Borderland Invitational UNM vs Pacific Volleyball 9-7-19

Pacific Tiger Allison Dennemann

I had to wake up early for this game and had trouble sleeping.  There was some kind of domestic disturbance in my apartment building after I got up.  Four policemen showed up just as I was leaving.  I felt like I was fleeing the scene of a crime.  That was an inauspicious start.  At the Pan-Am Center, a gentleman in front of me at the courtesy table left a giveaway shirt from last night there.  (I was wearing mine.)  He said it was too big for him.  I took it and found Danny with the intention of making up for his stolen shirt, but it was too big for him.  Rats.  I took the shirt back to the table.  I think Danny knows who stole his shirt and is plotting something.

I had breakfast beforehand, so no expensive trips to the concessions today.  No Emerson either at the scorer’s table.  Darn it.  Adam Young was there in extreme casual wear (well, exercise clothes, not a bathrobe) to scout the Lobos before the match with the Aggies tonight.  Again, there was a light crowd.  The number of Pacific Tiger fans and Lobo fans may have been equal here.  I’m surprised the Lobos aren’t travelling better.  (They certainly do for their Women’s Basketball team.) 

Is that a Billie Eilish song on the PA?  She’s everywhere.  I liked this song.  Danny liked it too.  He also mentioned that UTEP had beaten Texas A&M Corpus Christi (UNM’s opponent here yesterday).  (I think he actually went down to El Paso to see that game.)  A&M-CC looked pretty good night, so that’s an impressive win for the Miners.  They even came back from two sets down to win in five sets.  I have to figure that A&M was probably exhausted from playing earlier in the day though.  They were blown out in the final set. 

The Aggie Volleyball team came in to watch along with Assistant Coach Chris Hertel.  They were mostly decked in black, including some in giveaway shirts.  Before the match, one of the referees came over and talked to the girls.  Danny thought they might be in some trouble, but, no.  With nobody from Aggie Softball present or any willing teen girls available in crowd, they needed ballgirls for the match.  Dutifully, some freshmen were volunteered, probably by the seniors.  (And I didn’t write down who the freshmen were to give them credit and I don’t remember.  Sorry.) 

UNM Lobo Alena Moldan

Set 1

The Lobos started with a five to seven advantage in reserves.  For the most part, the Lobo reserves were a bit more reserved than in their last match with A&M-CC, where it felt like the opposing benches were fighting each other.  Inauspiciously again, the match started on dead ball foul.  Roofing perhaps?  A Lobos player disputed it to no avail.  After that, the Lobos ran off four points on a couple of Tiger out swings.  They got it up to 5-2 on an untouched free ball by libero Alena Moldan.  You know things are going well for you when that happens.  Alena’s a distinctive-looking light brunette with a slight build out there.  She nearly looks too young for college.

7-4 Lobos, Allison Dennemann for the Tigers made a couple of kills to keep them in it.  Here was another slim pretty blonde I kept watching.  (Don’t tell me I’m developing a type because I’m missing an Aggie player I only got to see play once and feel cheated.)  8-5 UNM, oops, Alena shanked one into the scorer’s table.  10-7, the Lobo’s first double touch call.  There was a new up official this time, so it wasn’t just the ref. 

10-8 Lobos, the Tigers were keeping it close and got a block here.  Assistant AD Herb Taylor walked by and greeted the deputized Aggie ballgirls.  The Tigers were down by 17-16, after an overpass kill.  18-18, Tiger libero Jadyn Tubbs made a great save and helped win the point.  19-18 Tigers took the lead on a Lobo attack error.  Timeout Lobos.  The Lobos came right back and retook the lead, 20-19.  Timeout Tigers.  The Tigers tied it again at 20 on a block.  From there the Lobos reasserted themselves and took the lead again.  Their reserves danced in a circle.  The Lobos closed it out 25-21.

Set 2: Lobos 1, Tigers 0

Tainted Love played over the PA.  A family of Lobo fans changed sides to stay with their team as they changed sides of the court.  Aggie Volleyball left, but some freshmen stayed to keep working the game.  Redhead Kaleigh Thomas and blonde Autumn Gentry took over on the sidelines.  Kaleigh found herself chasing errant balls into the stands. 

