Dejesus Dazzles Indians Everett Pitcher Nearly Goes The Distance In Aquasox Victory

The idea of pitching the Northwest League’s first complete game lingered in the back of his mind.

But Tony DeJesus’ legs wouldn’t allow it. He ran out of gas - 1-2/3 innings too soon. His effort was enough, though, to lead the Everett AquaSox to a 5-2 victory Monday over the Spokane Indians before 4,303 at Avista Stadium. DeJesus (3-5), a third-round draft pick in 1996 out of Havelock (N.C.) High School, had thrown five innings of scoreless and hitless ball in his previous long outing of the season July 3 against Spokane in Everett. In his last five starts, he got decisions and lost all five. “We got a win and that’s all that mattered,” said DeJesus, who played for Everett in 1998 and sat out last season after having shoulder surgery. “That helps out a lot.”

More than DeJesus realized, actually.

The AquaSox (25-22) moved a game ahead of Spokane (24-23) and into second place in the league’s North Division behind Yakima. Everett has won six of eight in the season series with Spokane heading into tonight’s final game of the threegame set at 7:05.

DeJesus loaded the bases in the eighth with one out before heading to the dugout with a line that read 7-1/3 innings, four hits, two runs - one earned - three walks and six strikeouts.

“He was just crafty tonight,” said Indians center fielder Marco Cunningham, who went 1 for 4 with three groundouts and a double. “Those kind of pitchers. But you just tip your hat to them and hope you can get him next time.”

The first pitch thrown by DeJesus’ reliever, Bradley Drain, was wild and allowed Darren Fenster to score and make it 5-2. Then Justin Cowan struck out and Abel Martinez lined out to left to end the inning. Spokane scored its first run in the fourth on Ray Hattenburg’s sacrifice fly. Everett’s leadoff hitter Jamal Strong swiped four bases on the night to run his league-leading total to 29. Besides great pitching, the AquaSox offense came up with timely hits and leadoff hitter Jamal Strong provided a lesson on base running.

Everett sent eight batters to the plate in the first and tagged Spokane right-hander Joey Baker for three runs on four hits. Strong stole four bases, two in the second, to increase his league lead to 29, eight ahead of Cunningham.

The NWL single-game record is six by Medford’s Wayne Rudolph against Salem on July 31, 1980.

Cunningham, out of Texas Tech, played against Strong when he was with Nebraska, and wasn’t surprised by Strong’s stolen-base show.

“You can’t put that guy on base,” Cunningham said. “He was stealing on us all night. When a team is in the groove, it’s hard to get them out of it.”

The AquaSox added two more runs in the seventh on doubles to right by Jake Daubert and Miguel Richardson.

Notes

Monday’s 2-hour, 22-minute game was the Indians’ third shortest of the season. They went 2 hours, 11 minutes at home in a 3-1 win over Salem-Keizer on July 23, and 2:18 on June 21 in a 2-1 home victory over Eugene… . Pitching tonight for Spokane is left-hander Brad Stiles (6-1, 3.02 ERA) - second in the league in wins - against Everett right-hander Rett Johnson (3-2, 1.62).