EVERETT – The Everett AquaSox kept their winning streak alive Thursday night.
But they had to sweat a little more than they expected in order to do it.
Everett survived what ended up being a tense ninth inning and the AquaSox defeated the Tri-City Dust Devils 7-4 in a Northwest League contest, extending Everett’s winning streak to four games.
“We made it interesting at the end, but all in all it was a pretty good game,” Everett manager Pedro Grifol said. “You can always nitpick, but I was pretty pleased.”
Everett (19-18) managed to pester Tri-City’s ace starter, Shane Lindsay, into an ineffective three innings and J.B. Tucker’s seventh-inning three-run home run, which seemed superfluous at the time, proved crucial in extending Everett’s streak.
“We’re getting a little hot right now and it’s exciting,” Tucker said. “I thought we’re due. Those six games we lost (immediately preceding the current win streak) was unusual. A good team like us should have been playing better. But things are falling our way now.”
Tucker’s homer gave Everett what seemed to be an unassailable 7-2 lead going into the ninth. However, the Dust Devils managed to give the remnants of the 2,264 fans at Everett Memorial Stadium a little heartburn.
Eric Carter came on in relief for Everett to start the ninth and proceeded to load the bases with nobody out on a single and two walks. Carter struck out the next two hitters, but Travis Becktel’s infield single and Phillip Cuadrado’s walk brought the go-ahead run to the plate in the form of cleanup batter Michael Paulk.
Cory Koliscak came in to relieve Carter, induced Paulk into a comebacker to the mound and threw the ball in the dirt to first. But Jeff Flaig dug out the throw to end the game.
Paul Fagan earned the win for Everett, improving to 2-2. He battled through five innings, giving up two runs – one earned – on five hits and two walks. He struck out two. David Asher tossed three strong innings of relief and Koliscak recorded his third save.
Luis Valbuena was 3-for-5, Jeff Clement was 2-for-2 with a pair of runs to lead Everett’s offense.
Tri-City starter Shane Lindsay came into the game with impressive stats, including a league-leading 53 strikeouts in a mere 29 innings. However he needed 86 pitches just to get through the first three innings. He gave up two runs – one earned – three hits, four walks and struck out five. Andrew Kreidermacher took the loss in relief to fall to 1-1.
“We had one of our top guys going and he only got through three innings,” Tri-City manager Ron Gideon said. “He was ineffective and used a lot of pitches up. It was a sloppy game and they were able to take advantage. When they got runners on base they put the ball in play and we weren’t able to do that.”
Bechtel finished 4-for-5 for Tri-City (17-20).
Tri-City took advantage of Everett mistakes to jump out to a two-run lead in the top of the first. Becktel scored when Michael Paulk’s grounder went under shortstop Rob Hudson’s glove, and Cuadrado came home on Fagan’s third wild pitch of the inning, making it 2-0.
Everett got one back in the bottom of the first on Ronnie Prettyman’s RBI single.
The Sox then tied it in the second, Valbuena’s groundout to second plating Casey Craig.
Everett then took the lead in the fourth on a run created completely by Craig’s hustle. Craig was on first when Valbuena grounded out to third. However, Craig hustled to third with the base uncovered, then scored when first baseman Cuadrado’s throw sailed into foul territory, giving Everett a 3-2 lead.
The Sox added another run in the fifth when Clement doubled, took third on a wild pitch and scored when Tucker’s grounder to the hole at short went for an error, making it 4-2.
Everett seemingly put the game out of reach in the seventh when Tucker slugged a three-run home run to left. His fifth homer of the season stretched the lead to 7-2.
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