KEIZER, Ore. — The Everett AquaSox have finally been vanquished by a divisional foe.
The Salem-Keizer Volcanoes scored early and held on to defeat the AquaSox 6-4 Friday night, handing Everett its first series loss within the division.
Everett went into the three-game series against Salem-Keizer a perfect 12-0 against teams in the Northwest League’s West Division. However, the Volcanoes won the series opener 11-6, then took the series with Friday’s win.
The series loss was also just Everett’s second in nine series this season.
Ryan Scoma went 2-for-2 with a double, triple, two runs and two walks to lead Salem-Keizer (17-18). Starting pitcher Kyle Couture earned the win to improve to 3-2, Jake Dunning threw three strong innings of relief, and Stephen Harrold tossed a scoreless ninth to pick up his second save.
Dwight Britton, Ryan Royster and Terry Serrano each had two hits to pace Everett (24-11). Everett starter Chris Sorce struggled with his control and took the loss. In three innings he allowed five runs on five hits and five walks. He struck out five.
Sorce had all kinds of control problems in the bottom of the first, at one point walking four consecutive batters to force in a run. However, he escaped having allowed just the one run as the Volcanoes took a 1-0 lead.
Salem-Keizer doubled its lead in the second. Right fielder Kevin Rivers dropped Alex Burg’s fly ball for a three-base error, then Chris Lofton’s infield single brought home Burg to make it 2-0.
Everett got on the board in the third. Anthony Phillips led off with a double down the right-field line, was sacrificed to third and scored on Rivers’ groundout to make it 2-1.
The Volcanoes then took control in the bottom of the third. Adam Duvall’s double to right-center drove in two runs, then Burg’s double off the right-field wall scored Duvall, stretching the lead to 5-1.
Everett pulled two back in the fifth, with the aid of a pair of errors. Serrano scored when third baseman Raynor Campbell’s throw home was wild. Then Britton, who reached on another error, scored on Rivers’ sacrifice fly to make it 5-3.
The Sox closed within one in the sixth, Royster and Steven Baron hitting back-to-back doubles to make it 5-4.
Salem-Keizer scored an insurance run in the seventh when Scoma tripled to right and scored on a wild pitch to make it a two-run advantage.
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