Everett AquaSox starting pitcher Tyler Olson made his job look easy Wednesday night, surrendering a lone hit which almost wasn’t, en route to a masterfully pitched complete game shutout in Everett’s series opening victory over the Eugene Emeralds 5-0. The Emeralds’ only hit came in the bottom of the sixth inning with two outs, a soft line drive to left field off the bat of Chase Jensen that barely touched the PK Park turf before bouncing into the glove of a diving Phillips Castillo. Ronnie Richardson followed with a walk to account for the only other base runner the Emeralds could manage.
Olson, a seventh round pick of the Seattle Mariners from Gonzaga, had hitters guessing all night. His fastball never reached higher than 88 mph, and his off-speed pitches dialed in as low as 70 on the radar gun.
“He’s not overpowering, he’s a pitcher,” said Ems manager Jim Gabella of Olson. “He knows what he’s doing, he changes speeds, throws the ball wherever he wants … when you do that it’s tough to hit. You tip your cap to that guy, he did a great job.” Olson recorded a professional career-best 10 strikeouts and picked up his first win of the season, the fourth straight for the AquaSox.
Although one would assume the contrary, Olson hasn’t been this unhittable the entire season. In his previous start against the Vancouver Canadians, he gave up seven runs in 4.2 innings. However, in his second career start he had a no-hitter in tact when he was pulled from the game after five innings.
Offensively, nearly the entire AquaSox lineup contributed. Four different players scored runs and nobody in the lineup had more than one RBI. James Zamarripa and Jack Reinheimer had three hits apiece hitting leadoff and second, respectively. The AquaSox struck first in the top of the sixth when Castillo doubled to left center, driving in D.J. Peterson. Lonnie Kauppila tacked on a run via sacrifice fly, allowing Austin Wilson to trot home from third.
The offense continued for Everett in the seventh. Peterson reached base on an error by Ems third baseman Fernando Perez, driving home Zamarripa who led off the inning with a single. Eugene was fortunate to give up only five runs considering the AquaSox tallied 11 hits and seven walks, leaving 11 men on base.
Emeralds starter Erik Cabrera (0-4) struggled to consistently find the strike zone, walking six batters over 5.1 innings of work. He worked fast and threw hard, reaching 94 MPH, but AquaSox hitters picked up on it and capitalized. In 15 appearances (nine starts) between Eugene and Fort Wayne of the Midwest League, Cabrera is 0-7 with a 7.23 ERA.
Game two will take place at PK Park Thursday night at 7:05 pm. Thyago Vieira (2-1) is Everett’s projected starter, and Yimmi Brasoban (1-1) will get the call for the home team.