Sox beat small ball

EUGENE, Ore. – The Everett AquaSox played a little small ball Thursday night, plinking and prodding themselves to a 3-2 victory over the Eugene Emeralds in a Northwest League game.

Everett (21-13) has won four of the first five games in the six-game series. Eugene’s record fell to 13-21.

Everett had 13 hits, 10 of which were singles and six of which were infield singles. But combined with quality pitching, it proved to be enough.

Everett starter Ruben Flores was near perfect. Flores surrendered a solo home run to Jose Lobaton in the first inning, but gave up just one more hit in his six innings. He walked three and struck out seven to improve to 2-2.

Aaron Trolia pitched the final 11/3 innings to pick up his fifth save of the season.

Yung Chi Chen went 3-for-5 with two RBI and two stolen bases., and Brandon Green and Oswaldo Navarro each went 2-for-4 to lead Everett’s offense. Casey Craig’s infield single in fifth extended his hitting streak to 11 games.

Eugene starter William Ponce took the loss to fall to 0-5. In five innings he gave up two runs on seven hits, walking one and striking out three.

For the second straight game, Everett took a 1-0 lead before Eugene came to bat.

Brent Johnson led off the top of the first with a single and scored on Green’s RBI double to put the AquaSox ahead.

But that lead was short-lived as Lobaton drove a two-out, solo home run to right in the bottom of the first to knot the score at 1-1.

Everett regained the lead in the fifth on a pair of infield singles.

Craig reached on a single off the glove of third baseman Lachlan Dale and Chen later singled off the glove of shortstop Sean Kazmar, bringing home Craig to make it 2-1.

The AquaSox doubled their lead in the seventh. Navarro lined a ball off the third-base bag for a double and Chen grounded a single under the glove of second baseman Brett Burnham, scoring Navarro and making it 3-1.

Eugene pulled back within one in the bottom of the seventh off reliever Mumba Rivera.