EVERETT — The Everett AquaSox keep right on winning.
The Frogs never trailed Sunday as they won their seventh straight Northwest League game, 8-5 over the Tri-City Dust Devils before 3,025 fans at Everett Memorial Stadium.
Everett (7-3) has not lost since it dropped three straight games to Hillsboro to open the 2018 season. Since then the AquaSox beat the Hops twice, swept a road series at Vancouver and will look to sweep Tri-Cityt on Monday night.
“This a great group of guys,” AquaSox shortstop Ryne Ogren said. “We bring energy out every day and try to get better and have fun. It’s been coming out on the field too.”
It got interesting in the eighth as the Dust Devils scored four times to cut Everett’s seven-run lead to 8-5. The fifth run came home on an infield single by Tre Carter. On the play Ogren faked the throw to first, and saw Aldemar Burgos had rounded second base too far. Burgos got caught in a rundown for the final out of the inning.
“I just kind of knew (Carter) was going to be safe at first (because) it was slow hit,” Ogren said. “I thought my only play was to deke (Burgos) out and throw behind, and luckily (Connor) Hoover was there. He was heads-up too and we got the out.”
Joey Gerber then pitched a perfect ninth inning for his third save.
Starting pitcher Michael Plassmeyer pitched two scoreless innings before he was lifted for Ivan Fortunato (2-0). Fortunato worked out of several tough situations before exiting after the sixth with a 5-0 lead.
“He worked very hard,” Everett manager Jose Moreno said of Fortunato. “We had some traffic on the bases, but he was able to execute and pitch out of the jams.”
Tri-City touched Everett reliever A.J. Franks for an unearned run in the seventh to make it 5-1, but Franks induced an inning-ending double play to avert further damage.
The Frogs added three more runs in the seventh with RBI singles from Bobby Honeyman, Connor Hoover and Josh Stowers to stretch the lead to 8-1.
Those runs proved crucial when the Dust Devils cut the deficit to 8-5 with four runs in the eighth against reliever Noah Zavolas — just two of which were earned.
“The last two innings we had a little problem on defense, but (we) are swinging the bats real well,” Moreno said. “The pitchers are throwing strikes and we are able to make plays behind them.”
Ogren finished 4-for-4 with a triple, two runs and two RBI as he raised his average to .500 on the young season. Stowers was 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles, two runs and drove in two, and Honeyman had two hits and drove in a run as the Frogs pounded out 14 hits.
Ogren got the offense started when he led off the bottom of the second with a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly by Ryan Garcia for a 1-0 lead.
Everett tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the third to build a 3-0 lead. Charlie McConnell reached on an error and scored when Stowers doubled on a perfectly executed hit-and-run. Stowers scored on a two-out single by Ogren.
“We put some pressure on the base paths,” Moreno said. “That’s something we have to continue to be able to do to create some runs and some opportunities for the next guy to drive them in.”
Everett added two more runs in the bottom of the fifth. Stowers led off with a double and scored when Jack Anchia followed with another double. Anchia scored on an RBI single by Ogren up the middle as the Frogs pushed their lead to 5-0.
“I was seeing it well,” Ogren said. “The guys in front of me were doing a great job getting on base and giving me good pitches to hit. I gotta give a lot of (credit) to them.”
McConnell and Anchia also had two hits for Everett, which stranded a dozen runners.
The final game game of the three-game series begins at 7:05 p.m. today. Max Roberts gets the start for Everett.
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