El Paso Chihuahuas 2019 Season Recap

While I was listening to most of the Chihuahuas’ season, I mostly wasn’t chronicling it.  (I’ve even done less with the MLB this year.)  I also admit to bumping out of several out-of-hand games, especially the ones where the pups were taking it in the shorts.  For what it’s worth, I’ll offer my own somewhat ignorant summation of the team’s season.

It was a tale of two seasons.  At first, the Chihuahuas’ massive offense carried their mediocre pitching.  Tim was already talking about the PCL home run record before halfway through the season.  They padded up a good lead in their division.  Then pitching injuries to the Padres parent club drained most of the Triple-A level pitching talent away from the team.  At that point, their offense could no longer keep up with what the defense was giving up.  Their bats seemed exhausted in some games.  Then other Padre injuries called up many of the team’s best hitters when they needed them the most.  That they were still in contention at the end showed quite a bit of grit.  Critical all ups by their main rivals, the Las Vegas Aviators, also helped.     

The stats for the season were impressive, even without a trip to the playoffs.  The Chihuahuas went 80-60.  20 games over .500, but that wasn’t good enough in this division this season.  That was the team’s second best record in their six years of existence.  They set the minor league home run record at 258.  (The Twins will certainly pass that in the Majors as their season continues.)  Not to slight the batters or make excuses for the pitchers, but I’m pretty sure it’s been the new ball being used this season.  Ty France was the PCL Rookie of the Year and MVP.  He’s doing well with the Padres now. 

The team had a 12-game winning streak early in the season.  I missed covering that.  Matthew Batten had an inside-the-park home run, which I also missed covering, but did hear happen.  I totally missed a ball blasting into the press box in Sacramento, but broadcaster Tim Hagerty certainly remembered it.  Here’s the highlights of the stuff I did cover.

4-4-19 Opening Day.  The Chihuahuas played Las Vegas in their new stadium against their season-long rivals, the Aviators.  The pups’ home run barrage started here.  Ty France picked right up where he left off last year hitting the cover off the ball.

4-5-19 In an ominous sign of things to come, the Aviators came back in the second game of the season with a blowout win.

4-15-19 The Curfew game versus Reno.  Setting another poor precedent, the Chihuahuas gave up three runs in the ninth to tie the game and send it to extra innings.  Neither team scored in the tenth and the game was suspended.  It was not finished until July. 

4-17-19 Ty France hit a game-winning home run in a day game.

4-28-19 Luis Urias hit three home runs in this win at Las Vegas.

5-5-19 The most important Chihuahuas game of the season for me.  It was the game I went to.  Me and my friend Ron had a great time.  

5-6-19 The Chihuahuas won 15-0 over the Bees today, their largest margin of victory ever.

5-20-19 The Chihuahuas beat the Isotopes 21-10 in a great football game.  The pups had five home runs in the game.  Holy cats, that wasn’t even the high score of the night in the PCL.  The Reno Aces scored 25 runs in their game, including four home runs by Yasmany Tomas. 

5-27-19 The Chihuahuas swept a double header on Memorial Day.

7-8-19 Triple-A Home Run Derbbbbbbbbby!  All of the Chihuahuas’ season had been looking forward to hosting the Triple-A All-Star game in El Paso.  Tonight’s event was the warmup.  Even with Ty France’s impressive performance, the highlight was Tim Hagerty catching a fly ball live on the air.

Our old friend, Cody Decker, was on the pregame.  He had just retired after hitting a walkoff home run to end his career.  He’s been on the radio a couple of times since then.  Cody’s opening a baseball clinic in El Paso and will hopefully be a regular fixture in the local media (calling a couple of innings sometime perhaps).

7-10-19 El Paso put on a show for the Triple-A All-Star game.  I watched on the MLB Network and was kicking myself that I didn’t try to take a day off to see this in person.  (Actually, it was 100-degrees at game time.  I probably made the right choice.)  The PCL won with Ty France taking the league MVP honors.  Chico stole the show.  He earned a restraining order for molesting attractive field reporter, Kelly Nash, but who could blame him? 

7-16-19 The Chihuahuas won the suspended game from April, but lost the regularly scheduled game.  This was the infamous M&M’s Game, where Tim was denied his snack food from an overly officious Reno vendor. 

7-17-19 Karmic payback.  The Chihuahuas scored seven runs in the ninth for a comeback win over Reno.  This also snapped a bad losing streak. 

7-26-19 In retrospect, this game was the turning point for the worse for the Chihuahuas.  Right after taking two of three from the Aviators in Las Vegas, the team played them in El Paso.  After building an 11-4 lead after three innings, the pups’ pitching completely detonated.  They gave up 11 home runs, for a PCL record, and lost the game 20-11.  They were swept at home for this series in the next two games, giving up 20 home runs.

8-7-19 The Chihuahuas returned to El Paso after the tragic Wal-Mart shooting.  The pup batters put on an amazing performance as they scored 12 runs.  Their pitching was also memorable as they gave up 20 runs.  This game was where the team finally lost first place to the Aviators.  All Las Vegas needed to do was change their name and mascot to be a successful team.  (A new stadium and changing MLB affiliation might have also had something to do with it.)