Pacific went out to an early 5-2 lead, but it was short-lived as the Lobos tied it at 6-6.  9-8, the Lobos took the lead.  Okay, attention on the game was drifting here for the rest of the match.  I wasn’t exactly tired, but wasn’t very sharp.  The Tigers tied it at 10, but the Lobos ran off three points, forcing a Pacific timeout.  Kaleigh chatted with one of the line officials during the break, as How Soon Is Now (the Charmed theme) played. 

From here the Lobos added to their lead.  At 20-14, Riley Patterson for the Tigers pounded an out-shot into the courtside table.  She was easily the hardest hitter on court.  You could tell it was her just by the sound.  20-15, Alena made a couple of tremendous dives on the court to keep the point going, though the Lobos lost it.  25-20, Set 2 to the Lobos.  The reserves were trying to spell out “U-N-M” during the point, but their players won it before they could finish.

Set 3: Lobos 2, Tigers 0

Katie Birtcil came in as a ballgirl.  Tessa Fisk and Brie Mortensen were maybe working with her (I didn’t positively identify them).  4-3 Lobos, Jadyn for the Tigers went headfirst into the stands going for a ball.  She popped up okay.  “It’s all good,” she said.  The Lobos continued to add to their lead.  10-5, a Lobo fastball went right into the middle of the court.  The reserves did their, “Aussie!  Oi!  Oi!” chant.

The Tigers would play good for a couple of points, but not more than that, so the Lobos kept getting further ahead.  The Lobo reserves started doing a, “Go Lobos!” shout during Tiger serves.  19-13, the Tigers started to unravel here, even after a timeout.  Katie practiced dribbling on the sideline and then the Aggie girls were doing a salsa dance with the PA music.  23-14, Riley made a jump serve strong enough to knockdown Alena on the receive.  She did keep it in play though.  The Lobos took the set 25-16 and the match 3-0.       

I’d like to give some stats for scoring, but once again the scoreboard wasn’t keeping up with personnel changes and didn’t seem reliable.  I don’t have a volleyball scorecard to do it myself (and it’s not worth looking up later online).  So, I don’t know what to say about individual players for this game.  I’m sorry.  I may have been sleepwalking covering this match.  Pacific may be in trouble later this afternoon against UTEP, but I should be more awake for it. 

Borderland Invitational NMSU vs Pacific Volleyball 9-6-19

Passionate NMSU Aggie Savannah Davison

Ron had made plans to go to this evening’s game with me and the wife of a friend of his.  Unfortunately, after I got back from this morning’s game, he called in the afternoon to tell me that the remodeling project he was working on was taking longer than he anticipated.  So, I was solo again in the evening. 

I don’t know what I was thinking, but I got a hot dog meal at the concessions when I got there.  I think mentally I’d decided to buy something there again today if I got a giveaway shirt, which I did.  At least the meal was okay this time and I didn’t spill my drink.  (I actually refilled it with water so I could drink the ice too.)  This is a cool shirt, by the way.  The local iconography is excellent.   

However, disappointments still abounded.  I sat next to Aggie fans Danny and Mike.  Mike told me that Danny’s shirt had been stolen when he got up and left it on his seat.  Neither me nor Mike offered up our shirts in consolation.  (I wanted a black Aggie shirt and I very seldom see Danny actually wearing Aggie giveaway shirts.)  Danny also mentioned that tickets prices were up for this game, but maybe it was because it was a tournament (with rival schools).  

Nicole the marketing lady came by and said, “Hi,” to everyone and hugged Mike.  Gasp!  Emerson was with her.  I’d wondered if I had only imagined seeing her hot self this morning.  I finally spotted her later in the game.  She’s working with PA Ed Carnathan at the scorer’s table, that lucky bastard.  It was a terrible distraction, but I somehow carried on with the game coverage. 

The easy first thing to notice on court was one of the Pacific Tigers’ assistant coaches, Katie Hoekman.  She’s a glamorous tall blonde in tall heels.  Also glamorous was Aggievision’s color commentator sitting below us, Kelsi Meredith, whose golden brown hair now reached her waist.  Broadcaster Adam Young sat beside her.  At one point, he turned around and we exchanged jaunty waves. 

