NM State Aggies vs Sam Houston State Bearkats Women’s Basketball 3-8-25

 

I didn’t realize last Monday that the winds were going to get a lot worse for the rest of the week with huge dust storms.  Here on Saturday, the wind finally died down and a rainstorm came through.  It rained lightly for five minutes.  Now, everyone’s car in town, especially mine, is a muddy mess.  I finally need to wash my new car.  I gave up on washing my old truck a long time ago.  I need to figure out where to go to wash a car.  

 

Welcome to another Senior Day.  Honestly, these are getting harder and harder to attend.  I get choked up over some of these players leaving.  The parking lot of the Pan-Am Center wasn’t full, but inside, I’d never seen so many people at the concessions outside of a Men’s Basketball game.  There was a great crowd of 7,432 today for Aggie Women’s Basketball vesus Sam Houston.  (I have to question that number a bit, but it’s the official number.)

 

The ladies had suffered a couple of bad road losses before coming home this week.  Molly Kaiser, in particular, was off and had only 10 combined points for those two games.  On Thursday, she came roaring back with 35 points and a win!  (That tied a career high.)  I tried to listen to the Aggie Men’s Basketball game that night, but it didn’t come on over the Internet.  (Retiring broadcaster Jack Nixon only has a few games left.)  They won big on the road on Thursday.  Today, their game started a half-hour before the ladies and I was able to listen to the whole thing.  They went behind early to start.

 

On court, I saw the head referee introduce himself to Adam Young and the rest of the broadcast crew.  He also shook hands with a couple of Aggie fans sitting next to them.  The team came out on the court led by Molly, who was all smiles.  Madi Gewirtz had great-looking hair today.  She’d gotten styled for the occasion.  Tylie Jones was now on crutches.  I guess she’d had surgery.  During introductions, Molly played up to a contingent of friends and family in the crowd behind the bench.  The non-starters on the team all ran over and tossed their souvenir balls to the Band.      

 

First Quarter

Here’s where I’d usually be posting my scorecard, but there were no programs to be had today.  The courtside seats had them.  Maybe I got there too late to get one given the size of the crowd?  Without a scorecard, I almost didn’t know what to do with myself other than scribble incomprehensible notes.

 

Fanta Gassama got the first points of the game.  Loes Rozing followed that up with a 3.  (Those would be hard to come by today.)  On defense, Fanta had a block and Molly drew a charge.  On the Aggie bench, Madi saw the charge and fell backward into a teammate’s arms in appreciation.  Molly then drew a second foul on Bearkat Fanta Kone and then found Aggie Fanta under the basket for an assist and a layup.  7-4 Aggies with 6 minutes left in the quarter.

 

Loes found Fanta sneaking under the basket as well, but that shot was blocked.  Back on defense, Lucia Yenes was in and seemed to take a shot to the jaw under the basket.  To add insult, she was also given a foul.  After a pair of free throws, SH was up, 8-7.  Sylena Peterson was fouled and got the lead right back on free throws.  Jaila Harding made a layup and drew a foul going into a break. 

 

The Cheerleaders handed out “Tiny Pete” figures on cardbacks in the timeout.  I sort of want one, but not enough to take a day off this coming Friday to go to Baseball for the giveaway.  Back to play, Molly made an assist to Lucia for a layup.  Sy and Madi combined on a steal.  The Aggies ran a rare trap on defense.  Sy then made a great offensive rebound.  Molly had a steal and made a pass downcourt to Madi for a layup.  Fanta was fouled on a shot.  She missed both free throws.  Madi got the rebound on the second miss, but the Aggies didn’t score.  They were up 15-14 after 10 minutes.    

 

Second Quarter

Sy found Fanta under the basket for another layup.  However, the Aggies had a bad inbounds and Coach Adams called a quick timeout to chew out the team.  The Sundancers performed in the break.  One of the girls lost an earring.  She went to the ref to ask for time, but one of the other girls quickly found it. 

 

Sianny Sanchez-Oliver had a steal and Molly drove the lane for a layup.  Sianny had another steal that led to a Molly jump shot.  21-14 Aggies with 7 minutes left.  Madi missed a three, got the rebound, and then missed the layup.  It wasn’t her day for shooting.  (Still looked good.)  SH took a timeout and Wave the Wonder Dog came up on the video board.  He looked happy today taking in a game.

 

Sianny had another steal.  No points came off it, though.  Lucia initially picked up her third foul, but on review, it was given to Fanta, her second.  Molly made a layup and drew a foul, but uncharacteristically missed the free throw.  Jaila got the rebound off the miss, but no points were scored. 

