EVERETT — Flawless, it was not.
But on Sunday night the Everett AquaSox did enough things right, particularly in the late innings, to hold off the Tri-City Dust Devils 5-4 in the regular-season finale at Everett Memorial Stadium.
Everett spotted the visitors an early 4-1 lead, but rallied with some timely offense and some shutout pitching over the final five innings to move a step closer to a Northwest League playoff spot.
“It was an exciting game,” said Sox manager Rob Mummau. “It was one of those games where our guys battled the whole time and we managed to touch the plate one more time than they did.”
Everett came into the game with a four-game lead over Vancouver in the second-half North Division standings. Because the Canadians also won Sunday, the margin is still four games heading into the final six games for both teams, with a magic number of three for the Sox to clinch a postseason berth.
After a day off today, Everett will close its season with six road games _ Tuesday through Thursday at Spokane and Friday through Sunday at Vancouver. If the Sox win the division, they will host a first-round playoff game against Tri-City at 7:05 p.m. Monday.
The Everett players “are very hungry,” Mummau said. “That’s all these guys talk about. Winning and getting to the playoffs, and then winning four games in the playoffs.”
“I definitely know this team is hungry,” agreed Everett catcher P.J. Jones. “We want to get this job done. We just want to be consistent (in the final six games), to play hard for all nine innings and see what happens for us.”
Against Tri-City, the Sox put themselves in an early hole with several pitching and defensive miscues. Through the first four innings Everett pitchers walked six batters and threw a wild pitch. In the same stretch the Sox also committed two errors and made a costly outfield misplay that went for a two-run triple.
The result was a 4-1 deficit heading to the bottom of the fourth inning. But at that point the Sox turned the tables, batting around for three runs in that inning, and then getting the go-ahead and eventual winning run in the bottom of the fifth on a leadoff single by Luis Liberato, a stolen base, and a two-out RBI single from Conner Hale.
Over the final five innings Everett pitchers held the Dust Devils both hitless and scoreless. Tri-City did have five base runners in those five innings — three walks, a hit batter and a strikeout/wild pitch — but none of the runners advanced past second base.
Dylan Silva worked 21/3 innings to get the win, his second in three decisions this season. And Joe Pistorese had another outstanding outing, pitching 31/3 innings to notch his third save while lowering his ERA to 1.28.
Liberato was 2-for-3 with a double, two runs scored and a stolen base while reaching base a third time with a walk. And he had the game’s top defensive play, diving headlong in the right-center field gap for an inning-ending catch with a runner in scoring position in the top of the first.
“That was huge,” Mummau said. “That saved (a run) for us and kind of gave us a little lift.”
As the Sox head out on the road for their final six games, “we just want to play how we’ve been playing,” Jones said. “We’ve been pitching well, playing defense well and getting timely hitting, and we can’t try and do anything (differently). … We’re trying to take it game by game and win (each) series, and just keep grinding it out like we did this game tonight.”
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