EVERETT — The Everett AquaSox self-destructed Friday night.
Everett helped out the Eugene Emeralds in every possible fashion, handing Eugene a 5-1 Northwest League baseball victory at Everett Memorial Stadium, the Sox’s first home game in 12 days.
Everyone was to blame in Everett’s demise. The defense committed three errors, leading to three unearned runs. Sox pitchers combined to issue six walks, hit three batters, uncork two wild pitches, and toss in a balk for good measure. And Everett’s batters fanned 11 times. As a result, Eugene won the game comfortably despite managing just four hits.
Kyle Lloyd struck out seven during five innings of relief to earn the win for Eugene (10-12 second half, 23-37 overall).
James Zamarripa had two hits to lead Everett (10-12, 33-27).
Eugene opened the scoring in the top of the second, scoring two runs on a host of Everett missteps. Starting pitcher Thyago Vieira hit two and walked two in the inning, and allowed one run to score on a wild pitch. The other scored on a Chase Jensen groundout.
Eugene got an unearned run in the fifth to go ahead 3-0 as Michael Miller’s single brought home Edwin Montero, who reached on third baseman Justin Seager’s throwing error.
The Emeralds got two more in the seventh, this time using two walks, a hit batter and two Everett errors to go ahead 5-1 without the benefit of a hit.
Everett scored its lone run in the sixth on Reggie Lawson’s RBI single.
New faces
Everett returned from its longest road trip of the season — eight games — with two new players in tow, both of whom joined the team Wednesday in Vancouver after being promoted from Pulaski of the rookie Appalachian League.
Speedy outfielder Ian Miller was the Seattle Mariners’ 14th-round pick in this year’s draft out of Wagner College. The 21-year-old from Downingtown, Penn., appeared in 40 games with Pulaski, batting .297 with a .374 on-base percentage. He scored 30 runs and stole 14 bases.
Relief pitcher Emilio Pagan was Seattle’s 10th-round pick in this year’s draft out of Belmont Abbey College. The 22-year-old from Greenville, S.C., was dominating at Pulaski, where he was unscored upon in 15 appearances spanning 201/3 innings, notching 12 saves. He allowed just nine hits and five walks and struck out 27.
Both Miller and Pagan had successful debuts with the Sox in Thursday’s 4-3 victory over Vancouver. Miller had hits in his first two at-bats and finished 3-for-6 with two runs. Pagan pitched one scoreless inning, allowing two hits and striking out two.
Border issues
Everett’s starting pitcher Friday night, Thyago Vieira, had his start pushed back a day, but not for health reasons. The Brazilian did not accompany the team for its three-game road trip to Vancouver because of potential visa issues. Vieira would have been able to get into Canada, but there was a chance he would not have been able to get back into the U.S.
The Mariners organization was not about to risk the possibility of Vieira getting stuck at the border. Earlier this year Tri-City had a player who wound up stuck at the border for several days while visa paperwork was sorted out.
To compensate for Vieira’s absence, the Sox gave a spot start to Nate Koneski on Wednesday. Koneski gave up six runs in three innings as Everett lost 10-1.
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