EVERETT — It was a new day — and, essentially, a new season — for the Everett AquaSox on Monday.
After just missing out on a first-half North Division title and accompanying playoff spot on Sunday afternoon — that the Frogs lost to Tri-City by a tiebreaker — Everett was ready to get back on the field and see what it could do in the Northwest League’s second half.
“It is a little weird because we just played a whole first half, but it’ll be nice because basically it’s like a clean slate,” said infielder Jordan Cowan. “Now, we just start over and pretend like it’s day No. 1 and just go from there.”
Cowan and the Frogs, who finished tied with the Dust Devils at 22-16 in the season’s first half, are excited to start from scratch as all eight NWL teams return to a 0-0 record. The division leaders at the end of the second half of the season also clinch playoff berths.
“I think everyone likes it when it’s a fresh start,” Cowan said. “It just feels like now the season’s started over again. We just have to take it one day at a time. Don’t look ahead, don’t look in the past, just look in the present and try to do whatever you can today to help the team win.”
Coming up just short of a first-half title was a little tough for the Frogs, but AquaSox manager Rob Mummau is confident that won’t impact the team going forward.
“You try not to get too wrapped up in the stuff you can’t control,” Mummau said. “You can control your effort level, you can control showing up on time, being a good teammate. But what other teams do, if they win or lose, you have no control over that. You just try to focus on the things you can control, which isn’t much, and I think if you do that more times than not you’ll have success.
“You just have to play each day, try your best and compete each day for nine innings and see what happens,” Mummau continued. “… It’s about the approach and I think if you do that each and every day I think at the end you’ll be happy. (Whether our record is) 0-0, 20-20, 20-0, 0-20. You just come out and you compete hard each day.”
Everett started its season with a 10-3 run and the Frogs are hoping to get off to another quick start in the second half.
“Give it your best shot day in and day out,” Cowan said. “Hopefully, we play our butts off and we’ll be able to come out and win it all. But just like we did the first half, we just took it one day at a time and tried to have fun with it. We’ve just got to keep on grinding.”
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