EVERETT — The Everett AquaSox appear to have the wheels back on the cart.
The Sox, who a week ago were stumbling through an eight-game losing streak, won their fourth straight Northwest League baseball game Monday night, thumping the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes 7-1 at Everett Memorial Stadium.
The AquaSox improved their season record to 7-11. Salem-Keizer, which lost its eighth straight, fell to an NWL-worst 2-16.
An Independence Day crowd of 3,611 saw the Sox turn in one of their best performances of the season, led by starting pitcher Jose Campos (1-2).
The hard-throwing right-hander from Venezuela collected his first victory of the season with six strong innings. He allowed one run on seven hits, struck out a season-high seven and walked just one. Campos, who has pitched at least six innings in three of his four starts this season, lowered his earned-run average more than a full run, to 3.05.
More important in the eyes of Everett manager Scott Steinmann was the step forward the 18-year-old Campos took in his development. Campos attacked the Volcanoes with his 90-plus-mph fastball in the opening innings, switched to his off-speed repertoire in the middle innings, then went back to the fastball to finish up.
“He went hard, then a little bit soft, then back to hard again,” Steinmann said. “I thought for his development, it was a great outing.”
Of course, it helped that the Everett offensive staked Campos to a 5-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning.
The AquaSox loaded the bases in the first on singles by Marcus Littlewood, Jabari Blash and James Wood. Nathan Merlendres drove in the first run when he was hit by a pitch. He left the game the following inning.
“The doctor is going to check him out tomorrow,” Steinmann said. “It was right on the wrist. … It got him pretty good. It kind of stiffened up on him so we got him out of there for precautionary reasons.”
Jharmidy De Jesus followed with an RBI single to left field, and two batters later, Ethan Paquette delivered the biggest hit of the game, ripping a two-strike fastball down the third-base line to drive in three runs and give Everett its 5-0 lead.
Paquette came into the game hitting .143, so the sight of the ball bouncing down the left-field line as his teammates raced around the bases was welcome, indeed.
“I thought he was going to come with a fastball there, especially in,” Paquette said of Salem-Keizer starting pitcher Reinier Roibal (0-1). “He threw it to me a couple times in that at-bat. I got it and I didn’t miss it.”
As his teammates high-fived each other at home plate, Paquette stood on second base excitedly clapping his hands.
“I needed that, I’ve been struggling a little bit early on in the season,” said Paquette, the Seattle Mariners’ 35th-round pick in last year’s draft. “That hit helped me out and it also helped the team out, which is good.”
Campos kept the Volcanoes off the scoreboard until the sixth, when he surrendered an unearned run.
Relievers Jason Buursma and Cody Weiss followed Campos to the mound. They combined to blank the Volcanoes on just two hits over the final three innings.
The only offense Salem-Keizer could muster came from shortstop Joseph Panik, who collected four of his team’s nine hits and scored the Volcanoes’ only run on an RBI double by designated-hitter Mike Murray in the sixth inning.
Littlewood, the highest drafted player on the AquaSox roster, batted leadoff for Everett and enjoyed a big game. He collected three hits, including a two-run double off the left-center field fence in the eighth inning that drove in the game’s final two runs.
Littlewood, Everett’s starting shortstop, also was part of three double plays that helped kill potential Salem-Keizer rallies.
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