EVERETT — It was a moment of catharsis.
The Everett AquaSox had been bruised and battered for the better part of a week, losing five straight. And the main culprit was a floundering offense that would have struggled to hit its way out of a paper bag.
But all of Everett’s pent-up frustration came gushing out in a tidal wave of offense Saturday night as the Sox ended their losing skid by blowing out the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes 14-3.
With an enthusiastic overflow crowd of 4,743 on hand at Everett Memorial Stadium to lend its support, the Sox busted out of their slump in grand fashion. It began when Jarrett Burgess ripped Salem-Keizer’s first pitch of the game down the third-base line for a double. Then it just kept building from there. Everett led 10-0 after four innings and was able to coast home.
“It feels good,” Everett manager Scott Steinmann said. “Any time you end a losing streak, whether it’s a close ballgame or a blowout, we’re happy. But I’m very pleased with the way the guys came out swinging the bats today.”
Burgess finished a single short of the cycle, scoring and driving in four runs, and Jabari Blash had his second two-homer game of the season to lead an onslaught that allowed the win-starved Sox (14-22) to smile again.
“It’s a really big relief,” Burgess said.
“We had a real bad losing streak. We were hitting the ball well, but we weren’t hitting in the right situations,” Burgess added. “Tonight we came out strong in the beginning of the game and it turned out well.”
It was clear Everett was in for a big night right from the start. Burgess’ leadoff double got the party started, but Marcus Littlewood kept it going with a double of his own on the very next pitch, giving the Sox the lead in the span of just two pitches.
The Sox kept it up. They ended up scoring multiple runs in each of the first four innings, and the 14 runs Everett plated were just one fewer than the Sox tallied during their entire five-game losing streak.
“That’s contagious hitting there,” Burgess said. “That definitely set the tone for the game. I’m glad we kept hitting.
“Tonight we limited the strikeouts. We battled a lot with two strikes and had a good approach.”
The beneficiary of Everett’s big offensive night was Sox starting pitcher Stephen Landazuri. Staked to plenty of run support, Landazuri did his part, too. The right-hander allowed just one run in five innings. He gave up five hits and one walk and struck out five as he improved to 4-2.
Salem-Keizer (15-21), which saw its seven-game winning streak come to an end in emphatic fashion, was led by home runs from Dan Burkhart and Ryan Honeycutt.
Volcanoes starter Cameron Lamb took the loss, allowing eight runs in 22/3 innings to fall to 2-4.
After Everett pushed two runs across in the first, they kept it going in the second. Burgess tripled to center to drive home the first run. Then Everett piled on the type of cheap hits that Salem-Keizer benefited from in its 5-3 victory Friday. Infield singles by Littlewood and Wood and a ground ball with eyes by Jharmidy De Jesus drove in one run apiece as the Sox surged ahead 6-0.
The carnage continued in the next two innings as Mario Yepez lined a two-run double to left-center in the third, then Blash crushed a two-run homer off the roof of the building across the street behind the left-field wall in the fourth.
Salem-Keizer finally got on the board in the fifth on Burkhart’s solo shot into the homer porch in right. But the Sox piled on in the sixth, Blash skying a solo homer to center and Burgess belting a three-run job to left.
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