EVERETT — The short porch that juts out from right-center field at Everett Memorial Stadium proves plenty enticing for the Everett AquaSox left-handed hitters.
Eric Filia went deep over that short porch for his first professional home run to provide a jolt of energy to the 3,759 fans at Everett Memorial Stadium, but it wasn’t enough as the Frogs fell 8-7 to the visiting Boise Hawks on a sun-drenched Sunday afternoon.
“It’s always good to barrel up a ball when you’re struggling a little bit, but yeah, it felt good,” said Filia, the Seattle Mariners’ 20th-round pick in the 2016 draft out of UCLA. “I stayed with my approach the whole time and tried not to do too much and the result happened.”
Filia’s towering two-run home run in the sixth cut what was once a six-run Everett deficit to 8-7. But that ultimately was as close as the Frogs got. Boise relievers managed to hold Sox scoreless over the final three innings to snap a four-game winning streak for Everett (6-4).
“Guys don’t give up,” Everett manager Rob Mummau said. “They keep on battling and that’s all I can ask for as a manager. We came up a little bit short tonight, but we’ll be back tomorrow.”
Indeed the Frogs did battle. Boise (3-7) appeared on the verge of turning the game into a rout as the Hawks erased an early 2-0 deficit to take an 8-2 lead through four innings.
But the Sox got to Boise starter Javier Medina in the bottom of the fifth. Everett took advantage of two Hawks errors, RBI singles by Nick Thurman and David Greer, and an RBI groundout from Bryson Brigman to claw within 8-5.
Then came Filia’s homer to pull Everett within one.
“It’s a good hitters’ ballpark, especially when you’re left-handed,” Filia said. “It felt good off the bat.”
Everett had the tying run on base in each of the final three innings, but could not push the tying run across. Brigman singled to lead off the seventh only to be caught stealing, and the Frogs stranded two in the eighth as Boise reliever Daniel Koger got back-to-back called third strikes to end in the inning.
That the Sox were even in position to come back was due once again to a strong effort from the bullpen. Relievers Lane Ratliff and Michael Korval combined for 32/3 scoreless innings with Ratliff fanning five Hawks hitters in his 21/3 inning stint.
“Our bullpen did a great job keeping us in (the game),” Filia said. “I gotta give it to the bullpen and yeah, our hitters are capable of doing great things. So there was no doubt in my mind we were capable of coming back.”
The AquaSox took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning against Medina. Brigman led off with a walk and Greer followed with a double. Brigman came home when the throw back to the infield got away from the Hawks, and Greer later scored on a sacrifice fly from Kristian Brito.
The Hawks countered with four runs in the top of the second. The first four batters singled with Anthony Brito’s hit driving in two. A third run scored on a wild pitch and Eric Toole drove in the fourth run with an RBI groundout.
Boise tacked on two more in the top of the third when Ryan Stephens singled in Daniel Suero and Wes Jones drove in Luis Castro with a sacrifice fly. A two-run home run from Steven Linkous pushed the advantage to 8-2 in the fourth.
Greer, Filia and Grebeck all finish with two hits for Everett.
The rare five-game series concludes tonight at 7 at Everett Memorial Stadium.
For the latest AquaSox news follow Jesse Geleynse on Twitter @jessegeleynse.
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