I was okay last Monday with the 11:00am start for Aggie Baseball, but today I barely got up in time to make it to the ballpark. The 4:00pm start time on Saturday is also questionable due to where the sun is at that time of day for the fielders and it conflicts with Basketball. Next Saturday, Men’s Basketball and Baseball will be starting at the same time. I just wanted to get this off my chest.
I’d listened to Aggie Baseball get a 9-1 win over Western Illinois, this weekend’s opponent, on the radio Friday night. Camden Kaufman and Sheehan O’Connor both had big games with home runs. Cooper Reese closed out the last two innings of the game giving up 1 run that was unearned. Adam mentioned his family was there, including father, Trey, who I’d met last weekend.
I listened to Saturday’s game on the radio after I got home from Aggie Women’s Basketball and after listening to the end of the Aggie Men’s Basketball. The Aggies were down 7-3 in the fifth, but had loaded the bases and the Leathernecks were bringing in a new pitcher. Then the radio signal went out for about 20 minutes. It came back just in time for me to hear the Aggies tie it and take the lead on a Sheehan home run.
There was some drama in the ninth as the Leathernecks loaded the bases. Joey Craig made a great catch in center to end the game. Aggies win 10-8. Brandon Forrester had a good day going 3 for 4 and O’Connor hit another home run. I didn’t entirely feel bad about missing the game yesterday even though it was nice when the game started. It went 3 hours and 30 minutes and I’m sure it got cold when the sun went down.
Today I grabbed a corn-in-a-cup breakfast and just made it to my seat as the lineups were being announced, which I muffed writing down. I’m not sure how I got the scorecards filled out with any accuracy. I was there with Fan Michael and Trey Reese and his family. This included his lovely wife (whose name I missed three times) and daughter Nellie, both of whom have played Aggie Volleyball.
I didn’t get to talk to Nellie, but chatted a bit with the Mrs. She was also setter, like her daughter. I found out that Aspen Aldous, a setter who’d left the team last year, had done so for medical reasons. She had a neurological disorder in her hands. I’m sure setting didn’t help with that condition. I found out from the guys that the golf team was here on Friday. They sat next to the opposing dugout and had mercilessly and cleverly heckled the Leathernecks during the game.
The crowd was impressive today at 614. There were three kids t-ball teams in attendance who went out on field with the team for the Anthem, which was sung by a talented young woman. Throwing out the first pitch was Wave the Wonder Dog! Wave was a bit reluctant to hand over the ball to the catcher, but did so to his trainer.
WIU brought some attractive female fans with them. The guys said that their fans were not friendly. They had an obnoxious heckler fellow with them for the first couple of games, but he wasn’t here today. (Mrs. Reese had no trouble chatting with some WIU fans, though. She’s very pleasant.) The Hot Marketing Girl had a hot assistant with her today. She had long dark hair and seemed more amicable. More distractions keeping me from tracking of the game on my scorecard.
These added up. I corrected a couple plays from the official scoring. I’m not going to question them. Along with other distractions, in the seventh inning, the scoreboard went out. I know it’s hard enough to tell it’s on in the daylight, but it was out. The PA would have to give the score out every half inning. One thing that did suffer in this game was my note taking. Something had to give.
Hayden Lewis started for the Aggies. It was another pitch limit rehab start for him. He had a quick 1-2-3 first. Jorge Romero started for the Leathernecks. You couldn’t miss him out there with a purple glove to match team’s uniform trim. He gave up a single and a wild pitch in the first without further damage.
WIU had a leadoff single for the second, but did not advance him. Kaufman began the Aggie half of the inning with a single that he unwisely tried to stretch into a double and was thrown out. The Aggies next had a single and a base runner from an error. Both were advanced by a rare balk call, but were stranded.
The top of the third was rough for the Aggies. After a leadoff single, there was a follow up single. Tommy Meluskey in right unfortunately airmailed a throw to third, which scored a run. Lewis made a great pickoff move to get the runner, who’d advanced to second. He did have other problems with a hit batter and a walk, but got out of it with a looking strikeout. 1-0 WIU. The Aggies had three singles to start the bottom of the third, but one of them thrown out trying to steal second. Nobody scored.
Lewis’ final inning was in order, but he was helped out by his defense. Third baseman Forrester, who was playing behind second on the shift, made a dive catch and threw from the ground on the second batter of the inning. Steve Solorzano at first did a great job of digging it out to nip the runner.