As for the players, one of the Tigers called up to her parents in the stands and chatted with them.  For the Aggies, Cat Kelly and Savannah Davison were catching huge air practicing their swings.  Afterward, the team worked on their dance moves on the sidelines.  Both teams seemed pretty loose.  The Cheerleaders and Pistol Pete were there.  It was a new Pete with a large fake mustache.  (We won’t hold that against him.)  The Lobo volleyball team was in attendance.  I guess they didn’t have anything better to do while waiting for tomorrow’s game. 

There was a good crowd there for the game.  We can probably expect really good crowds for the next two rivalry games.  Before the player intros, there was a dramatic ceremony as the new WAC Champion and NCAA appearance banners were displayed, and Coach Jordan was introduced as the eight-time Coach of the Year.  Ed was in spectacular voice announcing (no doubt he wanted to impress Emerson). 

The Aggies had had of a pretty spectacular debut on the road before tonight’s game.  They went to Auburn and beat them, Butler, and Tennessee State all in straight sets.  On the Aggie Coaches Show this week, Coach Jordan kind of dismissed winning against Auburn on their home court.  He said that they weren’t ranked and it was early in the season, when everybody is a bit disorganized.  However, it made AD Mario Moccia happy.  I’d heard Mario on the football pregame show.  He couldn’t resist mentioning that Auburn has $147M athletics department budget, while NMSU has a $20M budget.  (Even more ridiculously, the coach of Aggie Football’s next opponent, Alabama, Nick Saban, has a larger salary than NMSU’s entire sports budget.)    

Set 1

Our Aggie starters were Cat Kelly, Savannah Davision, Julianna Salanoa, Natalie Mikels, Ashley Anselmo, and beautiful Megan Hart, who was immediately subbed for libero Halle Razo.  Pacific got an ace to go up 2-1.  4-2 Tigers, Jules got a save on a Pacific overpass kill.  A second overpass swing went out for an Aggie point.  Jules got in on a couple of blocks to tie it at 4.  But, Pacific surged out to an 8-4 lead as the Aggies seemed disorganized. 

9-6 Tigers, Megan came in and got a kill.  10-7 Tigers, Meg and Lia Mosher combined for a block.  It’s good to see Lia back.  These two are really impressive-looking at the net.  13-9 Tigers, Meg slapped one down for a kill.  14-10 Tigers, Sav made one of her trademark flying kills.  She’s majestic in flight.  Still, Pacific held the lead at 15-10.  Timeout Aggies.  The Aggies had cycled in a bunch of players to this point.  Was the coach trying to find the right combinations?  Not wanting to wear anyone out for a non-conference game?  Trying to wear down the opponent? 

The Aggies started a comeback.  Behind a Sav kill, a Lia block, and a Meg and Lia block, the Aggies tied it at 19.  Timeout Pacific.  The Aggies finally took the lead at 20-19 on a Jules kill to end a long point.  At 21-19 Aggies, the Tigers took their other timeout.  Halle had had a good run serving to get the Aggies the lead.  She net-served out of the timeout to make it 21-20.  22-20 Aggies, Sav painted the sideline for a kill.  23-21 Cat came up with a kill.  24-22 Aggies, after a swing that was called out that looked like it had been touched, Sav came right back with an overpass tap kill.  25-22, Aggies took the set on a touched Sav swing.

Set 2: Aggies 1, Tigers 0

Assistant AD Herb Taylor made an appearance on the court.  The refs wanted some tape on the floor repaired, and I guess that just became part of his job description.  Back in play, the Aggies took a 2-0 lead.  Megan and Ashley made such an impressive wall at the net that a Pacific player fired a swing right into the net.  The Aggies kept going to make it 4-1 on a Sav and Lia block and 5-1 on a Lia block.  Krysten Garrison had a good run on serve, but had a double touch on a set to sideout. 

No problem.  6-2 Aggies, Sav split the defenders for a kill.  At 9-3 Aggies, timeout Tigers.  Pete came by and shook mine everyone else’s hand in our section.  He went around the arena introducing himself to everyone.  I finally noticed Halle had been on serve during this run as she put in an ace at 12-3.  13-3, Jules had an overpass kill. 

