EVERETT – The original Summer of Love may have taken place in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco in 1967.
But somehow that flower power has been channeled by Everett, making each summer one of love – at least momentarily – for the Everett AquaSox.
For the third straight year the AquaSox donned their tie-dyed Frogstock jerseys and reversed their fortunes, and Everett turned in a solid all-around performance in defeating the Spokane Indians 7-4 at Everett Memorial Stadium.
Every batter in the Everett lineup had at least one hit, led by Manelik Pimentel’s 3-for-5 effort and Gavin Dickey’s home run, and four Everett pitchers combined to surrender just five hits.
“We did some good things tonight,” Everett manager Dave Myers said. “We swung the bats well, we took advantage of our opportunities and drove in some runs with two-out hits.”
And just maybe it’s because of the jerseys.
In 2004 the AquaSox were coming off two consecutive blowout losses when Frogstock night arrived.
Everett won and continued to don the tie-dyed jerseys, riding them to a four-game winning streak.
A similar situation occurred last year. The Sox, mired in a six-game losing streak, dug out the Frogstock jerseys as a slumpbuster, then promptly went on another four-game winning streak.
Maybe the Frogstock power is alive again this year.
Everett came into Saturday’s game off of consecutive losses – a 13-2 shellacking Thursday in Eugene, and a 4-3 loss to Spokane Friday in which the winning run was scored in the ninth as a result of an error – and the Sox had lost 12 of their previous 15. Saturday’s game was a departure from the misfortune that befell Everett during that span. There was no word on whether Everett would wear the tie-dyed jerseys again today.
Everett (18-22) scored early and often to take control of the game, tallying three runs in each of the first two innings and another in the third to take a 7-3 lead.
From there Everett’s bullpen took over. Relievers Joe Kantakevich, Rollie Gibson and Kameron Mickolio gave up just one run in 51/3 innings, struck out eight and were rarely threatened.
In true AquaSox fashion Everett managed to make the game interesting in the ninth. Mickolio was breaking bats left and right, yet the Indians somehow managed to load the bases with two outs because of broke-bat hits. But Mickolio got Joey Hooft to fly out to center to end the game.
Kantakevich earned the win to improve to 1-0. Mickolio picked up the save, his third.
“They gave up one run after (starting pitcher Tony Butler) came out in the fourth, so I’d say that’s pretty effective score management by the bullpen,” Myers said. “Mickolio was extremely impressive, he had good heavy sink and run on his fastball.”
Butler struggled with his control. As a result, the 18-year-old left-hander wasn’t as effective as he was in his first start for the AquaSox. He only gave up one hit in his 32/3 innings, but he also walked five, giving up three runs in the process. He struck out three.
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