Steve led off the bottom of the fourth with a home run to tie the score at 1. Jonatan Clough got on next via an error. He was erased when he got caught in a rundown on a bunt single. Wandel Campana at second for WIU caught a liner next and doubled off the runner at second to end the inning.
Michael was fraternizing with the enemy in the break. It turned out to be Terry Davis’ wife. He’s the Leatherneck’s Coach. Michael knew her and the coach because Davis used to be an assistant coach here. Okay, that’s acceptable (and she was an attractive blonde).
The Aggies began a parade of freshman relievers in the fifth. Jaden Davis gave up a single. That was taken off bases by catcher Dane Woodcook throwing out the runner trying to steal second. The Aggies had a big fifth. Forrester led off with a single and was driven in by Tariq Freeny. O’Connor drove him in with a bomb to scoreboard that was his sixth home run in seven games. The Leathernecks changed pitchers, but Kaufman doubled and Clough then doubled him in. Aggies up 5-1.
Hazen Wright struck out the first two WIU batters in the sixth. He hit the next batter, which led to an odd occurrence. He threw a wild pitch to the next batter, but Woodcock still managed to throw out the runner trying to advance to second. A new Leatherneck pitcher had quick bottom of the sixth.
Nellie had left for a bit at one point in the game and came back with a teammate, Mia Fox. (Some other members of the Volleyball team were there.) I recognized her, but was a bit intimidated about talking to her because she looked very pretty today. Her and Nellie chatted and I got the impression Mia was a baseball fan, too. This might have been because they seemed a bit “boy crazy,” calling a bunch of guys “Cute.” (I wasn’t eavesdropping on them; they were right behind me. I didn’t hear the names of the guys they liked.) Anyway, what a nice change-of-pace from the stuff I was dealing with yesterday at Women’s Basketball.
Dylan Weekly was the next Aggie pitcher and came in for the seventh. Clough helped him out with a great diving catch on a low liner to center. He immediately held up the ball after he caught it. The ump called it an out. Coach Davis complained and the umps had a conference, but upheld the call. As Adam Young said on the radio broadcast, “I don’t think his acting could have been any better if he didn’t catch it.” I don’t think Adam was entirely convinced. Weekly worked around a walk and a single for the final out.
O’Connor doubled with one out in the bottom of the seventh. He stole third and a wild pitch while he was stealing brought him home. The Leathernecks brought in a new pitcher. Solo worked a walk and Clough hammered one out to left. Aggies up 8-1.
Cade Shumard came in for the eighth. He’d had a rough time last Sunday and had another bad outing today with two hit batters and two walks, one of which forced in a run. Being one of two left-handers on the team, Coach Angier really needs him to figure it out. Saul Soto came in. He’d had a quick outing on Friday. Soto gave up a two-run single and a walk, but finished the inning. 8-4 Aggies.
Meluskey led off the bottom of the eighth with a ringing double. The team in the dugout was happy to see him get his first hit. He stole third and Austin Corbett drove him in with a sac fly. 9-4 Aggies. Soto came back out for the ninth. He gave up a home run to begin the inning, but got two foul outs and a fly out to end it. Aggies win 9-4!
Gameballs. For WIU, Krayton Morse had a two-run single in the eighth and Kenneth Perez went 2 for 4 and had that ninth inning home run. For the Aggies, Jonatan Clough went 2 for 4 with 3 RBI’s, including a home run and some good defense. Sheehan O’Connor went 2 for 4 with 2 RBI’s and a home run. Hayden Lewis went 4 innings with 1 unearned run. The freshman relief corps of Jaden Davis, Hazen Wright, and Dylan Weekly went 3 innings with no runs allowed.
The Aggies swept out the Leathernecks this weekend. Nice work. It was bit sloppy in defense, base running, and relief pitching, but they found a way. The game was fairly tidy at two hours and 42 minutes. I felt compelled to say something to Mia. I awkwardly sputtered that I thought she had potential and needed to listen to her coaches. She agreed with that last part. I would have liked to have talked to Nellie during the game, but she’s even more intimidating. If she’s there again, maybe I’ll try.
I dropped the towel I was using to protect my neck on the way out and lost it. Shoot. Use some sunblock next time, I guess. I offered to bring dad lunch. He only requested a chocolate shake, which he’d been craving. He’d gone out yesterday and wore himself out a bit and looked tired today. We watched a couple shows he likes (Reacher and Nikita) and did some laundry. It was a nice way to end the weekend.
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