8-9-19 The game that will likely ensure that fans of the Chihuahuas will think twice before leaving early in a blowout.  How about a 10-run comeback in the bottom of ninth while trailing by seven?  Esteban Quiroz walked it off with a grand slam.  This game may have had greater significance because of the tragedy as it rallied the community at large.

8-19-19 All due respect to the various Chico’s Kids Club members, Tim’s best guest of the season was a visiting Englishman, the Baseball Brit.  I think this guy is doing what all baseball fans would like to the do: travel around the country watching games.

8-21-19 I basically ended my recaps on the ugliest game of the year.  At least it was a win.

8-27-19 to 9-2-19 I only took a few quick notes on the remaining games, as a team comeback to make it into the playoffs seemed unlikely and I was busy with some other writing efforts.  I held out some hope, but the Chihuahuas were finally eliminated right before their final game of the regular season.

Baseball Journal August 2019 Part 3 and Labor Day

I’m going to be the first to admit that I haven’t really been covering most of the Chihuahuas games I’ve been listening to this season.  It’s been very dramatic this last week with the tight race for the playoffs.  Here’s just some quick hits with a few other sports mixed in.

8-27-19

The Chihuahuas won a late night game after an hour hail delay in El Paso!  There was some dithering about starting the game as the overcast cloud cover and radar weren’t promising.  While I was waiting, I tried to get into the free MLB.TV day, where all the games were available.  Unfortunately, unlike the last time (7-12-19), most of the games were blowouts.  The teams I was most interested in were on late and audio-only, which conflicted with the Chihuahuas’ broadcast.  I did get to hear Jon Miller doing a Giants game, but only the bottom of the ninth.

8-28-19

12 batters, 9 runs, 9 hits in a row.  That was a busy inning for the Chihuahuas on their way to another win.  Michael Gettys also set the team season record for home runs with 31.

8-29-19

The Chihuahuas dropped their last home game, losing it in the ninth with a one-run lead.  Las Vegas also lost, so the pups didn’t lose any ground.  They are two games back with four games left.

8-31-19

The Chihuahuas got a big win at Sacramento, 3-0.  They were facing Johnny Cueto on rehab, who I’ve seen pitch in-person (5-29-16).  This time, the pups’ pitching was up to the task.  After six scoreless innings, the Chihuahuas scored and held on.  Las Vegas lost, so the Chihuahuas are now one game back.

I attempted to watch the NASCAR Xfinity race at Darlington, but my reception of NBC today was suboptimal.  NBC was passing tomorrow’s Southern 500 off to cable so that I couldn’t watch altogether.  Dale Earnhardt Jr. was in the race after being in a plane crash two weeks ago.  Frustratingly, reception only cleared up just before the end.  Denny Hamlin won, but his car failed inspection and he was stripped of the win, as he was not racing for points in this series.  Junior finished in sixth.  He seemed in very good spirits, though he said after that his crash injuries caught up with him about halfway through the race.  He was a trooper here.

 

9-1-19

I’m not sure how much sports writing I’m going to be doing outside of Aggie games this month.  I’m going to go ahead post Labor Day weekend here with the end of August, instead of doing a September post.

While listening to the Rangers’ game in the afternoon, Jared Sandler broke into the guys’ commentary to give play-by-play of Justin Verlander getting Bo Bichette to ground out for his third career no-hitter.  Even though he’s an Astro, the Rangers announcers were impressed.  I was also watching a Rays game on a Mexican station and they showed the highlight as well.

The Chihuahuas were shutout on a bullpen day for the Rivercats.  Possibly not coincidentally, Travis Jankowski was called up.  The pups have lost too much of their great lineup and the pitching is as poor as ever.  Their only hope was that the Aviators lost later in the night. 

   

9-2-19 Labor Day

And, we’re disappointed.  When I tuned into the Chihuahuas for this Labor Day afternoon, Tim Hagerty informed us that Las Vegas had won last night thus winning the division.  Just to make my life needlessly difficult, the Rangers/Yankees game that I’d tuned in on the radio this morning was in a rain delay that lasted until the Chihuahuas game started.  Great.  My last opportunity to hear the pups this season crossed with one of my last chances to hear the Rangers this season.  (Likely most of the rest of their weekend games will be preempted by football.) 

Not to mention, the whole time I was watching the NHRA US Nationals at Indianapolis.  The last couple of times that I meant to watch this event, I was at a Chihuahuas game (9-3-18 and 9-5-16).  Yet another disappointment was Leah Pritchett being eliminated in the first round again.  It wasn’t even live; it had happened earlier in the morning.  How am I supposed to develop an unhealthy obsession with Leah if I don’t get to see her race?  I only got to see her featured in a commercial.  That was it.  

That said, I did enjoy the rest of the coverage.  John Force won in Funny Cars.  His insane ranting post-race interview alone would have been worth the price of admission.  He walked away from the microphone saying, “Boy, I screwed that interview up!”  The Top Fuel final featured both cars blowing their engines.  They had to coast over the finish line (at over 250-mph).    

