Looking outside the window right now in the late afternoon,
I’m pretty glad they moved up today’s Aggie
Softball game against LA Tech to
11:00am. There’s a hard gusty wind
blowing and it’s surprisingly cold for a late spring day. I’m glad they made a decision on this game
last night and gave everyone plenty of time to know about it, as opposed to last time.
I’m starting off this post with some familiar refrains. After last weekend’s performance, I
waved off taking Wednesday off to see the Aggie
Baseball team play Arizona. I figured it wouldn’t have been worth falling
a day behind at work to see the team lose badly. Unfortunately, I was right there.
I also finally thought to check Aggie Soccer’s Twitter before this weekend to see if they were
playing an exhibition today. They did
have a game scheduled, but canceled it.
I did see a couple of soccer players practicing on field when I pulled
into the Softball Complex. There was a game going on at the next door
baseball stadium. The Aggies are away,
but the facility does get used by some local teams. In this case, I don’t know who.
I ran into fan Danny before entering the stadium and
finally got to repay some of his hospitality earlier in the season. I bought him a coffee at the concession and some
tea for myself. I didn’t need the drink because
it was hot, but I’d been fighting getting a cold all week and needed to keep my
throat wet. (Thankfully, I didn’t get
sick.) Danny had bought a new stadium
seat. Previously, he’d just been using a
cushion, but he wanted something better for the upcoming tournament. I was glad my sore back got better, so that I
could sit reasonably comfortably today.
A decent crowd came out for the game. Danny said last night’s game was a full house
with three high school girls teams present and they were non-stop enthusiasm. Today, I saw a LA Tech dad wearing LA Tech
branded shoes. That’s commitment. I also saw a guy in a Brooklyn Dodgers hat. They’re spending enough that they probably
could field and east coast version of the team.
Unfortunately, the Aggies lost the game, 11-7.
They made a late game comeback attempt to make the score
respectable. The Aggies had made some
costly errors earlier, probably because of a stiff wind playing with batted
balls. Danny was not kind in this
appraisal of the team. He’d thought they’d
really butchered it in the field and pointed out a couple of individuals.
One player Danny didn’t have a problem with was Desirae Spearman. She not only won another Freshman of the Week
honor, but was also recognized nationally as a top freshman. Danny said she was hurt last night, but Des
was in the lineup as the DP today. We
were sitting in the center stand among the group of women that have been there
all season rooting for Des. One of them
may have been her coach from Hanks in El Paso.
There wasn’t a softball stadium when I went there. (Or a baseball stadium or a football
stadium.)
The early start time would mean that there’d be no chance
of using the stadium’s new LED lights this weekend. They didn’t use them last night, but did test
them out the night before and posted a Twitter video. The lights are like Soccer’s lights and can
flash and do multi-colors. The girls
loved them.
Today’s scorecards had several goofs on it. I feel like somebody should take my pen away
from me at the ballpark. I actually had
to resort to using white-out in several places.
I think my numbers add up at least.
During the LAT player intros, the non-starters all
dabbed. That was cute. The team was also good and loud from their
dugout in the first. Jaileen Mancha started for the
Aggies. She got into quick trouble with
a hit batter and a single to start. (That
might have been scored an error on third, but it was called a hit.) Another shallow single sent the runner at
second home. But there was Jillian Taylor in center and she gunned
down the runner easy. That got the crowd
going.
What also got the crowd going was the home plate
umpire. They were all over him
early. The next batter walked, which
they blamed the ump for. Brooke Diaz doubled next and drove in
two. Jaileen helped herself out on the
next batter. She took a comebacker and
threw out the runner at third, who’d stepped off the base. Jayleen
Burton at short also helped out. She
smothered a grounder and glove-flipped it to second for the force to end the
inning. 2-0 LAT.
The Aggies strung together a couple of two-out singles in
the bottom, but did not score. In the top of the second, Krissy Boyd in right made a diving attempt at a dying liner, but
wasn’t able to come up with it. Danny
wanted the scorer to give her an error on the play. Sheesh!
Jaileen got two outs afterward, including a nice strikeout looking, but
another single and a double drove in two more runs. 4-0 LAT.
The Aggies went down in order in the bottom of the
second. Jayleen was given an error on a
bad throw to first to start the third.
