EVERETT — The proper local baseball hierarchy was restored Sunday afternoon.
One year after a stunning upset, the Everett AquaSox reasserted their professional status, defeating the semipro Everett Merchants 12-2 to win the fifth annual Everett Cup.
Before a robust crowd of 1,963 at Everett Memorial Stadium, the Sox pounded out 15 hits, cruising to victory in the exhibition game that perennially precedes the Northwest League season.
That stood in stark contrast to last year, when the Pacific International League’s Merchants, an amalgamation of locally-based four-year and two-year college players, shocked the pros by prevailing 10-5.
And though the majority of the AquaSox players and coaches weren’t around for last year’s debacle, they were aware of past history.
“That’s what I heard, so it’s huge to win this,” said Sox designated hitter Brandon Fromm, who cranked one of the Sox’s three home runs. “You never want to go into the season with a loss, no matter who it is. A lot of us just met each other, so it’s nice to get a win.”
Manelik Pimentel and Tyson Gillies also homered and Kenta Suda pitched five solid innings for the Sox, who open the Northwest League season Tuesday at Spokane.
“It was a great game,” Sox manager Jose Moreno said. “The kids were relaxed. We were very aggressive with the fastball and we made good contact. The pitchers did a very good job, they worked ahead. We built a little confidence and I think we’ll be ready for opening day.”
With the Sox on top of their game in all facets, the gap between the levels of the teams was apparent in a way that wasn’t a year ago, when the Merchants were well worth their victory.
“I’ve always got confidence that anything in baseball can happen, and I had confidence we could play with them,” Merchants manager Harold Pyatte said. “We played great defense today. We got seven or eight hits, so we hit the ball. But I knew that we didn’t have the pitching this year going into this game that we had last year. Last year we had a couple guys throwing 90-plus and this year we’re in the high eighties.”
The Sox hitters took advantage of that difference, generating offense from throughout the lineup. Fromm homered, doubled and scored three runs; Welington Dotel went 2-for-3 with a triple and three runs; and Ryan Royster went 2-for-3 with three RBI. Fromm’s mammoth two-run shot, which banged off the back wall of the homer porch in right field, concluded a three-run rally in the bottom of the first inning that signaled the Sox dominance.
However, the most impressive aspect of the Sox offense may not have been its power, but its ability to go with the pitch. That was illustrated best in the sixth when the Sox scored three runs on four hits, all four going to the opposite field. That rally included Dotel’s triple, doubles by Fromm and Travis Howell, and a single from Royster.
The Sox pitching was also far superior compared to a year ago. In last year’s Everett Cup the Sox pitchers had all kinds of trouble with their control, issuing nine walks and hitting six batters. This time the Sox handed the Merchants just four free passes.
The Sox pitching tone was set by Suda. The diminutive 18-year-old right-hander from Japan, who’s slated to be the Sox’ No. 5 starter to begin the season, surrendered just one unearned run in five innings. He gave up three hits, walked two and struck out four.
“Pitching-wise it was outstanding,” Moreno said. “They were ahead in the count and that’s what we’re looking for. They weren’t afraid of contact, weren’t too fine, and that was good.”
As for the Merchants, the highlights were few. Shortstop Bryan Barnes, a graduate of Mountlake Terrace High School now attending Gonzaga, was the only Merchant with more than one hit, going 2-for-5. First baseman Donny Treat, a Marysville-Pilchuck grad, had the Merchants’ only extra-base hit with a double in the second inning. The Merchants had seven hits total.
Based on Sunday’s game, Pyatte believes the AquaSox have a significantly better team than the one his team faced last season. Last season’s Sox went on to finish 35-41, which placed them third in the Northwest League’s West Division.
“This is a much better top-to-bottom team as far as hitting, pitching and defense than what we’ve seen in the past,” Pyatte said. “I pick this team to win the Northwest League because they’re that good.”
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