Meanwhile, I settled on trying to listen to both baseball games and came away with feeling like I hadn’t listened to either.  After a three-hour delay, the Rangers beat the Yankees 7-0.  Mike Minor pitched seven shutout innings for the win.  I did hear Delino DeShields hitting a monster three-run homer.  But the story was that this was the first time since last June that the Yankees had been shutout.  That was 220 games!  It made the bottom of the ninth more exciting with something on the line in spite of the lopsided score. 

The Chihuahuas lost 8-4.  They’d led for much of the game, but gave up a big inning late.  Tim sounded much more relaxed and conversational during the coverage.  For the last week, he’d been explaining playoff scenario tiebreakers constantly.  He got a bit emotional in the postgame talking about the games following the El Paso Wal-Mart shooting.  I’ll save the post-season stats for a Chihuahuas’ season recap.  Their opponent today, the Sacramento Rivercats, are going on to the playoffs.  Before the game, their players were out in uniform greeting the fans as they came in.  That’s a nice tradition for the last home game of the year.  This was the last game of the Triple-A regular season.  Every other game of the day was already done.      

Later in the evening, KOA out of Denver was coming in decently, so I was able to listen to the Rockies versus the Dodgers.  Boy, are the Rockies inexplicably bad this year.  I guess it’s their pitching, but even the armless Padres are ahead of them in the standings.  The game was a 16-9 Dodger victory that was not even that close and it dragged out terribly.

The Rockies’ announcers appreciated the Dodger organist, Dieter Ruehle, and his sense of humor, playing the Gilligan’s Island theme at the three-hour mark.  Unfortunately, it blew right past that to go over four hours.  There were delays for an injured umpire, an injured Joc Pederson (robbing Charlie Blackmon of a home run), and various pitching changes.  The announcers were horrified by a combined 11 home runs in a pitcher’s park that is Dodger Stadium.  Ian Desmond for the Rockies had a good game.  He pitched a scoreless eighth, when the game wasn’t in doubt, and put the ball in his back pocket.  He then hit a home run in the ninth. 

I finished by Labor Day Weekend watching the end of a classic Godzilla film festival on Comet.  Why not?  Our longtime talk radio station here in Las Cruces finally dumped their recent Spanish music format change and went back to talk this weekend.  I think this means I’m living in the United States again, at least for the moment.

Food-wise, Dad bought and shared a Papa John’s pizza with me on Sunday.  I used a two-for-one coupon at Barnes & Noble for a pair of salted caramel toffee cookies for dessert.  (Dad didn’t like his.)  I put some bacon on my Monday leftover slices.  That worked surprisingly well.  In a fit of indulgence later, I walked over and bought a cup of pistachio froyo with cheesecake chunks at Orange Leaf.  It was overpriced and I shouldn’t have done it, but it was very tasty mistake.  I didn’t work on my fiction story all weekend, so that was a poor use of my time.  On the other hand, this was the most restful time off from work I’ve had all year. 

NM State Aggies vs Wyoming Cowgirls Soccer 8-25-19

(What a great team picture.)

Yow!  My metal pen was hot to the touch writing out these notes.  It was a bit warm out at the soccer complex at somewhere near 100 degrees.  Today’s game was at noon, so at least it would be cooler than later in the afternoon.  Ron was in good spirits when he picked me up.  He’d gotten over his dinner indigestion.  I’d had a rather poor night as my indigestion didn’t show up until later.  I’d only had a banana this morning and still wasn’t hungry. 

I picked up a Gatorade at the concessions, since I hadn’t hydrated well beforehand.  At the grandstand, we chatted with Danny a bit about the soccer and volleyball teams.  He mentioned goalie Dmitri Fong’s mother comes to the games and he’d talked her.  He said Dmitri was Pre-Med in her studies.  He also said that diminutive Brenda Hernandez on the volleyball team was softball’s Brandy Hernandez’s little sister.  I should have figured that out for myself, especially since I’d compared the two earlier.      

There was a smaller overall crowd than Friday.  The brutal heat might have kept some (smart) people away.  Wyoming brought a group of fans with them.  I loved their team’s jerseys with the large cowboy silhouette on them.  I might have bought one if I’d had the opportunity.  The Cowgirls (that is their name, the Cowboys are the Men’s teams’ name) were a generally pleasant-looking team.  I liked the light ginger one, Elle Webber, probably mostly because she was playing near the stands for most of the first half.  They were in good spirits.  One of the girls was rocking out to the Aggie players’ intro song.  The Aggie starters came charging out on to the field, ready to play.

First Half

Overall, I think you could call the first half a defensive one.  Wyoming probably dominated the time of possession and had five corner kicks, but only had one shot on goal.  The Aggies had nothing and virtually no offense.  I’ll hit a few highlights.

43’ left in the half, Hannah Leitner rushed Wyoming goalie Hannah Lee while she was recovering a ball.  The Aggie bench loved the effort.  41’ Dmitri made her first stop with a catch at the chest.  39’ Wyoming had a corner and scored in a scrum at the net.  Interestingly named Indianna Asimus from Australia was credited with the goal, though Ron thought it actually ricocheted off an Aggie.  It seemed like the Aggies lost track of the ball when it got to the net.  1-0 Wyoming.