 

Lucia definitely picked up her third foul with a reach in.  Then, Jaila was called for a foul.  In rapid succession, Fanta got her third foul.  This finally got a “Boo!” out the crowd.  That was all on one trip downcourt and it was a costly one. Bearkat Deborah Ogayemi made two free throws.  She has an odd hop and step to the side for her shooting motion on free throws. 

 

Sy and Fanta Kone went down together hard under the basket.  They were both laid out flat.  Their teammates were worried, but they were okay.  Molly drew another foul and converted on the free throws.  During the throws, Madi was called over by an assistant coach for a chat, but wasn’t taken out.  27-17 Aggies with 3 minutes left.

 

Imani Warren was in with Lucia and Fanta sitting out with foul trouble.  Loes found her under the basket for a layup.  The Aggies were loving that play.  Imani made another layup on a fast break and it was, 31-17 Aggies with 2 minutes left.  Anna Csenyi and Marta Guilera came in.  Marta got a rebound.  Imani was fouled late in the quarter.  The video board had a close up of her at the line and showed her getting hit in the face as the ref tossed her the ball.  Ouch.  Aggies up 34-20 at the half.         

 

Halftime

As the team left the court, they high-fived a (mostly) girls dance team, who performed for the halftime show.  There was one little, bitty girl that was too cute trying to dance with the other little girls.  The older girls performed next and were a bit more coordinated. 

 

A group of women boosters were then honored on court.  Mrs. Hubbard was given a framed jersey.  PA Ed announced that she is 97 years old!  God bless her.  She gets around just fine and is plenty lively.  

 

Third Quarter

During player warm-ups, Madi came over to the sideline tables and said, “Hi,” to a little girl dressed as a cheerleader.  Jaila was blocked on her first shot, but came back with a 3.  I think that was the second 3 of the game.  37-24 Aggies with 7 minutes left.  Ogayemi stole an Aggie inbounds.  On that play, her teammate, Nyla Inmon, took a hit to her left arm.  She was in some considerable pain and had to come out.  Nyla had taken four foul shots in this quarter to this point.

 

Sy fought her way to the basket for a layup to make it 41-28 Aggies with 6 minutes left.  Lucia picked up her fourth foul on defense.  Nyla came back in.  Maybe she’d just taken a hit to her funny bone.  The Aggies started scuffling.  It was 41-32 Aggies at the 5 minute timeout.  The Bearkats were already in the bonus with the Aggies at 5 fouls.  The crowd was yelling.  Mother Hubbard was up and shouting.

 

Meanwhile on the road, the Men’s game at Sam Houston ended with a 76-69 loss.  They’d been down, at times double-digits, all game.  Late, they’d gotten within 2, but a clutch 3 put them back down for good.  I think Jack said before the game that the Aggies haven’t beaten Sam Houston on the road yet.  

 

On the next two Aggie possessions, they had their inbounds pass stolen again and then had a shot clock violation.  Finally, Molly stepped up with a block and a layup.  She then made a great move to the basket for another layup.  Loes followed that with a Euro-step layup.  Molly made a great leaping rebound on the final shot of the quarter.  Aggies up, 47-36.

Fourth Quarter

The little girl in the cheerleader outfit won the Fan of the Game award.  She ended up on camera several times during the game.  Marta got into the scoring column after missing three free throws, but finally sinking the last one.  On the other end, SH made three passes under the basket for a layup. 

 

Lucia fouled out.  Nyla hit a jumper at the shot clock buzzer to close the score to 48-42 Aggies with 7 minutes left.  Molly came back with a 3, also at the buzzer.  Fanta found Sianny, who cut right through the lane, for a layup.  53-44 Aggies with 5 minutes left.

 

Fanta made a steal.  Sy put in a 3.  Whitney Dunn fouled out for the Bearkats, as Molly took another charge.  Sianny, probably the shortest player on the court, made a leaping steal of a high crosscourt pass.  Unfortunately, the Aggies lost another inbounds, but the Bearkats threw it away.  Bearkat Aysia Ward-Strong fouled out. 

 

Senior Noah Garcia came into the game with 50 seconds left.  The crowd rose when they thought Molly was coming out.  Too bad she didn’t, because Molly took a cheapshot on an inbounds.  She was okay, but out of it for a few seconds.  Jaila fouled out.  There were a lot of fouls in this game. 

 

Our final senior, Diarrah Sissoko, came in with 43 seconds left.  Molly finally did come out to a standing ovation.  When she was at the bench, she gave a big smile and wave when they put her on the video board.  Madi huddled the team up on court for a talk.  She’s already looking like a leader on the team.  Aggies win, 65-56!  

