AquaSox pound Emeralds 10-4

Published 10:09 pm Saturday, June 20, 2015

EVERETT — The offense was clicking for Everett Saturday night.

And Luis Liberato was leading the way.

Liberato went 3-for-4, scored four runs and batted four more in to lead Everett to a 10-4 victory over the Eugene Emeralds at Everett Memorial Stadium.

Liberato got Everett on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second inning. The Everett left fielder led the inning off with a walk and later scored on a broken-bat sacrifice fly by Arturo Nieto.

In his next at-bat, Liberato hit a two-run home run off Oscar De La Cruz that also scored Drew Jackson. Liberato added a two-run double in a four-run fifth for the Frogs.

“He had a big night,” said Rob Mummau, the Everett manager. “He drove in a bunch of runs and was just really exciting on the base paths.”

Eugene chipped away at Everett’s lead with a run in the sixth and two in the seventh, but the Frogs came back with two runs thanks to RBI singles by Braden Bishop and Jordan Cowan, the latter scoring Liberato for the fourth time.

“I think we’ve got a good combination of power bats, we’ve got some speed on the team and we’ve got some pretty good pitching,” Mummau said. “It should be a fun year.”

Mariners 2014 first-round pick Alex Jackson (1-for-3) got his first hit of the season in the bottom of the fifth inning. Every starter for the AquaSox got at least one base hit with Everett tallying 15 in the game.

Nieto was 3-for-3 two RBI and a run scored, Drew Jackson went 2-for-5 with three runs scored and Cowan went 2-for-6 for the AquaSox.

“Guys maybe start to relax a little bit more when things get rolling,” Mummau said. “It was just a good team effort.”

Seattle Mariners pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma, in Everett on a rehab assignment, started the game and pitched 32/3 innings. The right-hander struck out three and allowed only one earned run before leaving the game in the bottom of the fourth inning with the score tied at one.

Troy Scott came in to finish the inning for the Frogs, who also used Jose Santiago, Darin Gillies and Matt Clancy in the contest. Scott earned his first win of the year in relief after pitching one-third of an inning in the fourth.

The win helped the AquaSox improve to 2-1 early in their 2015 campaign. Mummau would like to see his team continue to get off to a strong start this season.

“Any time you get off to a good start it helps with the confidence and you just hope to keep it going,” Mummau said. “… I think it helps. I don’t think it’s the end-all. Some teams finish strong and some fade late. Just the main thing is keep a good, solid approach throughout the course of the season, not try to do to much and always give a good effort.”

Everett was aided by five Eugene errors in the ballgame. The Emeralds and Everett, which had two errors on Saturday, have combined for 18 errors in the teams’ first three games.