35’ Shea O’Connor brought it back downfield and took a hard shot at a difficult angle.  32’ there was a massive collision between two players on the other side of the field where it was difficult for me to see who was involved.  The Aggies got a free kick and put it in the Wyoming box, but didn’t get a shot off.  30’ I finally heard Dmitri shouting out directions.  She seemed quiet in the last game, or maybe there was more crowd noise and I just couldn’t hear her. 

28’ captain Kelly Burton took down a solo attack with a hard tackle just outside the Aggie box.  This was a physical game.  Dmitri would pull down a shot in midair.  Right after, Kelly tripped a Cowgirl.  You could hear their coach all the way across the field, “Why is that not a foul!”  A fan in the stands answered back, “Because she dove!”  There was more rough play and the coach shouted to the ref, “What’s a foul!”      

22’ hydration break for everyone on the field.  That was probably a good idea.  A cool breeze teased us for a moment, but disappeared right after.  Substitutions came right after the break.  Like the last game, there were wholesale changes on field.  18’ off another Wyoming corner, Dmitri made a dive stop on a roller, but the Cowgirls got another corner from the other side right after.  Two girls collided hard in the box.  The Aggies eventually cleared the ball out. 

8’ Talia Sclafani entered for the Cowgirls and their fans erupted.  It seemed like more than just mom and dad cheering.  Maybe she’s a popular player?  5’ the Aggies finally got some offense as Jordan Gregory took a shot.  2’ Emma Smith tripped a Cowgirl near midfield for a free kick.  1’ left and the Wyoming reserves left the field.  That was a bit of a surprise.

Halftime

Ron left to find some shade and took his umbrella with him.  I got my umbrella out.  Yow!  Everything was sizzlingly hot.  Danny came over and chatted some more.  He felt this team was quicker than last year.  There was a fan contest between two little girls at the midfield circle kicking balls.  I’m not sure what it was about.  Over at the football berm, a girls team marched up the hill in a line.  I’m not sure which team, maybe softball.  After they got to the top, they got a long lecture from their coach and then walked back down the hill.   

Second Half

This half was much more active as the Aggies picked up their offense.  Physical play continued.  I have a bunch of notes here. 

44’ the half started with a bang as Maddie Franklin got involved in a collision right in front of the stands.  43’ the Aggies got their first corner.  Hannah took a long shot on goal.  A bit later, she managed to roll a Cowgirl player on to ground with a body tackle.  39’ Hannah charged at the Wyoming net by herself.  The goalie tackled her, but no foul was called.  37’ the Aggies got numbers together for a rush, but it was broken up with a foul.  35’ Andrea Ridgely charged and took a shot.  A defender stopped the shot with her head.

34’ Shea had a wide shot in front of the net.  The Aggies got a corner right after, but didn’t get a shot off.  33’ Hannah got off a shot.  Hannah the Wyoming goalie caught it.  Wyoming managed to convert the stop into a downfield attack and a pair of corners on the Aggie end.  30’ Hannah was fouled.  Aggie Coach Baarts and Hannah’s dad were both yelling at the ref. 

28’ Jess McDow opened fire from near midfield and actually forced the Cowgirl goalie to have to catch it in front of the net.  She’s got a heck of leg.  25’ one Aggie attacker, four Cowgirl defenders.  You guys have to start attacking together.  22’ hydration break.

With that, the Aggies got a second wind.  20’ Gooooooal!  Alexa Barerra rolled it in from in front of the net off a pass from Eli Gonzalez.  The play developed really quickly.  I was even watching and just about missed it.  I think the Cowgirls fell asleep on defense for a moment.  I have noticed since last year, the Aggies are pretty good on set plays coming out of a break or at the start of a half.  1-1 tied. 

19’ Eli took a top shelf shot.  It hit the crossbar and went back into play.  There was a header as a followup shot.  16’ a girl fan came in wearing black Sunday dress.  Though probably not the best thing to wear here, it added a little class.  15’ Wyoming came back with a good coordinated attack with a couple of passes.  Dmitri caught the shot.  13’ the Aggies got a corner which was caught by the goalie.  11’ there was another good attack by Wyoming.  Dmitri caught a weak shot and a followup shot went wide.

I’m getting overwhelmed by the smell of lighter fluid.  Somebody’s barbequing nearby.  If somebody doused me in barbeque sauce, I’d be barbequing in my seat as well.  The Aggie mascot kid, whose name I don’t know, came by and shook mine and Ron’s hands without a word.  I guess we’ve finally made it as true Aggie fans.  Behind us, I could hear, presumably, parents shouting out very technical advice to their daughters.  I turned to Ron, “Everyone else here knows more about soccer than we do.”

4’ Aggie defender, Annalise Pacheco, made a beautiful tackle in the box to break up what would have been a one-on-one with the Dmitri right in front of the goal.  Wow, that was a big play.  2’ Shea took a tumble after a midair collision.  1’ Dmitri stopped a header to end regulation.  We were still tied.