 

For Sam Houston, Nyla Inmon was the high-scorer of the game with 24 points and that was with an injured arm in the second half.  Deborah Ogayemi had 18 points and 11 rebounds, and Kyleigh McGuire had 10 rebounds.  Those are good-looking stats, but overall, the Bearkats were 28% shooting and 0 for 10 taking 3’s.  (Ouch!) 

 

For the Aggies, Molly Kaiser had 20 points, Sylena Peterson had 9 points, and Imani Warren had 7 points.  There were several other Aggies chipping in with points.  They were 44% shooting, 4 for 12 on 3’s, and a low 60% on free throws.  They also had 21 points off of turnovers and 14 fast break points.  With this win, the Aggies get a bye at the C-USA tournament next week.

 

Senior Ceremony

Nine seniors were graduating today.  (There’s only 15 players total on the team.)  They were Loes Rozing, Sylena Peterson, Molly Kaiser, Jaila Harding, Sianny Sanchez-Oliver, Fanta Gassama, Diarrah Sissoko, Tylie Jones, and Noah Garcia.  Framed jerseys were put on easels for them and the girls walked out with friends and family.  A couple of players walked out with teammates.  Freshmen Madi and Emma Dasovich were the only ones just observing the ceremony.    

 

The seniors seemed to be announced in random order.  Molly had some impressive accomplishments, as she is currently third all-time in the scoring for the Aggies and has averaged 20 points a game this season to lead the conference.  As a Grad student, she must have gotten a jersey last year, as Molly got a framed photograph this time.  Sylena came out with the biggest entourage.  Fanta and Noah had the most tears, though Noah was also laughing. 

 

One of the easels got knocked over during the group picture, but the frame seemed okay after the fall.  Molly was first to help put it back up. Afterward, the team went around the sidelines as usual to shake hands with the fans.  (I’m too shy to go down there to participate.)  Molly signed a Tiny Pete package for a little boy and gave Adam a big hug.

 

I’d been craving a hamburger and went to Burger King after the game.  It turned out the good coupon I had was expired.  How embarrassing.  I got a Whopper at regular cost.  It was okay, though I might have made a different choice in restaurants if I’d known I was going to be paying full price.  Now, it’s just Baseball and Softball, which might not be great next weekend with more wind in the forecast.

NM State Aggies vs Oakland U Golden Grizzlies Baseball 3-1-25

 

Lots of Aggie Baseball this week.  Let’s get to it.

 

I saw the Aggies play the Lobos in Albuquerque on Lobovision over the Internet on Tuesday.  It was a demoralizing 7-0 loss.  At least they weren’t run ruled.  The Lobo’s announcer was very congenial and even acknowledged that a bunch of Aggie fans were probably watching the game.

 

The Aggies had a messy 5-4 win against the Oakland U Grizzlies Friday night.  They had three errors and lost four runners on the bases.  Aidan Lombardi came up for his first at bat of season in the tenth and the only Oakland error of game came on his hit, which won the game for the Aggies.  Saul Soto worked an impressive 2 2/3 innings of relief for the win.  There was reportedly a large crowd for the game.  They were giving away t-shirts for Country Music night.

 

There was a cool breeze blowing when I left for the stadium on Saturday.  I ran into Fan Michael there.  Trey Reese’s charming wife, Robin (I finally got her name), and daughter, Nellie came by.  Trey came by a bit later.  I wasn’t sitting next to him, so I didn’t get much conversation in.  The family was in Albuquerque.  Their son, Cooper, almost came in to pitch in that game.  He was kind of glad he didn’t because it would have been a bad spot at the time.  

 

The crowd looked light, but was announced at 614, including lots of Oakland fans.  Aggie Men’s Basketball was annoyingly scheduled for the same time, but it didn’t hurt attendance apparently.  I started listening to the radio call of that game and found out it was going to be Jack Nixon’s final game broadcast in the Pan-Am Center.  He’s been there since the 70’s, so this was a big deal.  I kept listening to basketball during the baseball game.  Jack, characteristically, didn’t want the story of the game to be about him and focused on the play-by-play.  

 

I really crushed it on the scorecards today.  Oh, wait.  That’s not what that means.  I really screwed these up.  I was reduced to checking the official play-by-play for corrections . . . of a game I was at and watching and keeping score at.  I can’t even explain why.  It wasn’t that unpleasant out.  I wasn’t super involved in any conversations.  The scoring wasn’t even that difficult.  I just wasn’t into it.  I got a headache redoing the scorecards.

