EVERETT – The Everett AquaSox were desperate for something positive. Coming off a new low point of the season, a game Friday in which they looked anything but professional, the AquaSox needed to prove to themselves that they belonged in the Northwest League.
Saturday night they responded the way one would expect from a pro.
Everett’s performance was a 180-degree turn from Friday’s debacle, and the AquaSox defeated the Yakima Bears 10-6.
Before an Everett Memorial Stadium crowd of 4,431 – the second straight night Everett set a new season high for attendance – the AquaSox showed the assuredness that was missing from Friday night’s 8-2 drubbing at the hands of the Bears. With crisper performances from both the pitching and the defense, as well as a lot of pop in the bats, Everett built a 10-3 lead, rendering three late Yakima runs meaningless.
“It was a lot better effort,” Everett manager Dave Myers said. “I suggested after (Friday) night’s game that I wanted to see a much better effort and we got it. It was the type of effort we need every night. This is professional baseball and we owe it to our fans and our teammates to give that effort.”
Jair Fernandez and Danny Santin led the way for Everett (28-31). Fernandez was 3-for-4, including his first home run of the season, and he drove in four runs. Santin was 3-for-5 with a homer and three RBI.
And most importantly, the AquaSox washed the awful taste out of their mouths from Friday’s game, in which Everett committed four ugly errors, issued seven walks and hit four hit batters.
“I think the biggest difference was intensity,” Santin said. “Our intensity level was way up.
“No one likes to get kicked around at home like that,” Santin added. “I was really surprised, being a young club, to see us respond like that. But everyone showed up to the park today and was all business. I knew right off we’d have a good game.”
Everett starting pitcher Ricky Orta (4-3) struggled with his control early, but got stronger as the game went along. The right-hander gave up two runs on three hits in five innings. He walked three – all in the second inning – as Yakima took an early 2-1 lead. However, he allowed just one baserunner in his final three innings and ended up with five strikeouts.
“He pulled it together and gave us five innings,” Myers said about Orta. “After the second inning he was a lot better. He controlled his fastball better and pitched more aggressive in the zone.”
The key innings for Everett were the fourth and fifth. Everett looked like it may have been catching the vapors again when Orta’s wild streak popped up in the second, allowing the Bears to erase an AquaSox lead and go ahead 2-1. But Everett put any thoughts of that to rest in a big way.
First, Everett scored four runs in the fourth to surge back into the lead. Fernandez’s infield single drove in the tying run. The Sox then loaded the bases with one out and Dean Zorn hustled down the line to avoid an inning-ending double play, bringing home the second run of the frame. Santin followed with a two-run double to center, giving the Sox a 5-2 lead.
Everett then put the game out of reach in the fifth. Carlos Peguero grounded an RBI single off Yakima reliever Roberto Familia’s foot, then Fernandez followed by belting a three-run homer to center, increasing the margin to 9-2.
Yakima threatened to do damage in the sixth, with Justin Brashear’s single scoring one run and giving the Bears two runners on with nobody out. But a double play squashed the threat and left the score 9-3. Everett’s lead was never again threatened.
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