First Overtime

Boy, do I hate writing those words on a 100-degree day at the pitch.  Nobody involved in this game wanted this.  I knew that they’d probably go to overtime in the event of a tie.  Not everyone else did though.  For example, the PA started playing the Aggie fight song, usually signifying the end of a game.  Much of the crowd got up and left.  The PA cut off the music and quickly explained the rules for overtime, but it was too late.  They were gone.  Ron seized the break to go get some more water.  He came back and reported that the courtesy water barrel was empty, but he did bring me a cold bottle of water.  God bless him.  I finished off the last gulp of my now 100-degree Gatorade.

The ten-minute OT began.  Things got downright chippie on the field.  7’ Eli was injured.  She didn’t come out, but the trainers did have to go tend to her.  6’ Annalise took a wide shot on goal.  5’ I swear I saw an Aggie player pulled down to the ground by her hair in the Wyoming box, but I don’t think anyone else did.  There was also a trip and a collision. 

3’ a ball made it into the stands.  Stay alert.  Wyoming had an open shot right after, but it went high.  1’ there was a trip and/or handball on field that both groups of fans were yelling to the ref about.  Yes, the remaining fans were also getting testy.  The Aggies took two shots near the Wyoming goal before time expired.

Second Overtime

You knew where this was going when I wrote “First Overtime” above, right?  I was watching Shea out on the field.  She looked kind of depressed.  That’s just not a good sign for someone who should be your star offensive player.  I’d noticed she was getting more attention in play from the Wyoming players than from her teammates.  All of the players were run down by this point. 

There was a nice-looking family sitting beside us.  The wife started chatting with Ron.  Asking why I was taking notes, Ron told her I had a blog, and I gave her the address.  They turned out to be Maddie’s parents.  Asking why we were there, the best we could say is that were Aggie Sports fans.  Later I told Ron, “We’re going to have to come up with a better reason why we’re out here.” 

The Aggies mostly dominated the first overtime.  Wyoming, predictably, dominated most of the second.  8’ off a Wyoming corner, Dmitri jumped up and made a two-hand slap to get the ball out.  The fans were getting progressively more vocal.  I’m hearing, “Shoot it!”  5’ Dmitri stopped a roller.  4’ Dmitri stopped a point blank shot.  3’ Dmitri caught a long shot.  It’s always a bad sign when you’re talking a lot about your own goalie in a recap. 

The Aggies took the offensive late.  2’ diminutive Jody Hernandez, apparently no relation to the other tiny Aggie sports Hernandez players, took a long shot.  1’ Eli made a final Aggie charge.  1-1 draw.  Thank goodness we all spent another 20 minutes in the heat to (not) settle this one.  I blame soccer in general.

Honestly, I don’t feel that bad about this, because Wyoming seemed like a better team. (Edit: they were Mountain West co-champions last season.)  Ron observed that the Aggies seemed to be randomly kicking the ball, while the Cowgirls were making passes to each other.  Shots on goal were 5 to 2 in favor of Wyoming.  Dmitri Fong gets my gameball.  I think she was a bit rusty from coming back from injury, but really got into it after that first goal.  She was right back to the Dmitri I remembered.  Annalise Pacheco also pretty much saved the game with her defensive play at the end of the second half. 

I couldn’t resist going up the stands afterward to meet Dmitri’s mom to congratulate her on her daughter’s play.  I also told her how impressed I was with Dmitri when I met her a couple of times.  Dmitri is actually studying Biology right now, but is considering being Pre-Med.  I’m sure she’ll do well, whatever she decides on.  Now that I’ve met Dmitri’s mom, I’ll start getting my cows, pigs, and goats ready for marriage negotiations.  Time to look up some wedding planners.  (She’s a fine young woman; it’s a natural thought.)

While we wait for the nuptials, Ron and I went to Jack-in-the-Box.  After having leftover barbeque sausages at work on Thursday, a Chicken Bacon Ranch sandwich at Dominos Friday, and a Barbeque Chicken pizza at Dions, I flatly refused anymore rich, greasy food for at least a week.  I’d like to have tried Chick-fil-a’s new macaroni and cheese, which has gotten good reviews, but it was Sunday and they weren’t open. 

The only other non-gut-busting fast food I could think of was Jack’s breakfast menu.  I had enough of my appetite back to enjoy the little pancakes, scrambled eggs, hash browns, and bacon meal.  Ron had been really suffering in the heat with his extra padding.  His appetite was unaffected, so he had a small, but well-ornamented two-patty burger.  He said it needed more barbeque sauce.  Ugh.            

NM State Aggies Volleyball Crimson and White Scrimmage 8-24-19

Day Two of Aggie Sports for Fall 2019 and we’re back for volleyball!  Unlike soccer, I’m a bit more upbeat on this sport.  Watching USA Volleyball a couple of weeks ago just whet appetite for more.  The Aggie girls are much better looking than the national team, though the USA team would beat the Aggies or any other college team silly.  They were impressive. 

