The great thing about baseball is that you're always seeing the unexpected. Take tonight's game for instance... Last night Fred Bello hit an inside-the-park home run (the first in 11 years for an Aquasox player). So you figure it's going to be 11 more years until you might get a chance to see another one. Wrong. Fred hit an inside-the-park home run in tonight's game again! Two in two consecutive games!
It was a great night for baseball. Sunny and warm when we arrived (eventually dark and cold when we left) and a very entertaining extra inning game against the once powerful Salem-Keizer Volcanos (who the Aquasox are 6-0 against after this game).
Everett again jumped out to an early lead, something they've been doing all year so far, and were ahead 4-1 at the end of the 3rd inning. But like Bob and I noted - no lead is safe in the Northwest League and sure enough by Seventh Inning Stretch the score was 5-5...
The Everett starter, 21 year old Yoervis Medina, pitched 6 innings and left with a 5-4 lead. He had a 92mpg fastball and managed to pitch out of danger after giving up lead off base hits in each of the first 4 innings. He struck out 5, walked 1 and gave up 10 hits in his 6 innings.
He was followed by Austin Hudson who gave up a home run in his 3 innings of pitching and showed an 89 mph fastball.
Fray Martinez finished out the game with a 94 mph fastball and got the win for his 2 innings of shutout pitching.
On the hitting side, the Aquasox were very efficient. After 5 innings they had 3 hits vs. the Volcano's 9 hits but had a 4-3 lead and had only left one runner on base vs. the Volcano's 6 men left on base. Not a way to consistently win, but it was working for the Sox.
Dwight Britton came back from a game and a half off (due to unspecified reasons - not injury related) to have two hits including a home run to center and a walk. He looked solid in centerfield.
Kevin Rivers has come back to earth and was 0-4 tonight with two strikeouts (both looking). The undrafted free agent that was the player of the week last week might be in for a cool stretch.
There were no real hitting stars. The final play of the game was probably the most remarkable from a hitting aspect. Robbie Anston had lead off the 11th with a single through the hole on the left side. When Kevin Mailloux got to a 3-2 count (after failing twice to get the sacrifice bunt down) Robbie was running with the pitch on two fouls and then when Mailloux connected on a hard ground ball to the hole where the shortstop had vacated to cover second. Anston rounded second and was waved home while the two outfielders (who had been playing very deep) headed for the ball. They ended up not getting the ball to the plate in time to catch Anston and the game was over. A strange "double" on a ground ball hit directly at the shortstop position.
And on the Salem Keizer side, they have a pitcher named Jake Dunning that has 17 strikeouts and 3 walks in 10 innings of pitching this year. And he's only given up one fly ball. The amazing thing about him is that last year he was a shortstop and is converting over to pitching. Amazing.
The Herald story is here
The box score is here
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