14-3 Aggies, now this was new, the Tigers committed some kind of foul before the serve and lost a point.  15-3, Jules got a tip kill off a good set by Krysten.  Timeout Tigers again.  16-3 Aggies, Cat got a kill on long rally, and then another kill, and another.  Finally at 18-4, Halle net-served.  Wow, that was like a 10-point run.  Even two timeouts didn’t break it up.  All this happened with MVP Megan Hart on the bench. 

From here, the Aggies completed the rout.  20-5 Aggies, Ash got a kill.  21-5, Cat got another kill.  Brigette Lowe subbed in.  Hi Brig!  22-5, Nat served up an awesome ace right on the sideline.  Afterward, she was smiling.  Freshman Katie Birtcil subbed in.  She got a kill after a great save by Halle, 23-7.  Analyssa Acosta cycled in to serve.  Yay!  It was good to see her.  She served out the set.  25-7, Aggies took Set 2 on a no-set Sav kill.

Set 3: Aggies 2, Tigers 0

Boom.  1-0 Aggies as Nat hummed in an ace.  2-0, Nat was in on a block.  4-2 Aggies, Jules got a great dig after a Tiger block.  Sav finished the point with a kill.  7-2, Jules and Lia on a block.  8-2, oops, Cat and Sav collided with each other going for a swing.  The Aggies got the point anyway on a block, but Sav and the coach weren’t happy.  9-2 Aggies, the Tigers weren’t happy either and took a timeout.  Jump in the Line played over the PA.  There was a row of people seat-dancing.  A guy got on camera also working it.  (It wasn’t me.)

Megan came at 10-3.  11-3, Ash got a block.  12-3, Meg got a block.  14-4, Cat made a great dig on a Pacific serve.  Megan finished the point off with a kill.  14-6, Sav had an out-swing that bounced high into the stands.  Stay alert at these games.  16-7, Lia and Meg on a block.  It’s officially a block party.  18-8, Jules muscled one through.  19-8, Ash on a block.

In spite of the score, Coach Jordan was getting more vocal and unhappy on the sidelines.  Sav also seemed really serious.  21-11 Aggies, Cat hit the back line on a kill.  Jordan George came in defensively.  22-12, Ash made a kill down the line.  Jordan Pleasants came in to serve.  23-14, freshman Autumn Gentry came in to serve.  23-17, the Tigers made a comeback with some Aggie reserves in.  Sav banged out two more wild shots.  Maybe she was angry or trying too hard.  Timeout Aggies.  NMSU did finish the set and match out 25-18 and 3-0.  It ended on a Pacific out-serve with the whole arena clapping for match point #2.  I could see where that might be intimidating.

The scoreboard kill stats didn’t quite keep up with personnel changes and I’m not sure if they kept up with the kills either.  I got some stats later from the radio the next day and the Internet.  Savannah Davison led with 10 kills.  Cat Kelly had 7, Julianna Salanoa had 5, and Megan Hart with 4 in limited playing time.  (I think the coach may have been holding her back to preserve her knee for the next two rivalry games.)  Krysten Garrison led in assists.  The team block totals were impressive at 16.  I counted 16 players used in the game.  Some of those were garbage time, but even apart from those, Coach Jordan used his whole arsenal of good weapons to keep them sharp. 

I’m sorry to Pacific.  Even with my inherent bias, nothing really stood out for me about them tonight, so I don’t know what say about them.  I have no stats for them.  They caught the Aggies a bit rusty in Set 1, but were overpowered by the end of that set and for the rest of the match.  The team began stretching out on court immediately after the match.  

I went straight home and made a couple of calls to my parents and my co-worker, Mike, who was filling in for me.  (I worried I might interrupt Ron doing his remodeling.)  While I was talking to Mike, I realized that watching and writing about volleyball had taken up my whole day.  With three matches on tap tomorrow and another on Sunday, it’s going to be a lot more of the same.  Good thing I like volleyball.

Borderland Invitational UNM vs TX A&M CC Volleyball 9-6-19

TA&M-CC Islander Kylie Flipiak
I'm trying to put more pictures in with my posts.