When I went to the scrimmage last year (8-18-18), I had a couple of issues (like namely seeing someone I’d asked out earlier in the year in the ticket office and Schlotzsky’s took out their ice cream machine).  However, since I went early, I got to see the Cheerleaders practice, which was kind of neat.  Ron came by to pick me up a bit late, but the Cheerleaders and Pistol Pete weren’t there today anyway. 

I’d also missed out on a free Chihuahuas baseball game last year that my workplace was paying for.  I did that again this year, but this time because the person I was going with backed out, and I wasn’t able to find anyone else to go with at the last minute.  That was really disappointing since the tickets were for the Sun Kings Saloon, which I’d always wanted to go in to.  I also missed a Chihuahuas win and fireworks afterward.  On the other hand, it was a three-and-a-half-hour-plus slugfest, that the Chihuahuas won handily 18-8, though they nearly blew an 11-2 lead.  I’m not sure my ride would have stayed to the end, even for fireworks.     

Also like last year, the concessions were open for this free event.  I picked up my favorite drink at the Pan-Am Center, raspberry tea, to help them out.  It wasn’t a bad decision for them to be open, because there was a good crowd.  There were great, though somewhat disappointing schedule posters with Megan Hart and Savannah Davision that I’ll be posting later.  Sav’s poster is a tremendous action shot, but doesn’t show enough of her pretty face.  Megan looks gorgeous of course, but I was disappointed that it wasn’t a lifesized 6’5” poster of her in all of her majestic glory.

The crowd for the scrimmage was just a tick under the usual game day crowd.  Apparently, I’m not the only one who likes these girls.  I thought I saw graduated Softball star Kelsey Horton walk by us in the stands.  Briefly, I was hopeful she’d somehow found a way to play for another season, but it was actually just a tall, pretty blonde.  (It was kind of exciting anyway.)  Adam Young was working the PA today.  He announced that there would be food trucks at the first Aggie Football game next month.  It’s almost like somebody was reading my blog.  However, it’s probably just a one-time promotion for Hispanic Heritage Night, otherwise I don’t think there’d be any Mexican food concessions at the game.

I’d been keeping an eye on the volleyball Twitter page and watching the interviews there.  Brigette Lowe had an adorable interview and I got to tell her that, when I bumped into her at soccer yesterday.  Julianna Salanoa’s interview was unbearably cute.  Beautiful Megan Hart got an extended interview with Adam as a star senior player.  She seems ready to step into a leadership role.  However, I was worried about Coach Mike Jordan saying that she’d had some fluid drained from her knee.  I am always concerned about her bad knee.  She seemed a little gimpy at first in warm-ups, but I think she was okay.  I saw Megan and Jules joust at the net once, blocking each other.  I’ll bet those two have some epic practice sessions.

Also on the tall side, I saw 6’3” Lindsay Blakey only taking tip shots last year in spite of her height.  In warm-ups today, she was rearing back and taking full swings.  That was good to see.  The coach said he was enthusiastic about freshman setter Autumn Gentry (great name).  Looks-wise, I was also enthusiastic about the pretty blonde, but I’d also be checking out her playing ability during the match.  Speaking of pretty blondes, I’d wondered all last season what happened to freshman Brittany Welch.  I was impressed with her in last years’ scrimmage, but she disappeared halfway through the season.  I found her online playing for a college in Oakland.  I’m glad she’s still playing, but sorry it didn’t work out here.     

An unassuming student came out to sing the Anthem.  He proceeded to belt it out Broadway style.  It was good, but easily the loudest Anthem I’ve ever heard.  He didn’t need the microphone.  I’d like to report on the new team intro video, but I can’t.  The video board on the side of the arena we were on wasn’t working, though the rest of them were.  I told Ron we’re switching sides if it’s not working next game. 

Some of the players stood out during the full team introductions.  Freshman Brenda Hernandez is a local girl and all of 4’9”.  Yes, really.  At last, somebody Brandy Hernandez from the Softball team can look down on.  Freshman Tessa Fisk is now the second tallest player on the team at 6’4”.  (I’m not sure if she got to play today.)  Freshman Kaleigh Thomas was the only player not suited out to play, but now the team has a redhead and that’s important.  Sophomore Halle Razo showed the most personality and is a doll.  Juniors Julianna Salanoa and Kiley Tonge were both rocking some seriously attractive silver highlights.  Senior Megan Hart was the final player introduced.  She got biggest round of applause as the WAC Championship tournament MVP.           

Set 1

There were so many girls on the team this year that they didn’t need any former players (8-19-17) or husbands of former players (last year) to bolster the teams.  They were split into Crimson and White squads.  The White team seemed to be mostly the presumed starters.  Coach Rubio coached them with Coach Jordan keenly watching.  Coach Hertel coached the reserves.  Coach Ben Wallis left to takeover UTEP in the offseason.  They’ll be visiting here in the near future, so I’ll go over that later.  Coach Hertel is a rehire as an assistant coach, so he’s familiar with NMSU.  There was only one official, who worked the net.  There weren’t any line officials, but weren’t any close calls either, so no problem.

