EVERETT – Well, the Everett AquaSox head into their final series of the season and still have a chance to win the Northwest League’s West Division.
But after yet another loss Thursday night, the AquaSox’s chances are only slightly better than the chances of Milli Vanilli returning to the top of the pop charts.
Everett’s massive slump continued as the AquaSox fell 10-2 to the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes before a crowd of 3,578 in the final regular season game at Everett Memorial Stadium.
Everett (38-35) was swept in the series, lost its fifth straight and has lost 10 of its last 11, a span that saw the AquaSox’s 31/2-game division lead over the Vancouver Canadians turn into a 21/2-game deficit. Now the AquaSox must reverse their fortunes in their final three games at Salem-Keizer, and get some help.
“We have three games to pick it up and play like we did at the start of the season, or we can fold up and feel sorry for ourselves and not show up to play,” said Everett first baseman Brandon Green, calling out his teammates. “The last couple of days it seems we haven’t shown up to play as a team very well. We have to stay focused. As a team we have to stay focused and keep fighting. This makes us look bad and that’s not good right now because we want to go out on a good note.”
In an ill-tempered game that featured seven hit batters, one clearing of the benches – though no fight – and the ejection of the Volcanoes’ John Acha for mouthing off from the bench, Salem-Keizer (37-36) was in control from the start, scoring four runs in the top of the first and never looking back.
The AquaSox pulled out all the stops, even using ace starting pitcher Shawn Nottingham for two innings of relief in between starts, but to no avail.
Eugene continues to try to help the AquaSox out, beating Vancouver for the second straight day, 4-1. But the AquaSox remained 21/2 back. Everett holds the tiebreaker by virtue of winning the season series against Vancouver 7-5, meaning any combination of Canadians wins and AquaSox losses equaling two will give the division title to Vancouver.
The bench-clearing incident occurred in the top of the seventh when Everett pitcher Kendall Bergdall’s first pitch of the inning nicked the back of Salem-Keizer batter Brian Horwitz’s helmet, the seventh hit batter of the game. Both benches emptied, but without incident, and no players or coaches were ejected until after the teams returned to their dugouts, when Acha was given the boot.
“When we went down there and played them in the first series, there were a lot of guys getting hit on both sides,” Green said. “I don’t know what to make of it. I don’t know if they were throwing at us or not. But that’s just baseball, that’s just competition. You’ve got a bunch of guys fighting for their careers and you get a lot of macho-ness out there.”
Phil Cullen, making his first start of the season for the AquaSox, didn’t last long, being removed after giving up a leadoff single in the third. He ended up giving up four runs on four hits and two walks in two innings, striking out one to fall to 1-2.
Everett found itself in an early hole again as Salem-Keizer struck for four runs in the top of the first. With two out, two strikes and nobody on, Cullen plunked John Bowker. Horwitz singled and consecutive walks to Will Thompson and Simon Klink pushed in the first run. Mike Mooney, in his first at bat for the Volcanoes, proceeded to line a double into the left-field corner, clearing the bases and giving Salem-Keizer a 4-0 advantage.
Everett responded with a run in the bottom of the first, Oswaldo Navarro, Yung Chi Chen and Green hitting consecutive singles to cut the deficit to 4-1.
Salem-Keizer extended its lead in the fifth on Klink’s two-run homer, his 10th of the season. The Volcanoes tacked on another one in the seventh on Jose Yens’ RBI single. Two more scored in the eighth on Bowker’s RBI single and Horwitz’s RBI fielder’s choice, leaving the score at 9-1.
Everett made it 9-2 in the bottom of the eighth on Trevor Heid’s RBI double. Salem-Keizer took that run back in the ninth on Jeff Palumbo’s RBI groundout, making it 10-2.
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