Frogs rally to defeat Volcanoes
Published 11:43 pm Saturday, August 30, 2008
EVERETT — It took perseverance and patience but the Everett Aqua Sox eked out a 5-4 Northwest League victory over the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes Saturday at Everett Memorial Stadium.
The AquaSox came from two runs behind and overcame allowing two unearned runs.
And they waited out Salem-Keizer relief pitcher Aaron King (0-1), loading the bases on walks (one intentional) in the 10th prior to a game-winning single by Anthony Phillips.
Phillips’ hit made a winner of Everett reliever Brad Reid (1-1).
The win evened the series between Everett (31-41) and Salem-Keizer (39-33) at a game apiece with the tiebreaker today in Everett’s final home game of the season.
Everett got a break to draw even in the eighth inning. After putting runners at the corners on back-to-back, two-out singles by Luis Nunez and Ryan Royster, Nunez scored the tying run when Salem-Keizer pitcher Joseph Edens dropped the ball while in contact with the rubber for a balk.
Prior to that, two stray throws proved costly for the AquaSox. Both throwing errors led to unearned runs as Salem-Keizer took a 4-3 lead.
The AquaSox loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the seventh. Two of the runners reached on walks by Salem-Keizer relief pitcher Dan Runzler, prompting a pitching change. Designated hitter Manelik Pimentel greeted Edens with a sacrifice fly to center, leaving the Sox trailing by a run at 4-3.
Salem-Keizer upped a one-run lead to two with an unearned run in the seventh. With two outs and the bases loaded, Dan Cook grounded to second baseman Luis Nunez, whose throw pulled first baseman Bennett Billingsley off the bag, allowing the runner from third to score. A follow-on runner was thrown out at home.
Salem-Keizer broke a 2-2 tie with another unearned run in the sixth. Ryan Lormand led off with a grounder to third baseman Jharmidy DeJesus, who skipped his throw past first for an error. Lormand advanced to second on a high bouncer to short, took third on a single by Caleb Curry and scored on a sacrifice fly by Pepe Frias.
Welington Dotel and DeJesus combined on a two-out rally, tying the score at 2-2 for Everett in the fourth inning.
Dotel doubled off the wall in left-center, stole third and scored on DeJeses’ single over the head of the third baseman.Left-hander Bobby LaFromboise replaced Everett starter Kenn Kasparek to start the third inning and quickly gave up a 1-0 lead. Salem-Keizer’s Connor Gillespie began the rally with a one-out infield single. He was forced at second on a grounder by Francisco Peguero but Mike Loberg followed with a single. The runners advanced to second and third on a passed ball and scored on a single by Jose Flores.
Johnny Morell notched a third straight single off LaFromboise before he got out of the inning on a fly to left.
It took Everett five batters to put the ball in play as Salem-Keizer starter Andy Reichard struck out the first four batters he faced. After a goundout by Dotel, DeJesus put one out of play with a home run to right.
The Volcanoes went right to work on Kasparek in the first. With one out, Gillespie doubled to right-center and took third on a single by Peguero. Kasparek struck out Loberg but walked Flores to load the bases. However, Kasparek escaped the jam by inducing Monell to ground out to first baseman Brandon Fromm.