Point #1 was spirited and included a dive into the bench players.  The girls were into it.  However, there were also some nervous net serves and a long out serve.  Let me hit some highlights in play.  Lindsay was getting some good swings and kills, which was very encouraging to see.  Cat Kelly, who spent most of the end of last season out sick, is fully recovered.  She was getting some great air on her jumps.  She got a great swing on a backcourt attack. 

Redshirt-sophomore Jordan George got some playing time with the White team.  I was glad to see her playing.  Senior Analyssa Acosta played libero for the Crimson team most of the time.  She’d also gotten big cheer from the crowd during introductions.  It was good to see her getting some significant playing time finally, even in an exhibition.  She did not waste the opportunity.  She was getting good digs on some hard hit balls.  Analyssa looked very confident out there.  There were a couple of confused points at the end of the set for both teams, but the White team won 25-15.

Set 2: White 1, Crimson 0

During most of the end of Set 1, Ron was furiously texting someone.  “Are you writing a book?” I asked.  There was a t-shirt toss between sets.  Lovely Swim and Dive girl Grace Laporte was doing the tossing.  I’d seen her before working at a Softball game.  I think some other members of her team were there watching, along with some Football players.

Autumn Gentry (again, what a great name) served first for the Crimson.  She put a good slap on it put her team up 3-0.  Her fourth serve went into the net, but I’m still encouraged.  The White team tied it on untouched spike by Jules into the center of the court.  Crimson retook the lead 5-4.  Analyssa made another great dive save.  Cat made a great kill and Sav made one of her signature flying kills, but Crimson still had a 7-6 lead. 

Megan had been kind of quiet to this point.  The Coach may have told her to take it easy.  She made a good swing at 9-8 Crimson that Analyssa made another great save on.  Ashley Anselmo made a couple of miss-hits on kills.  Perhaps some nerves.  I finally noticed that freshman Katie Birtcil’s name had been called on several kills.  I’m not sure how many she had for the match.  While the video board was out, player stats were being shown.  Unfortunately, the operator was having trouble keeping up with the personnel changes, so I gave up on looking.              

Ashley came up with a tip kill for Crimson at 11-10 White.  (This was terribly confusing to take notes on.  I tried to keep it straight.  Good thing this game doesn’t count.)  12-10 White, Jules put down a slap kill straight into the court.  The Coach yelled across the net, “What the hell are you looking at?”  13-10 White, Krysten Garrison had a good-looking kill.  She sat out last year, but I know the coaches are high on her.  14-10, Autumn dropped in a dump kill on a fake set.  Nice.  Ah, it was like Briana Ainsworth was still out there.  (Actually, her smile is irreplaceable.  Ron was lamenting losing her later.  I’ve had several guys at work admiring her poster from last year in my cubicle.) 

Sav and Cat traded big kills.  19-13 White, Lia Mosher had a massive swing on an overpass.  Analyssa managed to dig it out.  Who is this girl?  Where has she been all this time?  19-15, Ashley got her first swinging kill for the Crimson.  20-15 (I’m pretty sure I’m messing up the scoring), Krysten was pulled from the floor after like three net serves.  (I wish I had a volleyball scorecard like baseball to track plays.)  Autumn replaced her in the lineup.  Coach Rubio talked to Krysten on the bench for a while.  They see the potential in her, but it hasn’t developed yet.    

22-15 White, Analyssa dove into the bench players for a ball.  23-16, Analyssa dug out a ball directly in the back of Cat’s head.  Amazingly, they still got the ball back over.  The crowd chuckled and the girls were laughing afterward.  Ana touched Cat’s face and apologized.  24-15, Ashley took a good swing and got a kill while falling backward.  Red-shirt freshman Zoe Abeyta came in.  She’d had to sit out all of last year.  It was good to see her in.  White won the set 25-19.

Set 3: White 2, Crimson 0

We started off with some defense as Jules and Megan combined on block for a 1-0 White lead.  Jules got a kill on the next point, but there was a short delay afterward as AD Mario Moccia and his daughters crossed the court to change sides.  3-3, Jordan Pleasants came up with an untouched ace.  5-4 Crimson, Ashley was fully warmed up now, as she powered a kill right through two blockers.  7-4, Lindsay and Krysten combined on a block for Crimson.  8-6, Lia and Natalie Mikels got a block for White.  If our setter, Nat, can get in on the blocking, other teams are in trouble.

8-7 Crimson, Ana, on the White team now, dropped in an ace on serve.  8-8, probably the play of the match (other than Cat’s headshot), Nat made a no-look pirouette swing with her fist at the net for a kill.  Maybe Nat’s been playing the wrong position.  9-9, Ash and Lindsay combined for a Crimson block.  10-9, Katie got a great kill for Crimson.  She racked up a couple of more kills to give Crimson a 14-12 lead.  There was a good rally on that last point.  Most of the points in the match were over pretty quick.

