Sox end season with 3-2 victory
Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, September 5, 2001
Herald staff
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The Everett AquaSox played their season finale on Wednesday with nothing more than pride on the line and came away winners.
With the postseason, second place and a .500 season all out of reach, the AquaSox scored a run in the top of the eighth inning to defeat the Vancouver Canadians 3-2 to wrap up the Frogs’ 2001 season.
Everett (36-39) finished the season winning two of its final three games and foiled the chance of its Northern nemesis at finishing with a .500 record. Vancouver (37-39) end the year a half-game ahead of the AquaSox for second place overall in the West Division of the Northwest League.
With the score tied 2-2 in the top of the eighth, the AquaSox got a clutch hit off of Vancouver reliever Alexander Diaz to take the lead.
Blake Woods led off the inning with a double and then advanced to third on consecutive ground outs by Jose Lopez and Orlando Hernandez.
With two outs, Everett’s John Williamson, who gave the Frogs an early 1-0 lead in the first on an RBI double, came through once again with a single to score Woods and give the AquaSox a slim 3-2 advantage.
Williamson finished the year hitting .277 with 34 RBI.
Everett’s Skip Wiley, who was only able to pitch in six games for the AquaSox prior to Wednesday because of injury, shut out the Canadians in the eighth and ninth for his first save of the season.
Wiley struck out four of the seven batters he faced and walked one.
Everett starting pitcher Ryan Ketchner threw well, but didn’t have the stamina to earn the victory. Ketchner struck out seven Vancouver batters in only four innings of work, while walking two. Ketchner allowed one run, earned, one two base hits.
Vancouver didn’t go quietly into the offseason. The Canadians scored a run in the fourth and one in the fifth to tie the score at 2-2.
Ketchner’s leadoff base on balls to Vancouver’s Jason Basil came back to haunt him when Basil advanced to third on Jorge Soto’s double and scored on a ground out by Matt Allegra.
With Travis Allen on in relief of Ketchner in the bottom of the fifth inning, Vancouver completed the comeback when J.T. Stotts scored from first base on a one-out, RBI triple by Dan Johnson to tie the score at 2-2.
