SPOKANE – The Spokane Indians scored 11 runs over their final four innings Sunday night to defeat Everett 12-2 in Northwest League action at Avista Stadium.
The AquaSox (27-23), who have lost nine of their past 13 games, remain two games ahead of Salem-Keizer for first place in the NWL West Division. Spokane is 26-23 in the East – two games behind first-place Tri-City.
The Indians began to distance themselves from the AquaSox in the fifth inning. Spokane opened with back-to-back singles by leadoff batter Tug Hulett and center fielder Michael Mask.
The Indians followed the two hits with back-to-back doubles off the bats of Travis Metcalf and Mike Nickeas to go up 4-1.
Everett pitcher Vance Hall relieved starter Ruben Flores with no outs in the fifth inning.
Hall, however, didn’t fare much better.
He walked the first two batters he faced and then threw two wild pitches -the first wild pitch allowed Nickeas to score from third to give the Indians a 5-1 lead.
Hall’s woes continued in the sixth inning.
After giving up a single to Metcalf, Hall walked back-to-back batters to load the bases.
With two outs, Jim Fasano hit a two-run single to right field, giving the Indians a 7-1 advantage.
In the seventh inning, the Indians loaded the bases for the third time in as many innings.
With no outs, center fielder Michael Mask hit a two-run double to center. Spokane scored two more runs to take an 11-1 lead into the eighth.
Mark Roberts earned the victory and improved to 4-5. Flores got the loss and drops to 2-4 . Everett pitchers walked a season-high 12 batters and gave up 16 hits.
The AquaSox gave up their league-leading 64th home run in the second inning, to Fasano.
The 6-foot-5 Fasano hit a leadoff home run – his fifth of the season – over the right-field fence to give Spokane an early 1-0 lead. Fasano finished 3-for-3 with three RBI for the Indians.
Of the 64 homers Everett has surrendered, 38 have been solo shots.
Everett took advantage of a one-out walk to Asdrubal Cabrera in the fourth inning, which ultimately evened the score.
In an attempt to pick off Cabrera at first base, Spokane’s pitcher, Roberts, threw over the head of first baseman Billy Susdorf. The two-base error allowed Cabrera to reach third.
Cabrera scored the unearned run one batter later when Brandon Green doubled down the right-field line to tie the score 1-1. It was Green’s 38th RBI.
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