Frogs open season with crushing victory at Spokane

Herald staff

SPOKANE – The Everett AquaSox couldn’t ask for a better beginning.

Sox third baseman Miguel Villilo may never have a better start. And teammate Eduardo Figueroa’s first game was near-perfect.

Villilo, a switch-hitter batting lefty against Spokane right-handed starter Giovanni Gonzalez, homered in each of his first two at-bats to launch the AquaSox on their way to a 12-4 victory over the Spokane Indians Tuesday in the Northwest League opener for both teams.

Figueroa batted 4-for-4 with a triple and three singles and he reached base five times. He was hit by a pitch in the ninth inning.

Everyone in the Sox lineup contributed. Villilo drove in three runs with his two homers. Figueroa scored twice. Jason Rainey was 3-for-4 with a double, run batted in and three runs scored. Emmanuel Santana was 3-for-4 with four RBI. Derrick Gutierrez scored twice and drove in a run. Jose Lopez was 2-for-5 and drove in a run. Vicente Rosario drove in two runs with a ninth-inning double. John Williamson didn’t get a hit, but walked and scored. Greg Dobbs didn’t score but had one of Everett’s 17 hits.

Justin Blood (1-0), who pitched the fifth and sixth innings in relief of starter Jorge Sosa, earned the win.

Sosa, a former outfielder in the Colorado Rockies organization, made his professional pitching debut and limited Spokane to one run on six hits over four innings. Sosa was on a limited pitch count and was unable to complete five innings and qualify for the win.

Travis Allen and Russ Morgan mopped up for the AquaSox.

Everett capped its offensive evening with four runs in the ninth, two unearned thanks to a pair of Spokane errors. With one out, Figueroa was hit by a pitch. Rainey then banged a ball off pitcher John Barnett’s hand. The ball was retrieved by shortstop Luis Cotto, whose errant throw to second failed to force Figueroa and allowed the runners to take an extra base.

Gutierrez singled to drive in Figueroa. Santana lifted what should have been a sacrifice fly to center, but center fielder Victor Rosario lost the ball and let it drop for an error. An out later, Vicente Rosario belted his two-run double.

Everett took an 8-1 lead in the fifth inning. Figueroa and Rainey led off with consecutive singles, then pulled off a double steal as Gutierrez struck out. Santana followed with a two-run single.

Villilo rapped his second home run leading off the third inning for the AquSox. But that was just the beginning of a four-run rally.

Williamson drew a one-out walk and went to second on a single by Figueroa. Rainey doubled to drive in Williamson and send Figueroa to third. Spokane threw out Figueroa at home on Gutierrez’s grounder to third. But Santana and Lopez notched back-to-back RBI singles.

The AquaSox got the 2001 season off to a promising start in the top of the first inning. Rosario led off and reached first base when he was hit by a pitch from Spokane starter Giovanni Gonzalez (0-1). Villilo followed with a two-run home run.

Two outs later, Figueroa tripled and Rainey was hit by a pitch. But those runners were stranded when Gutierrez grounded out to second.

Spokane loaded the bases with two outs in its half of the first. Sosa retired the first two batters then gave up two singles sandwiched around a walk. But he wiggled out of the jam, getting designated hitter J.D. Alleva to ground into a force out at second.

The Indians also loaded the bases in the second inning, this time on two one-out singles and a two-out walk. Once again Sosa dodged the bullet, inducing Spokane’s No. 3 hitter, first baseman Chris Fallon, to fly out to left.

Spokane finally did break through against Sosa in the fourth. Cotto led off with a walk, stole second, moved to third on a groundout and scored on a two-out single by Fallon.

The Indians tallied two more in the sixth off Blood. He walked the leadoff batter and then surrendered a triple to Victor Rosario, who tagged and scored on a sacrifice fly by Matt Cleveland.

Spokane scored an unearned run in the eighth. Victor Rosario led off with a bunt single, escaped being forced at second and took third on a throwing error by Villilo and scored on a sacrifice fly by Fallon.