FROGSTOCK!
This game was painful to watch. Not so much for the outcome, but for several factors that I'll try to list here but to give you a hint - Aquasox pitchers walked three batters and hit another with the bases loaded...
It was painful...
The Aquasox starting pitcher was Luke Burnett, a strapping 6'8" 250 pounder. Big guy. Biggest guy on the team. But he pitches like Jamie Moyer. The top fastball that I saw on the radar gun was 82 mph. 82 mph fastball! YOW! He doesn't seem to get his body into the pitch like other pitchers and sort of holds the ball over his head and "short arms" it to the plate. Very unimpressive. It was painful to watch the big guy throw his plethora of junk balls to the plate. But in his defense, his curveballs, changeups, splitters, and whatever else he was throwing was generally effective. He threw 5 painful to watch innings giving up 3 earned runs on 6 hits and 4 walks while striking out 6. His results aren't that but I just expect more from a buy guy like Luke.
The fifth inning (Burnett's last of the game) was particularly painful. He gave up a single to right and then a bloop that fell between the infielders and outfielders behind second base. Bob noticed that our third baseman Mario Martinez had a strange stance for the next batter - on the grass sorta facing second base. The next hitter bunted and it appeared that Mario was where he was so that he could cover third and let the pitcher take the bunt. The only problem with that strategy was that Burnett was very very slow coming off the mound to get the bunt (that wasn't especially toughly placed) and then by the time he got his 6'8" frame upright and threw a blistering 79mph fastball over to first - the runner was easily safe. Bases loaded. The next batter hit into a nifty 5-2-3 double play (Bob and I thought our catcher Fuentes got benefit of the "in the area" rule on touching the plate when catching the ball) and it looked like we might get out of the inning. The next batter walked to re-load the bases. As did the batter after him to force in a run. Griffin Benedict (who had struck out his previous two at bats) came to the plate and didn't get a chance to strike out again since he was plunked with the first pitch scoring the second run of the inning. Painful.
Luke was followed by 19 year old Jose Rios who gave up 3 runs (2 earned) in a painful 1 1/3 inning - walking 4 and hitting one. He walked in two runs while having a high of 86 on the radar gun.
Philip Roy followed Rios and gave up just 1 hit and struck out 3 in 1 2/3 inning. He hit 88 on the radar.
Then came 26 year old Eddy Hernandez. This was especially painful to watch. Eddy was an outfielder in the system that never hit, so they're trying to convert him to a pitcher. He throws left handed. There were 2 lefties leading off the 9th inning for Eugene after the Aquasox had tied the game in the 8th. Bob and I had a bad feeling about Hernandez and he lived up to billing. He walked the two lefties on 9 pitches total. It was very painful to watch.
Christian Staehely followed Hernandez and had some difficulties but eventually got out of the inning giving up two runs that were charged to Hernandez - neither of them earned.
The Emerald pitchers Matthew Jackson (90mph), Jeffrey Ibarra (86mph) and Chris Fetter (89mph) had their problems as well...
All game long it seems like the Aquasox were constantly flirting with danger and that the pitchers were constantly facing 3-2 counts.
But the defense came to the rescue on several occasions...
In the first inning the second hitter of the game for Eugene, Winn, hit a line drive in the center-right field gap. Both Jose Rivero the centerfielder and James Jones the rightfielder dove for the ball with Rivero catching it in front of Jones. A nice play to help give Burnett his only 1-2-3 inning.
In the second inning Matt Vern hit a ball off the close centerfield wall to score a run, but Rivero's throw to second was a strike to keep Vern to a single.
On Eugene's final plate appearance a single to left by Frieman scored one but an excellent throw by Ben Billingsley in left caught Edison Rincon at the plate by about 10 steps. Billingsley made several nice throws - always low, accurate, and on a line so that they can be easily cut off if necessary.
We also had some defensive plays that were on the painful side... In the 9th inning Eugene loaded the bases on Hernandez's two walks (see above) and then Christian Staehely came in to face the right handed hitting Winn. So with runners on first and second Winn laid down a bunt that Staehely tried to throw to third for a force. The throw was there in plenty of time, but was a bit to Martinez's right and ended up down the leftfield line. One run scored and runners ended up at second and third. The next hitter, Edinson Rincon, hit a sharp bouncer to the pulled-in first baseman and Gerardo Avila ran at the runner that was halfway down the third base line. A 3-5-2 play got the out, but both runners moved up so that there were runners on second and third still. No real improvement.
On the offensive side for Everett, Gerardo Avila hit a monster to centerfield - long and extremely high. It ended up eventually hitting the very top of the tall wall and Avila had a run scoring double.
And Ben Billingsley hit home run to lead off the sixth inning (unfortunately, he also had 3 strikeouts on the night).
On the painful side, there was the aforesaid sixth inning... After Billingsley's home run and an out Mario Martinez hit a single (his third of the night) and Gerardo Avila followed it with a double (his second of the night (see account above) to score Martinez) . James Jones walked to put men on first and second. Then the pain hit. Juan Fuentes hit a single to right. Our manager John Tamargo held Martinez at third (he's not very fast) even though the Emeralds' right fielder Matt Vern had just picked up the ball. Martinez slowed but then (either by Tamargo saying something or because he saw the ball still in the outfield) he headed home. James Jones - the trailing runner - saw this and headed to third. But then Martinez thought better of the idea of trying to score and from halfway down the line turned and headed back to third. Jones was caught between bases and tagged out trying to get back to second. Ouch!
But then on the next play, with Martinez on third and Fuentes on first and a 2-2 count on the batter with two outs, Fuentes apparently tried to steal second in a delayed steal. He's definitely not fast and as the play unfolded almost in slow motion the throw beat him but he made a nifty slide to avoid the tag and was called safe - until he overslid the bag and was called out...
As Bob said, "We ran ourselves out of that inning..."
Then in the bottom of the eighth inning, trailing by two runs with the bases loaded an easy groundball to the left of Emeralds shortstop Winn went right between his legs for a two run error and a tied game. It looked like somehow the Aquasox might still have a chance. But then, see above, we brought in Eddy Hernandez...
It was painful...
Here's the box score.
And here's the story from the Herald.
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