 

I also wasn’t really taking notes, so this isn’t going to be much of a recap.  Maybe the problem was that I was at a baseball game and listening to a basketball game.   Hayden Lewis started for the Aggies.  I think wasn’t a rehab start for him, but normal start.  The Aggies’ erroneous ways picked up where they left off on Friday with an error on the first batter.  The runner was doubled in to make it 1-0 Griz.

 

The wind picked up and started blowing in in the bottom of the first.  I was prepared with a coat.  The Aggies punched right back.  After leadoff double by Jonatan Clough, Steve Solorzano tripled him in.  Mitch Namie’s groundout brought in Solo to make it 2-1 Aggies.

 

It was announced that it was 77-degrees here in Las Cruces.  (Actually, with the cool wind, it had to be in the low 60’s here.)  In Rochester, Michigan, where Oakland University is, it was 19-degrees.  The Oakland fans cheered.  The clown show continued in the top of the second.  Lewis had trouble with a grounder on the first batter for the first error of the inning.  After a single and a sacrifice, a two-base error by Camden Kaufman at short brought in two runs.  3-2 Griz.  A double play ended an Aggie threat in the bottom.

 

Ben Clark cranked a powerful line drive homer in the top of the third.  As near as I could tell, he hit it straight into the wind.  Lewis was helped out the Aggie defense, as Sheehan O’Connor made a shoe top on a liner at second.  4-2 Griz. 

 

Joey Craig led off the bottom of the third with a majestic home run to left.  This towering shot one might have caught an updraft and flew out.  Clough walked and Sheehan singled behind him.  The third baseman threw to second and didn’t get Clough.  He was charged with an error, but it was more poor judgment than a bad throw. 

 

After a daring double steal, singles by Solo and Namie brought in the runners.  Oakland catcher, Clark, got clipped on another double steal attempt and went down.  After the trainer saw him, the ump talked to him a minute.  Namie then stole second with the pitcher looking right at him.  I asked Trey, a former pitcher, if that had ever happened to him.  It had.  The Aggies back up 5-4.

 

On the radio, Aggie Basketball was up big at halftime, 34-20.  They ran a nice tribute to Nixon in the break with messages from several guests.  Lewis had more trouble in the top of the fourth.  A hit batter and a single were doubled in by Grizzly John Lauinger and he advanced to third on bad throw from right field. 

 

Cooper Reese came in in relief.  Trey wasn’t videoing his son this time.  I flipped over the radio station and listened to the ballgame.  Jeff Matthews said that he remembered calling games with Cooper’s dad playing.  I’m not sure if he knew he was in the crowd.  I should have turned over quicker.  Coop gave up a walk to start.  The Grizzlies tried a delayed double steal.  The first runner took second, but the runner from third was thrown out at the plate.  Oakland fans were angry.  They might have had a point, as the runner might have reached around to touch the plate before the tag.  Still, the Griz were back up, 6-5.

 

The Aggies got a walk and a hit batter in the bottom of the fourth.  The Aggies attempted another double steal, but the lead runner got caught this time.  No problem.  Pinch hitter, Gianni Horvat tripled the other runner in.  Two of the Griz outfielders collided on the play.  The right fielder was laid out.  He was okay eventually.  Solo would double Horvat in.  Aggies up 7-6.  (A bit of mystery here.  Horvat came in for Sheehan, who had laid down a sacrifice bunt in the first.  That’s an odd play early in a game at Presley Askew Field, especially for a guy with 6 home runs in 9 games.)

 

Amazingly, nobody scored for the next two innings.  Both halves of the fifth inning were 1-2-3 and ended with a great defensive play.  I noticed the Volleyball team was here.  They chose baseball over basketball.  On that matter, about here, the Men won their game, 65-47, over WKU.  Not bad, considering WKU had dropped 100 points on them in their last meeting.  The call-in show featured several callers wanting to thank and congratulate Jack.  “Is this what it took to get people to call in?” he asked.  His co-host, Anita Maxwell, and Coach Hooten both offered well wishes on the show, as well.

 

The wind died down here, as the sun started going down.  Jake Carvajal came in for Cooper for the top of the seventh.  He hit the first batter and gave up a huge two-run homer to left center.  The Griz were now up 8-7.  Who’s gonna to win this?

 

Okay, the bottom of the seventh is where I lost the scorecard.  Two walks and a single loaded the bases. Chris Daniels drove in a run on a fielder’s choice.  Brandon Forrester had a two-run pinch hit single.  Craig doubled him in.  After a pitching change, Clough singled in Craig.  Clough stole second.  The throw went into centerfield and Clough took third.

