It was a perfect day for the final home ball game for Aggie Baseball. It was warm and sunny with a nice
breeze. Since we starting in the
morning, instead of the late evening like yesterday, it wasn’t too hot
and there was some shade in the stadium.
I visited the restroom first and ran into Mando, the son of a co-worker,
who works for Aggie Vision. He wasn’t there for yesterday’s game. I told him that his brother, Rito, had been
out in the heat holding up a camera for 13 innings. Mando said he’d be working the roof camera
today.
I picked up a bottle of tea and a tasty corn-in-a-cup at
the concessions and joined Fan Michael inside.
He was handing out signed posters to the player parents that were there
for Senior Day all during the game. He
does this every year to give them a keepsake.
Speaking of perfect, the team photographer was in the dugout
chatting with the players, while the hot marketing intern girl was organizing
the parents for the first pitch. Both
were dressed alike and had their long, pretty hair straightened out today. They were like beautiful twins. (Are they best friends? Coincidence?)
13 sets of parents threw out first pitches to their sons
on field. We had a flyover with a
squadron of birds for the Anthem. (How
do they organize that?) I was wearing my
nice Aggie polo shirt today. A guy next
to me assumed I was working for team, as I had my scorecards out, too. No, and if the Aggie Sports department read my blog, they’d disavow me and refuse
me entry to the games.
Otherwise, it was a decent crowd for a Sunday morning
start. Bianca Perez from the Volleyball
team was there, maybe with a couple of new players that I didn’t
recognize. She’s been a regular
supporter of the Baseball team this season.
(Is she going out with someone on the team?) Soccer
Coach Baarts was here also, but I didn’t see the team. On field, LA Tech was in a solid blue top and grey pants and were the spitting
image of the Cubs’ road
uniforms.
Aaron
Treloar was way too amped up for Senior Day. In his first inning pitching for the Aggies,
he walked two, threw two wild pitches, and threw to the backstop a couple of
times. Somehow, LAT did not score. Titus
Dumitru made a great twisting, jumping catch in right for the first out.
The Aggie offense was amped, as well. Keith
Jones hit a line drive homer to begin the bottom of the frame and also Nick Gore solo homered. 2-0 Aggies.
The hot intern came down for a couple of t-shirt tosses. Between innings, she was joined by the ever
effervescent marketing chief, Nicole Sacks.
They handed out rolled tacos to everyone. I don’t like rolled tacos, but couldn’t
resist free food, even if it possibly spoiled my lunch. (It didn’t.)
Actually, they were okay. It’s
good thing I avoided a $1 dog at the concessions.
Treloar worked another scoreless inning. He had a pair of strikeouts between another
walk and another wild pitch. The Aggie
offense kicked it up a notch in the bottom of second. Steve
Solorzano began with a double. Edwin Martinez-Pagani brought him in
with a single. Damone Hale singled. In his
at bat, Keith Jones protested that
he was hit by a pitch. The umps
conferenced and agreed, which loaded the bases.
Titus sacrificed one run in. Logan Galina, who was starting at first
today, hit a three-run homer to make it 7-0 Aggies. I think the boys wanted to win on Senior Day. LAT brought in a new pitcher to finish the
inning.
During the inning, the ump talked to EMP after he
scored. Edwin protested that he didn’t
do anything. I also thought I saw a
couple of Aggies taunting the LAT dugout while running to first. After the inning, the home plate ump talked
to both coaches. However, later in the
game, Michael came back from delivering posters and said that the argument was
that the LAT coach said the Aggie dugout was using binoculars on their bullpen. Well, if that’s the case, they were using
them to see who was warming up, which isn’t secret information. I don’t know what was going on.
The hot marketing intern handed out more souvenirs in the
break. She handed a fanny pack to an
adorable little girl in a cheerleading outfit.
Good call. Josh Sharman relieved Treloar, who was the opener today, I
guess. LAT plated their first run after
a double, a wild pitch, and a sac fly.
7-1 Aggies. The Aggies didn’t
score in the bottom, though Solo collected another hit and advanced to second
after a bad pickoff throw.
I went to bathroom during the break. I came back to find my seat occupied by
another fan. Meanwhile, Michael was
speaking to a very attractive blonde woman.
She didn’t seem to be the right age to fit any profile to be related to
the players. After she left, Michael
said that was the coach’s wife. “Can
this guy recruit or what?” he said. She
was extremely pleasant and circulated around the crowd to the different player
families and probably charms the boosters, too.
That is a husband and wife working as a team.
LAT tacked on two more runs via a walk and a home run in
the fourth. 7-3 Aggies. In the bottom, Titus hit a hustle double off
a lazy throw to the infield, but was left stranded. Romeo Ballesteros
hit a grounder to first to start the frame.
