PASCO — Sloppy defense was the theme of the Everett AquaSox’s Class A Northwest League season opener Friday as the Tri-City Dust Devils knocked off the AquaSox 5-4 Friday before 3,029 fans at Gesa Stadium.
Each team committed three errors as just three of the game’s nine runs were earned.
The AquaSox (0-1) took an early 2-0 lead, but Everett starter Jake Brentz walked in three runs in the third to give the Dust Devils (1-0) a lead they didn’t relinquish.
Seattle Mariners first-round draft pick Kyle Lewis went 1-for-4 with a run scored in his professional debut.
Lewis’s sixth-inning double down the right-field line snapped a string of nine straight AquaSox hitters retired by Tri-City pitchers. He scored on Kristian Brito’s RBI single to cut Tri-City’s lead to 4-3.
The Dust Devils immediately answered in the bottom of the frame when Kyle Overstreet’s infield single scored Aldemar Burgos.
Jordan Cowan’s two-out RBI double scored Yojhan Quevedo in the top of the seventh with Everett’s final run to make it 5-4, which is how it ended.
The Dust Devils erased a 2-0 deficit when Brentz’s control abandoned him in the third. Tri-City took advantage of a hit and an error to load the bases before Brentz walked in three consecutive runs.
Brentz was lifted for reliever Lane Ratliff who induced a lineout to end the inning, but the Dust Devils led 3-2. Brentz walked seven and struck out four in 22/3 innings of work. None of the three runs were earned.
Tri-City tacked on another run in the bottom of the fourth when Chris Baker drove in Burgos to make it 4-2.
The AquaSox took the early lead in the top of the first. Cowan led off with a four-pitch walk and later scored on Gus Craig’s infield single.
In fact, Everett’s first three hits were of the infield variety. Austin Grebeck led off the third with an infield hit, was balked to second, sacrificed to third and scored on Bryson Brigman’s infield single for a 2-0 lead.
The two teams square off again at 7:15 p.m. Saturday in the second game of the season-opening three-game series. Luiz Gohara will start for Everett against Tri-City’s Angel Mejia.
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