EVERETT — One great thing about baseball is that there is always another game the next day.
That’s the approach Everett AquaSox manager Jose Moreno is taking after the Frogs dropped a 9-2 clunker to the Hillsboro Hops Monday before 1,465 fans on Kids Day at Everett Memorial Stadium.
“It’s the beginning of the season,” Moreno said. “We have to make some adjustments and try to play better defense. Today we struggled a little bit. We got the ground ball with the bases loaded to get out of a jam, but after that it’s all we can do. You compete and tomorrow is another day.”
Everett (2-3) embarks on its first six-game road trip Tuesday with three games in Vancouver followed by three games at Tri-City. The team will have a significantly different look when it returns from Pasco as many of the players on the initial roster will return to Arizona and will be replaced by members of the Seattle Mariners’ 2017 draft class.
“They come here and played hard, and I’m very happy for that,” Moreno said. “There’s nothing (more) we can ask as a manager. And then whatever decisions are going to be made is a front office decision. That’s my team right now, so I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Hillsboro broke the game open with a five-run fourth inning. The Hops loaded the bases and Billy Endris delivered a one-out RBI single. That was all for starter Anjul Hernandez, who was lifted for Steven Ridings. Ridings induced a potentially inning-ending double play ball, but the throw to first was wide, allowing two more runs to score. Then Yan Sanchez hit a two-run home run to right-center and it was 7-1.
The Hops added single runs in the fifth and eighth, while Juan Camacho’s solo homer in the seventh provided Everett’s final run.
One bright spot was the performance of former Shorecrest and Seattle University pitcher Ted Hammond, who made his second appearance for the AquaSox. Hammond worked the final three innings and allowed one run on three hits with one strikeout.
“Absolutely, I felt a lot better,” Hammond said. “I just didn’t really have a very good feel for my cutter the other day, and I felt like today I felt more comfortable on the mound and threw more strikes.”
It was a far cry from his first performance Friday when he allowed three hits and was removed without recording an out.
“Much better — he threw strikes and competed for three innings,” Moreno said. “He gave us a possibility to come back, and that’s really good.”
The Hops jumped on the board with a run in the first inning. Domingo Leyba led off with a single and scored on an RBI triple by Sanchez. Hillsboro added another run in the third, when Sanchez walked with two outs and scored on an RBI double from Bryan Araiza for a 2-0 lead.
The AquaSox got one back in the the bottom of the third. With two outs Joe Venturino was hit by a pitch and Greifer Andrade followed with an infield single. Jonas Lantigua laced a double to the fence in right field that scored Venturino, but Andrade was thrown out at the plate to end the inning.
Leyba finished with three hits while Sanchez and Paxton De La Garza each had two for Hillsboro. Lantigua had two hits for Everett.
Riley Smith (1-0) earned the win for Hillsboro as he allowed one run on five hits and fanned four in six innings of work. Hernandez (0-1) took the loss for Everett.
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