 

The most dramatic play was an infield hit by Horvat.  Second baseman, Sam Griffifth, made a great bare-handed catch and apparently threw Horvat out at first, but he was ruled safe and a run scored.  Given that 4 runs had already scored, the players exploded.  The coach ran out and got himself ejected to save them.  Just to make it worse, Horvat was picked off, but Griffifth dropped the ball at second.  Horvat then took third on a wild pitch.  In sum, the Aggies batted around and scored 6.  We had our seventh and final lead change of the game with the Aggies up 13-8.

 

I was finally just listening to the baseball call.  Dylan Weekly came in to pitch the top of the eighth.  I found out he’s another legacy player.  Matthews had called games with his dad, Chris Weekly, who hit .400 one season and went to the Major Leagues.  I think Trey said he just missed playing with him.  (It was a little loud and we weren’t sitting next to each other.)  I got a laugh out of Michael relaying stories about the stadium from then.  There wasn’t a Press Box.  Matthews called games from the back of a flatbed truck.  The stadium had wooden seats that were salvaged from a Pan-Am Center renovation.  Those seats rotted outdoors and were tossed. 

 

Anyway, Weekly worked two scoreless innings to finish out the game.  The Aggies won the marathon, 13-8.  In the top of the eighth, we had a casualty.  Grizzly Lucas Day, who’d hit the two-run homer in the previous inning, pulled up lame running out a grounder.  He had to be helped off the field.  The game finished in darkness after a bit more than 3 hours of play.  Outside the stadium, there was a brilliant crescent moon with a rare bottom arc.  Jupiter was shining beside it.

 

Lots of Gameballs.  For the Grizzlies, Brandon Nigh went 3 for 5 with an RBI and Blake Sehlke pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings.  For the Aggies, Cooper Reese and Dylan Weekly each had scoreless 2-inning efforts.  Aggie hitting crushed it.  Joey Craig was 2 for 3 with 2 RBI’s and a home run.  Brandon Forrester and Gianni Horvat had great games pinch hitting.  Jonatan Clough was 3 for 3, scored 4 runs, and had an RBI.  (He reached base in all 5 plate appearances.)  Steve Solorzano was 3 for 4 with 3 RBI’s.  Defensively though, it was a 4-error game for the Aggies.  They need to clean that up.   

     

Sunday

The weather forecast for Sunday was for 40mph winds.  When I quit writing at midnight, the wind was already howling outside.  By Sunday noon, it had settled down a bit, but was still blowing.  I assumed it would get worse later in the afternoon and made plans to see my dad and watch the new Reacher series.  By game time though, there was only a gentle breeze blowing.  Adam Young on the radio call was as surprised as anybody by this weather development. 

 

It was too late for me to change my mind and get ready to go.  That may have been for the best.  Matthew Yarc made his second start of the week.  (He’d also started against the Lobos.)   It started well, but the wheels came off with a 3-run homer in the third.  The Grizzly hit parade continued to the tune of a 16-3 run rule win.  The rest of their runs came mostly on singles, so the wind didn’t have anything to do with it.  At least the Aggies had no errors in the game after committing 7 in the previous two games.

 

Monday

Monday morning I was awakened to a weather alert from my phone for a dust storm.  It showed up a couple of hours later and turned everything outside brown.  I had abandoned all plans of going to the game last night, after seeing the weather forecast.  Imagine my surprise, when I turned on the game broadcast to hear that they were playing today.   

 

Adam Young reported a 20-minute delay for the dust storm.  After that, it’d just be windy.  You could hear that it was Kid’s Day at the park with 800 students on a field trip.  I’ve been there before on a Kid’s Day (4-25-23).  The kids were having a good time with their hot dog, popcorn, and drink and not being class.  Total attendance was beyond capacity at 1,089.

 

There was a 20mph wind straight out to center.  That was good for the people in the stands, as they were facing away from it.  Oddly, it didn’t have much of an effect on the game.  Oakland was up 4-0 in the sixth without the aid of a home run.  Steve Solorzano hit out a home run in the bottom.  Grizzly Daniel Duley, who’d pitched well, came out in the inning.  Camden Kaufman hit a two-run homer and Sheehan O’Connor hit a solo shot off the relief to tie it.

 

Afterward, Oakland added 3 more runs.  In the eighth, with gusting winds on the infield, the Aggies loaded bases, but the inning ended on a double play (and the fielder lost his hat in the wind).  The Aggies threatened again in the ninth with an RBI by Solo, but the game ended, 8-5 Grizzlies.   

 

This was a pair of discouraging losses that exposed the Aggies’ pitching and hot-and-cold hitting.  Next up is a trip to Texas A&M.  They’ve gone from #1 in nation to #14 after a bad losing streak.  Maybe the Aggies can steal one.