VANCOUVER, B.C. -- Mechanical difficulties may have complicated the Everett AquaSox's start to the 2009 Northwest League season. But they couldn't derail Everett's smashing debut.
Despite the team bus breaking down en route to Vancouver, the AquaSox opened the season by thumping the Vancouver Canadians 10-1 Saturday night.
Ryan Royster went 4-for-5 with three RBI, Kalian Sams blasted a three-run homer, and Taylor Lewis tossed six solid innings as Everett showed no ill effects from the delayed arrival in Vancouver.
Everett's bats went wild late in the game as the AquaSox accumulated 10 of their 16 hits in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings. Guy Welsh finished with three hits and Fred Bello had a pair of doubles and scored three runs to augment Everett's offense.
Lewis, on the other hand, did his most important work early. The right-hander worked himself out of jams in each of the first three innings, stranding two runners in each frame. He went six innings, giving up one run on four hits and three walks, striking out six.
Vancouver starter Joselito Adames took the loss, giving up two runs in five innings. However, the Sox did their heavy damage against the Canadians bullpen, roughing three relievers up for eight runs in four innings.
Rashun Dixon homered to lead the Canadians.
Everett scored the first run of the season in the top of the third inning. Bello led off with a walk, worked his way to third base on a groundout and a wild pitch, then trotted home when Royster lined a single off the glove of diving shortstop Leonardo Gil, staking the Sox to a 1-0 lead.
It was the same combination that produced Everett's second run in the fifth. This time Bello led off with a double down the left-field line, was sacrificed to third and scored on Royster's single to center, making it 2-0.
The Canadains drew back within one in the bottom of the fifth when Dixon lined a solo home run over the left-field fence to make it 2-1.
But Everett stretched its lead out again in the sixth. With runners at second and third with two out, Hawkins Gebbers grounded a ball down the third-base line. Gebbers beat the throw, which was in the dirt and got by first baseman Wilfredo Sosa, allowing both baserunners to score and make it 4-1.
The Sox then put it out of reach in the seventh and eighth. In the seventh Welsh's double into the left-field corner drove in one run, then a second scored on a balk as Everett went ahead 6-1. Then in the eighth Royster lined an RBI double to the left-center gap, with Sams launching his three-run shot later in the inning as the Sox turned it into a rout.
