Tri-City takes game, division lead from Everett
The Everett AquaSox started fast by putting up two runs against the Dust Devils in the top of the first Friday night at Gesa Stadium, but from that point on the Dust Devils pitched lights out and eked out just enough offense to pull off the 3-2 victory.
The Dust Devils (10-5) now have the outright NWL North division lead, a full game ahead of the AquaSox (9-6), and are on a five-game winning streak.
The Dust Devils played a little bit of small ball in the bottom of the third to tally their first two runs and tie the game. Jose Savinon beat out a bunt base hit that snuck to the left of Everett pitcher Matthew Festa for a leadoff single. Savinon then advanced to third on a wild pitch and ground ball out, and was driven in on a one-out single by Josh Magee. Magee moved to second on a balk and was driven in thanks to a two-out, seeing eye single through the right side by Chris Mattison, which extend his hitting streak to six games. Mattison has also driven in a run in each of his last six contests.
A leadoff single by Nate Easley in the fifth followed by a balk, wild pitch and sacrifice fly by Magee gave Tri-City its first lead of the game at 3-2.
Mariners’ first-round draft pick Kyle Lewis opened the scoring in the top of the first with his first career triple to drive in Jordan Cowan from first. Kristian Brito hit a ground ball up the middle a batter later to score the speedy Lewis and give the AquaSox an early 2-0 lead.
Despite giving up the early runs, Tri-City starter Braxton Lorenzini (1-1) had his best outing as a Dust Devil in his third turn in the rotation. He gave up just the one hit and walked two while striking out four over five innings of work to pick up his first career win.
The Dust Devils bullpen continued to do what it has all season in its four-innings of work; give opposing teams pretty much no shot at mounting a comeback. On Friday it was fourth-rounder Joey Lucchesi, Jesse Scholtens and David Bednar carrying the mail, and once they took over in the sixth inning, Everett failed to get a runner past first base for the rest of the game. Lucchesi and Scholtens both picked up their first career holds and Bednar got his first save.
Tri-City will go for its third consecutive series win Saturday and will host its final regular season game against Everett on Sunday. Both games are scheduled to begin at 7:15 p.m.
Here are the pitching match ups for the remainder of the homestand (Everett listed first):
Jake Brentz (0-1, 4.78 ERA) vs. Emmanuel Ramirez (1-0, 1.20 ERA)
Tim Viehoff (0-0, 2.08 ERA) vs. Angel Mejia (1-0, 2.45 ERA)
Dust Devils 3, AquaSox 2
Everett ab | r | h | bi | Tri-City ab | r | h | bi | ||
Brigman 2b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Easley 2b | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
Cowan ss | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Magee lf | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
K.Lewis cf | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Ovrstreet c | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Brito 1b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | Baker ss | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Zmmrli lf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Mattison 1b | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Grebeck rf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Asuncion rf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
J.Morales 3b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Mgdlno 3b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Leal dh | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Burgos cf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Filia ph-dh | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Savinon dh | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Guerrini c | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
Totals 31 | 2 | 4 | 2 | Totals 28 | 3 | 7 | 3 | ||
Everett | 200 | 000 | 000 | — | 2 |
Tri-City | 002 | 010 | 00x | — | 3 |
DP—Everett 1. LOB—Everett 4, Tri-City 4. 3B—Lewis (1). SF—Magee. SB—Cowan (3), Easley (3). PO—Easley (by McClain).
Everett | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Festa | 4 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
McClain L, 0-2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
Koval | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Tri-City | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Lorenzini W, 1-1 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
Lucchesi H, 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Scholtens H, 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
Bednar S, 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
WP—Festa, McClain. Balk—Festa, McClain. Umpires—H, Ben Phillips; F, Joe Gonzalez. T—2:26. A—2,351.
This story was originally published July 1, 2016 at 10:19 PM with the headline "Tri-City takes game, division lead from Everett."