Brian LaHair’s second stint in Everett proved to be a short one.
The AquaSox first baseman, one of three returning regulars from last season, was promoted to the Seattle Mariners’ full-season single-A Midwest League team in Wisconsin after just eight games with Everett.
“LaHair went up, deservingly so,” Everett manager Pedro Grifol said. “LaHair made a lot of improvements from last year, he had a great extended spring, he had a great first five or six games here and it was time to move up. That’s our job, to develop guys and get them going to the next level.”
LaHair’s stay may have been short, but it was memorable. Playing in seven of Everett’s first eight games, he batted a gaudy .440 (11-for-25) with six doubles, one homer and seven RBI.
LaHair was used as a pinch hitter Friday in Yakima, returned to Everett with the team, then departed for Lancaster, Wisc., Saturday morning.
Last season LaHair batted .244 with two homers and 20 RBI for the AquaSox.
Now the AquaSox are going to have to find a new cleanup hitter. But Grifol isn’t concerned.
“LaHair was very productive for us, but we’ve got guys here capable of picking up his role and we’re just going to continue to play hard.”
The AquaSox also said goodbye to infielder Pedro Ozoria, who was sent back to the Mariners’ Arizona Rookie League team in Peoria. Ozoria was 2-for-2 for Everett.
New additions: Although the AquaSox lost LaHair, they have added two new players to the roster.
Marshall Hubbard, who joined the team Saturday, is expected to be LaHair’s replacement at first base. Hubbard, 22, was the Mariners’ eighth-round selection in the 2004 draft out of the University of North Carolina. The 6-foot-2, 215-pounder from Ashland, Virginia, led the Tar Heels in batting (.352), homers (17) and RBI (83) this season.
The AquaSox also added infielder Brandon Green during their series in Yakima. The 22-year-old Green measures in at 6-0, 195 pounds and hails from Adair, Okla. He was the Mariners’ 19th-round selection in the 2004 draft out of Wichita State University, where this season he led the Shockers in batting at .395. He hit two homers and drove in 57.
Good trip: The AquaSox returned from their road trip to Yakima in good spirits, having taken four of the five games against the Bears.
“It was a good series for us,” said outfielder Brent Johnson, who raised his batting average to .368 during the trip. “We hoped to sweep, obviously, but winning a series on the road is always a good thing. Winning four-out-of-five is a good start to our road trips.”
Playing in 100-degree temperatures every day, the AquaSox won the first four games, trailing only once in that span during the first game. Everett then rallied from a five-run deficit to tie it in the fifth game, but lost at the end.
And it was a familiar formula for victory for the AquaSox during the series.
“It’s becoming a little bit of a trend,” Grifol said. “Every time we win we’re pitching well, we’re throwing strikes, we’re playing defense and we’re getting timely hitting. Even (Friday) when we lost, we had some timely hits that got us back in the game. It seems this club is never out of it.”
Nick Patterson, Herald Writer
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