15-12, Lindsay with a kill for Crimson.  15-15 Sav came in and served up two aces for White to tie it.  A fan in the stands shouted, “Go Canada!” referring to her home country.  16-15, Brigette got a cross-court kill for Crimson.  She seemed unhappy afterward.  That was her first kill after a few out swings.  Keep working on it.  17-15 Crimson, Katie and Lindsay combined for a block.  17-17, Katie got another kill.  Megan accidently tapped the ball into the net judge on the point. 

20-20, Lindsay tied it up with a kill for Crimson.  The White team had a fire drill at the net on the point, but scrambled and got the ball back over.  22-22, Kiley Tonge made a good effort on a save.  23-22 White, Jules killed a long rally to win the point for White.  24-24, Brigette and Lindsay combined for a massive block.  That one got a rise out of the crowd.  This one went to extra points.  Kiley dropped in an ace to get a set point for Crimson, but White rallied back and won the set 27-25 and the match 3-0.

And suddenly, we were done.  I think everyone wanted more.  The last two scrimmages went four sets and I don’t think the set score actually mattered.  It’s not that everyone didn’t get their money’s worth out of a free event; we just wanted to see the girls keep playing.  We love them! 

The players scattered afterward.  Some went up to the hospitality suite.  Some went into the crowd to talk to friends and family.  Kassi Stolz and Lindsay came by near us to see some people.  Savannah was talking with Coach Rubio at the net.  They were discussing something about a specific play.  Adam played catch with Mario’s daughters on the sidelines.  He was wearing shorts, so it was a casual day at work for him.      

The promo for the event mentioned that there was a meet-and-greet with the players with snacks in the Barbara Hubbard Room.  I was excited, but then I read the small print and it was for booster club members.  Adam had reiterated the invitation before and after the match.  However, the invitation was also extended to “prospective” members, which probably meant everyone who showed up.  I had meant to bring my checkbook, though I wasn’t sure what I might be getting sweet-talked into by a charming player.  Unfortunately, I flat out forgot it.  With that, I didn’t feel comfortable going.  Apart from random encounters and signing sessions, I’m not sure how well I’d interact with the girls in a genuine social setting.  Oh well.

I’m no volleyball expert, so you can safely disregard my analysis of the scrimmage.  The “starters” team was given a workout, but had it pretty in hand without anyone having to standout.  I was a little worried that Megan Hart didn’t play a bigger role.  I hope she isn’t hurting.  I did see her dive for a couple of balls on court and nearly rushed the court to strangle her.  Protect your precious knees, Megan!  (Why isn’t the coach telling her this?)  The other regulars seemed okay.  It was good to see Cat Kelly at 100%.

Of the reserves I saw, Analyssa Acosta seemed like a new player.  If she’s been playing like that in practice, I’m all for starting her at libero.  I did notice that being on the Crimson team, she was digging against the regulars, so that might be a good sign.  Lindsay Blakey looked good swinging and blocking.  She’s someone else who’s had a great offseason.  She may be a good backup for Megan or play them together to go “big” on defense.  Red-shirt sophomore, Brielle Sterns, was holding a clipboard in Set 1.  She saw some limited play time, but I got the impression she’s still not ready to play.  She was a very good player as a freshman. 

Of the new freshmen, Autumn Gentry and Katie Birtcil really impressed me.  Katie may have had the most kills in the match (or not, who knows?).  Then again, Brittany Welch impressed me last year in the scrimmage with her swings and that didn’t work out, so I’m not going to get too attached just yet.  Autumn might be the alternate setter for the team.  It’s hard to judge setting skills if you’re not a coach, but her other skills looked good.  Little Brenda Hernandez played pretty well when she was in.  She’s easy to root for.  (Edit: I was told later she actually is Brandy’s sister.  They have 20 family members, so it would be advantageous for attendance to keep her on the team.) 

One thing’s for sure, this team has sex appeal.  It’s not a beauty contest, but properly promoted, it can’t hurt ticket sales.  Little girls love glamorous princesses, even in tight uniforms.  Opposing fans may be distracted.  The girls run from cute to stunning for your tastes.  I won’t name names on a list here for fear of offending or slighting anyone.  (Except for Megan Hart, who is, as always, beautiful.)      

Oh my God, I’ve hit eight pages here recapping a scrimmage that didn’t count.  After the match was over, I suddenly became aware of how cold it was in the arena, especially after stepping outside into the 90-something degree heat.  For dinner, I offered to use my Dion’s Pizza gift card.  Ron and I had their cheesy bread and a Barbeque Chicken pizza.  It was all excellent, maybe too excellent.  We both overate (and it really takes a lot to fill up Ron) and eventually got bellyaches. 

As Ron had the day off and didn’t want to go home, we visited the nearby downtown mall.  I picked up a few comics at Zia Comics (and fell in love with a Cloak and Dagger statue that I have no room to display unfortunately).  There may be a blog post about these comics sometime.  We also stopped into the Rad Retrocade.  It’s an old school arcade, restaurant, and a bar.  The place was packed and extremely well-decorated with its 80’s theme.  We may have to go back sometime for dinner and games.  Overall, I didn’t feel too bad about missing out on the Chihuahuas today.  I am jazzed for this Aggie Volleyball season.