Jillian helped her out. On a
liner to right center, Jill made the catch and then threw out the runner at
first, who strayed from the bag. What an
arm! After the inning, Marketing
Director Nicole Sack came out with a pile of hats to toss to the crowd. It was a lot.
Danny said they had a bunch of giveaways last night. I guess they’re clearing out the
storeroom.
Jessica
Carreon hustled out a bunt single to begin the bottom of the
third. Jill followed that up with a
single. Des came up and blasted a line
drive shot over the centerfield wall for a three-run homer. Right after she rounded the bases, a big
cloud passed in front of the sun like an eclipse. I’m sure there’s a metaphor to make here, but
I don’t know what it is. The Aggies got
a couple of two-out singles, but weren’t able to add on. 4-3 LAT.
A little toddler wearing a t-shirt identifying her with
Krissy Boyd’s family tottered up and down in front of the crowd possibly trying
to rally the crowd during the inning. It
was adorable. Nicole came back out and
tossed C-USA Softball tournament
t-shirts to the crowd. I remember paying
$25 for a tournament shirt in 2018. That
was also the price of my all-tournament pass.
Now, it’s $60.
The top of the fourth began with another bad play at
third. It was ruled a hit. Next was an attempted sac bunt, but was
hustled into another hit. Finally, a
walk loaded the bases with nobody out. A
big flyball followed. If the wind hadn’t
been blowing, it might have gone out, but instead it worked as a sacrifice to
bring in a run. Jaileen came back to get
the next two outs, including another big strikeout looking. 5-3 LAT.
There was a foam finger giveaway to the crowd. The Boyd toddler got one and didn’t quite
know what to do with it. The Aggies went
down in order in the bottom of the fourth.
It ended with Jill striking out.
On the previous pitch, she was about to toss her bat for a walk. The crowd also thought it was a ball. The top of the fifth began with a strike call
and a sarcastic cheer from the crowd.
Jaileen got out of the inning with only a single given up.
The wind caused a flurry of spilled popcorn to fly over
the stands. With two outs in the bottom
of the fifth and a new Bulldog
pitcher, Devin Elam hit a liner that
deflected off the LAT third baseman into the outfield. She made it to second, though the throw got
there at the same time. Dev was left
stranded. Another cloud passed over and
dropped the temperature with it. It was
dark enough that I took off my shades for a while.
For the top of the sixth, LAT only singled. Their defense shined in the bottom. Paris
Endris (what a name) at first grabbed a grounder and dove at the bag to get
the out. Caroline Easom then made a running catch on a popup at second with her
back to the infield. Jaileen was still
in to pitch the seventh. The Aggie
defense was stout again. With two outs
and a runner on first, Claire Raley
doubled to deep right center. Jill threw
to Jess, who hit Kendal Lunar at the
plate to nail the runner and end the inning.
Jessica came up first in the bottom of the seventh. She hit a looper to left that deflected off
the fielder’s glove after a near collision with the centerfielder. The ball went to the wall, as Jess tore
around the bases and flopped across home for an inside-the-park home run. What a thrill! Unfortunately, that was all. Des did hammer a massive foul during her at
bat, but the Aggies would come up a run short.
5-4 LA Tech wins.
The right side of the stadium erupted with the final
out. I did not realize how many LAT fans
were there for the game. I’ll toss out
the Gameballs. For LA Tech, Mattison Buster came on in relief for
the save going 3 innings with only one run allowed. Kylie
Neel and Brooke Diaz both went 2
for 4 with 2 RBI’s.
For the Aggies, Desirae
Spearman had that big three-run homer.
Jessica Carreon had that
incredible home run the hard way and threw out a runner at home. Jillian
Taylor was worth the price of admission as usual with two great plays from
the outfield. While she didn’t have a
great performance, Jaileen Mancha
pitched a gutty game. After two rough
innings, she held the Bulldogs down and gave her team a chance.
It was hard to be too disappointed by the loss after seeing those great plays on the field. It was a hard loss given the series loss to a team with the same conference record. Hopefully, the Aggies can salvage one tomorrow. In the meantime, I took advantage of a large two-topping pizza deal for $7 from Dominos after the game and shared it with dad. Thanks for that.
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