Tragedy struck immediately in this opening invitational game between the New Mexico Lobos and the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders.  I spilled my drink right after I sat down.  Hey, I’d just spent $9 on a pretzel and a raspberry tea basically to be nice.  I wasn’t hungry or thirsty, but the concessions were open for this lightly attended event.  I’d found fellow Aggie fan Danny sitting in his usual place and had just sat down next to him.  I put down the drink and it somehow fell over.  I only saved about a quarter of it.  I think only Danny’s presence kept me from crying or becoming violently angry.  (I really like that tea.)  Eating that very chewy, doughy pretzel, I could have definitely used the whole drink.  It tasted okay at least, so I felt a little better.

Why was I writing again?  Oh yeah, volleyball.  I’d taken the day off to see tonight’s game with the Aggies actually.  This morning game was kind of a bonus, since I like watching volleyball in general.  Ron had waved off this game, but was planning on coming tonight.  Like I said, there was a very light crowd.  I might have at least thought that the Lobos would have brought some fans. 

PA Ed was there working the microphone.  The malfunctioning video board from the Scrimmage was working again.  Aggie Softball was represented with Keala Brown, Analise De La Roca, and later on Jeanelle Medina shagging balls on the sidelines.  I guess they’re all working on a Sports Marketing degrees.  Danny had said he’d seen the team climbing the football berm this morning.  I never saw Aggie Volleyball or their coaches come by to scout this game.

As for the opposing teams, the Lobos looked bigger and taller in general than the Islanders, but they were still all pretty tall.  (When am I going to stop being surprised by the height of volleyball players?)  Kaitlynn Biassou for the Lobos looked like an impressive specimen.  I seemed to remember Lauren Twitty from previous meetings being good. 

Yikes!  Kylie Filipiak on the Islanders was an eye-catching blonde with a slight frame.  She reminded me of departed Brittany Welch from last year’s Aggies.  It was like watching her play, like things had worked out for her here.  Their assistant coach, Sasha Karelov, was pretty striking with her long blonde hair and her wardrobe wearing a dress shirt with a sweater.  (It’s cool inside the Pan-Am Center, but 95+ degrees outside.)  The Islanders did have an edge in overall looks, but that doesn’t have anything to do with playing ability.

Set 1

Or does it?  While the Lobos came out really fired up to play, the Islanders started dominating immediately.  Their bench reserves were doing a square dance after A&M (I’m just calling them this as a shorthand for the rest of the review) won the first two points.  The reserves for both teams were quite entertaining or annoying, depending on if you were watching or playing.  At 5-1 A&M, the bench was making fun of Twitty’s last name when she came up to serve.  9-3 A&M, the Lobos picked up their second double touch call.  This would be a running issue for UNM.         

At 12-4, Sasha was actually yawning from the bench while watching.  Madison Green had just made an extremely sneaky tip shot off a short set.  The ball had no heat on it, as it found a spot where nobody was.  The Lobos started make a comeback at 15-9, but the Islanders pulled away again to make it 20-11 off of another Lobo DT.  A belated timeout was called for UNM.

Lobo Morgan Schreckler came up to serve and had a very dramatic pause in her delivery.  It worked.  She aced the first serve and ran off three points, while the A&M bench heckled her.  I’m sure this goes on in every game, it’s just that there was virtually no crowd noise to drown it out.  22-18 A&M, some Islander errors allowed the Lobos to get back into it.  24-18 A&M, the first long rally of match.  The Lobos lost it on an out shot.  The Islanders finished it off 25-18 for the set.  Faith Panhans won it with a little dumper shot.

Set 2: Islanders 1, Lobos 0

Madison had a chat with the up official after the teams changed sides.  I wonder what that was about.  Certainly, they seemed to be doing better than the Lobos with the calls.  A&M went up 1-0 on a free ball that none of Lobos covered.  It just dropped right in.  They went up 2-1 on a kill into two blockers.  The reserves chanted out, “She wasn’t ready!”  Ouch.  Kaitlynn for Lobos came back to hammer an overpass kill to tie it.  The Lobo reserves started an “Aussie!  Oi!  Oi!” chant.  One of their girls was from Australia.  One of the Islanders was from New Zealand. 

