NWL Tri-City Dust Devils

Dust Devils Slug, Swat Their Way Past AquaSox

May 25, 2024 - Northwest League (NWL)
Tri-City Dust Devils News Release


Tri-City Dust Devils at bat
Tri-City Dust Devils at bat
(Tri-City Dust Devils)

Following their five homer Thursday doubleheader with a four longball encore, the Tri-City Dust Devils (21-21) pounded their way back to .500 with a 9-4 win over the Everett AquaSox (18-24) Friday night at Funko Field.

A second straight show of force first showed up on the scoreboard when DH Mason Martin mashed his third home run in less than 24 hours, a solo no-doubter out to right that opened the scoring in the top of the 2nd inning. The Kennewick native, who hit his first homer of 2024 for Tri-City just a week ago, has sent five round-trippers over Northwest League fences in his last six games and hit .474 (9-19) with seven RBI and an OPS of 1.846 over that span.

The early 1-0 lead would grow three batters later following a C Caleb Pendleton double when SS Andy Blake lined a pitch from Everett starter Ryan Hawks (2-2) just right of straight away center for his first High-A home run of 2024. The two-run shot by the Hopewell, New Jersey native, who also has homered twice for Triple-A Salt Lake in two stints with the Bees this season, extended the Dust Devils edge to 3-0.

Tri-City then showed an inning later it could put together a rally without the longball, scoring four runs with a string of three consecutive hits after 1B Matt Coutney reached on a fielder's choice and 3B Cam Williams walked. It began with Martin bringing home another run, this time Coutney on an RBI single to make it 4-0. Pendleton followed with his second double in two at-bats, scoring Williams for a 5-0 advantage and moving Martin to third. LF Joe Stewart then joined the party, driving a two-run single up the middle through a drawn-in infield to plate both Martin and Pendleton and push the Dust Devils lead to 7-0.

Joel Hurtado (4-3), getting the start for Tri-City, worked through some traffic in the middle innings to grab his third straight win. The righty allowed two AquaSox runs in the 4th but induced a double play with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 5th to become the pitcher of record and keep his team up 7-2 heading to the 6th.

There the Dust Devils again got out the lumber, this time Coutney homering the opposite way to left for his second home run in as many nights. The solo homer gave the visitors an 8-2 lead, supplemented in the top of the 9th by a Williams blast over the right field wall that made it 9-2. Everett scored twice in their last at-bat, but reliever Brady Choban got the final out to secure Tri-City's share of a series split and two weekend opportunities to win its third straight series.

Relievers Leonard Garcia (2 IP) and Jake Smith (1 IP) helped the cause out of the bullpen as well, posting three scoreless innings following Hurtado and keeping the AquaSox at bay.

Four Dust Devils scored multiple runs (Coutney, Martin, Pendleton and Williams) in the game, which began with 2B Caleb Ketchup socking a ball off the wall in left for a double. Though Ketchup was left on-base, the two-bagger ended up a sign of things to come.

With the win Tri-City moved to .500 for the first time since Opening Night, coming back from a 1-7 start by winning 12 of 16 games to bring its record level. The Dust Devils remained 3.5 games back in the NWL First Half race with the win and added to their league-best record (13-2) when scoring first.

Game five of Tri-City's six-game series with Everett takes place at 7:05 p.m. Saturday night at Funko Field. Right-hander Jorge Marcheco (2-2, 3.82 ERA) returns to the rotation for the Dust Devils, with the AquaSox sending righty Michael Morales (3-1, 3.00 ERA) to the mound. Broadcast coverage of the game with the pregame show at 6:45 p.m. both here and on the MiLB app.

Tri-City travels north from Everett to Vancouver for a six-game series with the Canadians beginning this upcoming Tuesday, May 28, at Rogers Field at Nat Bailey Stadium. The team then returns home the following Tuesday, June 4, to begin a six-game series against the Eugene Emeralds at Gesa Stadium. It's another Coca-Cola Tuesday, with $2.50 21 oz. Coca-Cola products for fans to enjoy throughout the ballgame.

Tickets for the Eugene series are on sale now, with special ticket rates available for groups of 20 or more. For more information on Dust Devils single game, season, mini-plan (11, 22, 33) and group tickets, visit the team's official ticketing site, dustdevilsbaseball.com.

Check out the Tri-City Dust Devils Statistics




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Tri-City Dust Devils at bat
Tri-City Dust Devils at bat
   



Northwest League Stories from May 25, 2024


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