EVERETT — The Everett AquaSox defeated the Spokane Indians 3-2 at Funko Field in a rare 12:05 p.m. game on Thursday. Just about 17 hours after securing a win on Wednesday evening, the AquaSox celebrated their second victory in a row after dropping the series-opener on Tuesday.
Tai Peete hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the sixth inning with two strikes and two outs to put Everett ahead, and Evan Truitt tossed five strikeouts across six shutout innings to earn the victory.
Before Peete’s 15th bomb of the season, Luis Suisbel kept the inning alive by legging out a single on a chopper to Spokane third baseman Skyler Messinger. With runners on the corners, Peete fouled off a pitch down the middle before taking strike two up high. After fouling off the third pitch over the middle, Peete saw another pitch down the middle and made no mistake with it.
Everyone in the park knew it was gone as soon as Peete made contact. He flipped his bat and yelled towards the Everett dugout, pumped up after the game-changing swing.
“I did, yeah, I knew it (was gone right away),” Peete said in the postgame broadcast interview. “It was great getting one of those, just seeing it go and seeing the guys in the dugout knowing that’s what we do when we try to win games. We try to compete, and it’s what the organization wants.”
In his last six games entering the Spokane series, Peete was 1-for-19 (.053) at the plate with six walks and eight strikeouts. In three games this week, Peete is 4-for-12 (.333) to go with two home runs and four RBI.
AquaSox manager Zach Vincej praised the quality of Peete’s at-bats even before this series, and now it’s translating into better results, albeit in a small sample size.
“You’re just trying to do a job and try to hit something hard,” Vincej said. “Luckily, (Spokane pitcher Konner Eaton) put one over the middle of the plate for Tai, and he was able to capitalize on it. You just got to compete with two strikes, and Tai did a great job there in that situation.”
On the mound, Truitt continued the trend of strong outings from the Everett starters against the Indians, allowing just three hits and one walk in his first High-A shutout appearance.
With the game still tied 0-0 in the fifth inning, Truitt got out of a bases-loaded jam with one out. The 22-year-old from Berlin, Md. struck out Caleb Hobson, then caused GJ Hill to fly out to end the inning.
“I just didn’t want to let my foot off the gas and be satisfied with the strikeout,” Truitt said. “I wanted to keep filling it up and throwing strikes, and that was kind of my mentality, so once I did that, I was pretty relieved to get out of it scoreless.”
Trailing 3-0 in the eighth, Spokane tacked on two runs with Shaddon Peavyhouse on the mound for Everett. Hill scored the first run by stealing home from third base. Suisbel chased him down the base path and thought he made the tag, but home plate umpire Dominic Romero called him safe, prompting loud disagreement from nearly everyone in the dugout and in the stands.
Vincej walked out and briefly spoke to Romero, who told Vincej that he didn’t see the tag applied and the score would remain 3-1. Following an Aidan Longwell walk, Blake Wright doubled to put runners on second and third, and Cole Messina grounded out to Suisbel at third, which allowed Longwell to come in and cut it to 3-2. Peavyhouse forced another groundout in the next at-bat to end the inning and hold on to the lead.
“They’ve done it all year, staying composed and being able to stay calm in that situation,” Vincej said. “Our emotions can get the best of us at times, but they did an awesome job at just kind of regulating their emotions and keeping everything in control.”
The AquaSox put two runners on to lead off the bottom of the frame, looking for run support, but the next three batters struck out to give Gabriel Sosa little breathing room in the close opportunity. Sosa walked one batter, but retired the other three to earn the save.
“Our relievers did an awesome job,” Vincej said. “‘Peavy’ battled through that (eighth inning), and Sosa obviously getting the save there, so awesome job all around. It was a good team win, and back at it tomorrow.”
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