Kylie came up to serve for the Islanders and put in an ace at 5-4 A&M.  She served lefty with some deception and the ball came over like a curveball.  9-7 A&M, Madison put in another little dumper.  The reserves came right in with the “She wasn’t ready!” chant.  13-9 A&M, the reserves chanted “O-U-T!  Out!” on a wide Lobo swing.  14-9 A&M, “She (still) wasn’t ready!”  Timeout Lobos.     

No help there.  15-9 A&M, the Islanders got a block kill and the reserves went crazy.  15-10 A&M, here was the second long rally of the match.  Lobo libero Alena Moldan made a good save as part of winning the point.  16-11 A&M, Alena came up with an ace that hit the tape.  Unfortunately, the next one went into the net.  The Islanders took Set 2, 25-18.  A Lobo DT ended it.

Set 3: Islanders 2, Lobos 0

We had a little salsa dancing with the unofficial Pan-Am Center theme song this season Jump in the Line by Harry Belafonte, an oldie from the 50’s, over the PA.  Even I was briefly dancing in the stands, while one of the Islander girls danced in the huddle.  All of the reserves were then bouncing to House of Pain’s Jump Around.  The Lobos meanwhile came out with a 1-0 lead on a hard kill.  The Lobo reserves howled.  (I don’t know why all Lobo teams don’t do that.  It would fit their name.)  3-1 Lobos, the reserves danced around in a circle.

Unfortunately soon enough it was 4-4 after another DT by the Lobos.  Kylie for the Islanders had kind of a rough third set.  She had a blocked tip, a missed dig, and an attack error already.  Still, she kept her game-face on and kept swinging through the slump.  I like that attitude.  The Lobos surged back to an 8-5 lead.  But soon enough, there was Madison with another dump kill to tie it at 8.  9-8 Lobos, I credit their reserves’ chanting with causing an A&M out serve. 

Chloe Simon for the Islanders came up with a cross-court kill to tie it again at 9.  She got a couple of those.  11-9 A&M, Chloe buried one right into a Lobo defender, who was called for a double touch.  (I suspect I know what their coach is going to be working on in practice.)  13-10 A&M, super pretty set for an Islander kill here.  14-10 A&M, Sam Dumity for the Islanders with another dump set kill.  Timeout Lobos.  19-16 A&M, both teams traded out-serves.  They’re contagious.  21-16 A&M, Lobo DT.  22-19 A&M, the Lobos won this point after two good blocks.  Appropriately, the Islanders took the set and match on a dump shot by Faith, 25-19 and 3-0. 

The Lobos showed some fight, but the Islanders were pretty much in control for all of this one.  The amount of deception A&M-CC used was shocking and very effective.  Their other fundamentals were good.  They did all this damage with their 6’5” hitter, Julia Carter, not playing.  They’d really be scary if she was playing and good.  I don’t know what to say about the Lobos other than their reserves didn’t get out-cheered at least.  (The reserves’ battle was at least as entertaining as the actual match.)

Without actual stats (they weren’t up on the scoreboard for this match), it’s hard to hand out gameballs.  I was impressed by Chloe Simon’s hitting.  [Edit: Chloe and Lauren Twitty on the Lobos both had 13 kills.]  Madison Green showed off some really tricky shots.  I don’t know if all the team’s dumps and tips would have worked against anybody, but they definitely worked here today.  I’m sort of glad the Aggies aren’t playing them.  (It’s a strange invitational with NMSU and UTEP both running it.  Not everybody’s playing each other.  Another team is only playing in El Paso and not playing the Aggies at all.)  Lastly, I liked Kylie Filipiak.  As I said, she was reminding me of somebody else’s play in a good way.  I hope she does well this season.

Danny and I congratulated a couple of nearby Islander parents.  They were in a happy mood.  That blonde marketing lady that I see around all time everywhere walked past and said, “Hi,” to Danny.  He told me were name was Nicole, so I finally found that out.  Gasp!  Right behind her was . . . Emerson.  Yes, the hot baseball marketing intern was working at the Pan-Am Center now.  I kind of assumed with her baseball player boyfriend, Logan Ehnes, graduating, she’d be gone too.  Well, there’s something else to look forward to at this fall’s games.  Okay, in the meantime, I’m going back home to wait for the Aggies’ game in the evening.          

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.