Gohara dominant, AquaSox beat Emeralds 6-1 in season opener

Published 11:10 pm Thursday, June 18, 2015

EVERETT — Luiz Gohara and the Everett AquaSox would just as soon put 2014 well into the rearview mirror.

Perhaps Thursday night was an indication last season’s awful experience is safely buried in the past.

Gohara lived up to his hot-prospect hype Thursday, tossing six strong innings to lead the Sox to a comprehensive 6-1 victory over the Eugene Emeralds in their Northwest League opener at Everett Memorial Stadium.

“It’s an awesome feeling,” Sox second baseman Jordan Cowan said about starting the season on a winning note. “It’s the first one and hopefully there’s many more to come.

“The vibe is good,” added Cowan, a native of Covington who was a member of last season’s team. “Last year was a little disappointing, a lot of close ballgames that we lost and could have gone either way. Hopefully this year we’ll do our best to clean that up and try to play the best baseball we can every single day.”

Both Gohara and the Sox suffered through a dismal 2014 campaign. Gohara, the Brazilian teenager who was the highest-profile prospect on last season’s team, had a disastrous season in which he went 0-6 with an 8.20 earned-run average. Meanwhile, the Sox finished in the basement of the Northwest League with an ugly 28-48 record.

But Gohara, now 18, showed Thursday why he was a bonus baby in a way he was unable to last season. The hefty lefty mowed down the Emeralds over six innings, using a hopping fastball to overpower Eugene’s batters to the tune of nine strikeouts. He gave up just two hits, and the one run he allowed was unearned.

There were moments early in the game where Gohara looked like he would succumb to the command issues that plagued him last season, as he had three walks through the first 11 batters. But he recovered well and avoided any free passes the rest of the way.

“He was good,” Mummau said of Gohara. “I don’t know what his velocity was (Gohara’s fastball was regularly clocked in the low 90s), but he threw a ton of first-pitch strikes. He really attacked the hitters, so I was real proud of him.

“He’s a young kid, he’s maturing, and just seeing that really good first start is encouraging.”

Gohara’s replacement, Spencer Hermann, was every bit as effective as Gohara. The left-hander blanked the Emeralds over the final three innings, allowing just one hit and fanning four to earn the save.

Offensively, the Sox had nine hits, all singles. They made the most of them, stringing six of those together during the two Everett rallies that netted multiple runs — three during a two-run rally in the fifth and three more in a three-run rally in the seventh. Ryan Uhl and Yojhan Quevedo each knocked out two of the hits.

“I thought it was a crisp game,” Mummau said. “Defensively we made all the routine plays. When we got a man on third base with less than two outs we scored a couple runs there, which is what you have to do. So it was good.”

Alex Jackson, the Seattle Mariners’ first-round pick in the 2014 amateur draft, finished 0-for-4 in his Sox debut.

Eloy Jimenez, a hotshot 18-year-old outfielder who was a big-money international signing by the Chicago Cubs in 2013, led Eugene by going 2-for-4. The Emeralds didn’t help their cause by committing five errors.

The Sox scored their first run of the season in the bottom of the first. Luis Liberato lined a one-out single the opposite way down the left-field line and took second when the ball was bobbled by left fielder Ricardo Marcano. Liberato advanced to third when third baseman Adonis Paula booted Jackson’s sharp grounder, then scored on Corey Simpson’s sacrifice fly to right, making it 1-0.

Eugene tied it in the top of the third. Ho-young Son drew a two-out walk, advanced to second on an errant pickoff throw by Gohara, then scored when Jimenez bounced a single up the middle, tying it at 1-1.

Everett regained the lead in the fifth. Uhl grounded an RBI single into the hole in the right side of the infield to bring home one run, then Logan Taylor followed with a sacrifice fly to right, giving the Sox a 3-1 advantage.

The Sox put it away in the seventh. Everett loaded the bases with one out. A balk by Eugene reliever Pedro Araujo brought home one run. A second scored when Taylor dropped an RBI single into right. Then a third came around on Cowan’s fielder’s choice grounder as the Sox went ahead by five.