AquaSox fall in series opener against Vancouver

Published 1:30 am Friday, July 12, 2019

EVERETT — Austin Shenton went 3-for-4, but the AquaSox couldn’t drum up enough offense in a 7-3 loss to kickoff a three-game series with the Vancouver Canadians on Thursday at Funko Field at Everett Memorial Stadium.

“They had some timely hitting and some good at-bats and they really forced our pitchers into the zone, which was difficult, because we thought we had some good pitches early,” Everett AquaSox acting manager Carson Vitale said. “They hit some pitches over the plate that went their way. I thought we swung the bats extremely well and we ran into some tough outs at times that could have changed the game, but we didn’t swing the bats entirely well with runners in scoring position.”

Tim Elliott (0-2), the Mariners’ fourth-round pick in June’s MLB draft, allowed three runs on five hits over three innings to pick up the loss.

He served up a two-run homer to Will Robertson to right-center field to open the scoring. Trevor Schwecke plated Cameron Eden on a sacrifice fly to right field to push the score to 3-0.

A RBI single from Luis de Los Santos to left pushed Vancouver’s lead to 4-0, Yorman Rodriguez’s RBI double and a wild pitch from Jorge Benitez spotted the Canadians a 6-0 lead.

Everett cut the lead in half with Patrick Frick’s bases loaded walk in the seventh, Shenton scoring on a passed ball and Cash Gladfelter’s RBI groundout in the eighth.

But Robertson added another RBI on a RBI single to right field and the Canadians sealed the game with a scoreless ninth.

With three hits on Thursday, Shenton has multi-hits in four of his last seven games.

“His plate discipline and his awareness of the zone is really good,” Vitale said. “He’s just unwilling to swing at pitches out of the zone and stick to his plan and when you do that, great things happen. Especially with a talent like Shenton.”