Dalton Davis juggled it,
dropped it, and finally flipped it to the pitcher ahead of Romeo diving
headfirst to bag. Michael mentioned he’d
once asked him if he had any trouble living up to his first name. The roguishly handsome young man answered,
“No.”
Sharman allowed another walk and homer combination and was
relieved by Kade Benevidez, who got
the final out in the fifth. The Aggies
responded in the bottom with Solo’s third hit of the game and Damone driving
him in with a single. 8-5 Aggies.
Kade was getting squeezed by the ump in his second inning
of work in the sixth and was pitching well below the strikezone on top of
it. He left the game with the bases
loaded from two walks and a single. Austin Corbett relieved him. Wait. (Checking
scorecards.) He was yesterday’s
centerfielder and he’s not listed as a pitcher on the program. Michael said he’d pitched on Friday. This didn’t seem like the best moment to put
in a position player to pitch with the bases loaded and one out. The next batter grounded to second. EMP tagged the runner going by and threw to
first for the inning-ending double play.
This is why I’m not the coach.
Connor
Nation (what a great name) came in to pitch for LAT in the
sixth. He began with a walk and a single,
which were cashed in by Logan and Preston
Godfrey for two more runs. 10-5
Aggies. Hayden Walker pitched for the Aggies in the seventh. Wait. (Checking
scorecards.) He pitched two innings
yesterday. No problem. He went 1-2-3 for the inning.
The Aggies exhausted another pitcher in the bottom of the
seventh, as Damone doubled to start the inning and Romeo suddenly hit a two-run
home run on an arc to left field. Wait. (Checking program.) That was his first home run of the
season. Caden Copeland came in to mop up the inning. Adarius
Myers made a great diving catch on a liner that was curling away from
him. 12-5 Aggies.
To start the top of the eighth, Walker threw five straight
balls. Gore went out for a chat with
him. Hayden came back with a strikeout
and double play ball. That was a good
talk. In the bottom, Grant Comeaux was given a tough error
on a squib shot to third, but Copeland came back with three strikeouts. Regular first baseman, Mitch Namie, came in for the ninth.
I’d seen him in the dugout cheering earlier in the game. He seemed okay with letting Logan get the
Senior Day start. Walker began the ninth
with another leadoff walk. He almost
worked around it, but Romeo lost a popup in the sun and a run scored. That’s okay.
Aggies win 12-6.
Both teams came out to shake hands after the game. I always like to see that. Oh my goodness! Michael had mentioned yesterday that LA Tech
had a 7’ player and there he was! Brenton Thiels towered over everyone
else on the field. Wow is this kid
playing the wrong sport.
Here’s your Gameballs.
For the Bulldogs, I’m giving one to Caden
Copeland for pitching two scoreless innings and he looked fairly impressive
doing it. For the Aggies, I’m glad to
say Steve Solorzano seems to finally
be back from his injury with a couple of hits yesterday and going 3 for 5
today. Coach Angier did well sticking with him. Damone
Hale also broke out of his slump going 3 for 4 with an RBI.
Logan
Galina shined going 3 for 5 with 4 RBI’s and a home run. He also made a couple of great stretch plays
in his return to first. Aaron Treloar was all over the place to
start the game, but came away with two scoreless innings. Lastly, Austin
Corbett and Edwin Martinez-Pagani
probably saved the game for the Aggies with that DP in the sixth.
The Senior Ceremony was tremendous. The photographer girl and the intern girl
were on the field the whole time. There
were also 13 guys graduating: Aaron
Treloar, Josh Sharman, Tyler Hoeft, Cade Swenson, Preston
Godfrey, Logan Galina, Edwin Martinez-Pagani, Romeo Ballesteros, Damone Hale, Trey Meza, Nick Gore, Hayden Walker, and Keith
Jones. Yikes, I’ll miss these guys,
almost as much I’ll miss the girls. I
should give some parting advice to the graduates. Logan!
Marry Xophia Venegas already!
That was a tremendous way to end the season at the ‘Skew. This was a great weekend for baseball. I was handed a Raising Cane’s coupon on the way out, so that settled lunch. There was a new red Corvette parked behind me
as I nervously pulled out. I wonder who
owns that.
This marks the end of my Aggie Country Pass this year whether I go to the Softball
tournament this week or not. By my
count, I went to 49 games with it, including Baseball, Softball, Women’s Basketball, Soccer, and Volleyball. I might have to
pick Saturday’s Baseball game as the best game of the bunch, but that’s
mostly because I don’t feel like auditing 48 other games on my blog.
I certainly got my money’s worth. Individually, all those games would have probably cost more than twice what I paid for the pass, especially with the ticket price increase. I almost didn’t get it as there was talk of another lockdown in August of 2023, and I haven’t forgotten losing half the value of my card in 2020 when Softball and Baseball were canceled (for nothing I might add). I don’t know what I’ll be doing in the fall with Aggie Sports, but I do plan on coming back for more baseball next year, and following along with the rest of their season this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment