did tip my hat to them. I debated going straight home for dinner out of a can or going to Burger King. I made the wrong choice and the Whopper was decidedly subpar. I can see why they’re handing out half-price coupons. Let’s try this again tomorrow for the finale.
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