EVERETT — After producing little offense during their first two games against Vancouver, the AquaSox found their stroke in the series finale.
And it didn’t take long.
Five batters into the bottom of the first, the Frogs had surpassed their hit total from Thursday night’s loss. Everett starter Andres Torres threw another gem, and the Sox earned an 11-4 win Friday night at Everett Memorial Stadium.
Joe Venturino recorded three of Everett’s 12 hits, logging three doubles and four RBI. Onil Pena, Eugene Helder and David Banuelos had two hits apiece.
Pena quickly put the Frogs (15-15 second half, 32-26 overall) in front with a three-run homer over the right-center field wall, scoring Helder and Greifer Andrade to give Everett a 3-0 first-inning lead.
A routine ground ball off the bat of Ronald Rosario scored David Banuelos on a throwing error, and 2⁄3 of an inning in Vancouver pulled starter Dany Jimenez.
Venturino finished the Frogs’ five-run first inning with a high-looping double that dropped in just beyond the reach of Vancouver second baseman Mattingly Romanin and in front of right fielder Brock Lundquist. Rosario came all the way around from first to score.
Venturino put the AquaSox in front 6-0 in the bottom of the third with an RBI double to left field, and Austin Grebeck pushed the lead to 7-0 with a ground ball single up the middle. Chris Torres followed with a 6-4-3 double play, but Venturino scored from third to give the Frogs a 8-0 advantage.
Two fourth-inning Vancouver errors helped the AquaSox take a 9-0 lead, and Venturino sent his third double of the game into the right-center field gap, scoring Banuelos and Troy Dixon to give Everett an 11-0 edge.
Meanwhile, Andres Torres (7-1) kept the Canadians off-balance all night. The Venezuelan right-hander tossed six innings of shutout ball while giving up six hits and recording six strikeouts.
He ran into some danger in the sixth, but with runners on second and third and two outs, the Everett ace deflected a liner off his glove that found Venturino for the final out. The righty pointed to the sky as he escaped the inning unscathed.
David Hesslink tossed a scoreless seventh and eighth, Fabian Roman was roughed up for four runs in the ninth before Ted Hammond eventually closed out the Canadians.
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