EVERETT – It all seemed rather symbolic when the torrential rains came in the eighth inning of Wednesday night’s Northwest League game between the Everett AquaSox and the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes.
This is one that deserved to be washed away, as far as Everett is concerned.
Everett’s freefall continued in dramatic fashion as the AquaSox were thrashed 13-3 by the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes in a game shortened to seven innings by rain.
An Everett Memorial Stadium crowd of 1,555 watched as Everett (38-34) lost its ninth game in its last 10.
“I don’t know what’s happening,” Everett designated hitter Casey Craig said. “We’re trying. It’s hard to explain. The desire is still there, we’re just not pulling through well. We’re either picking it up late or not at all. It’s really weird and it’s something we’re not used to.”
Everett lost out on an opportunity to close on Vancouver, the West Division leader, which lost 2-1 to Eugene earlier in the day. Instead, the AquaSox, who held first place in the division most of the season, remained 21/2 games behind the Canadians with four games remaining.
“We’ve got a lot of work in front of us,” Craig said. “We need Eugene to help us out a little. But nobody has given up. We all want that ring pretty bad, so we’re going to have to find a way to pull together and get it.”
Everett’s woes during this rough stretch seem to worsen by the day. In their eight games against Boise and Vancouver, in which Everett lost seven, the AquaSox played well enough to win most of the games, but ended up on the short end of close decisions. But in their two games against Salem-Keizer, Everett has struggled in every facet of the game. On Wednesday, the AquaSox gave up 15 hits, had just four of their own and committed four errors, which led to six unearned runs.
Everett’s defense, in particular, has suffered as the AquaSox have committed nine errors in the last two games.
Everett’s bats haven’t been much better. The AquaSox were befuddled by Salem-Keizer starting pitcher Jonathan Sanchez. In five innings the left-hander struck out 12 AquaSox. He also gave up three hits and three walks, leading to three runs, but it was still more than enough to improve his record to 2-1.
“It really has gotten worse,” Craig said. “We’re not putting up the number of runs we did earlier in the season. It’s frustrating on the team.”
Everett starter Mumba River was knocked out of the game in the fifth. He gave up seven runs – six earned – on seven hits and one walk, striking our five to drop to 4-7.
Everett found itself playing from behind yet again as John Bowker popped a two run home run into the homer porch in right field to give the Volcanoes (36-36) a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning. It was Bowker’s fourth homer of the season.
The Volcanoes tacked on another run in the third. Todd Jennings lined a one-out double off the center-field wall, then one out later Brian Horwitz hit a nearly identical shot, though he was held to a single. Jennings scored on the play to make it 3-0.
Salem-Keizer then broke it open in the fifth. A walk and an error put two runners on for Horwitz, who laced a double to the left-center gap to plate two. Horwitz advanced to third on a passed ball and scored when Simon Klink singled through a drawn-in infield. After Will Thompson singled to put runners on first and second, Charlie Babineaux hit an RBI single and Kyle Haines had an RBI groundout, stretching the Volcanoes advantage to 8-0.
Sanchez, who was nearly perfect for four innings, got himself into trouble in the bottom of the fifth. a pair of one-out walks put runners on for Brent Johnson, who dumped a double down the left-field line to get Everett on the board. After Oswaldo Navarro walked to load the bases, a second run scored on a balk, and Johnson raced home on Yung Chi Chen’s foul pop to the first baseman, cutting the lead to 8-3.
Salem-Keizer snatched two of those runs back in the sixth on Klink’s sacrifice fly to deep right and Thompson’s RBI double to center, making it 10-3.
It got worse for Everett in the seventh when Bowker’s RBI double scored one and shortstop Matt Tuiasosopo’s throwing error allowed two more to score, increasing Salem-Keizer’s lead to double digits.
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