Everett’s Hogan Windish paces offense, Spokane Indians fall to AquaSox 6-4

Hogan Windish had a night to remember, and the Everett AquaSox pushed the Spokane Indians to the brink of elimination in the Northwest League’s second half with a 6-4 win at Avista Stadium on Wednesday.

With the loss, the Indians (25-29) fell eight games behind the AquaSox (34-22) for the second playoff spot with 10 games to play. Vancouver earned the first-half spot and owns a 2½-game lead over Everett in the second half.

Windish, the AquaSox’s cleanup hitter, went 3 for 4 with a homer, triple, double and three runs.

Indians starting pitcher Blake Adams was activated from the injured list before the game and was greeted rudely by the visitors, as Harry Ford and Windish hit solo home runs in the first inning.

With two down in the bottom half, Juan Guerrero doubled to the right-center gap and scored on Robby Martin Jr.’s broken-bat single to make it 2-1.

The homer bug bit Adams again in the second as Bill Knight poked a solo shot to right.

Adams only lasted three innings in his first start since July 18. He allowed three runs on five hits. He did not walk a batter, struck out one and threw 34 of 51 pitches for strikes.

Spokane tied it in the third. Ryan Ritter reached on an error, moved to third on Guerrero’s fielder’s choice and scored on Martin’s double. Guerrero later scored on a groundout to knot it at 3.

Everett threatened in the fourth, but Benny Montgomery nailed Blake Rambusch at the plate trying to score on a fly to medium-deep left for a double play. Rambusch was injured on the play and left the game.

It stayed tied until the sixth, when Windish led off with a triple and scored on John Hood’s sacrifice fly off reliever Anderson Pilar.

Windish led off the eighth against Luis Amoroso with a double, advanced on Ben Ramirez’s single and scored on Hood’s single. A second run scored on Amoroso’s errant pick-off throw.