Bears prove to be double trouble for Everett

YAKIMA -- For two innings at least, they were fence busters -- peppering the gaps and walls of Yakima County Stadium in a manner reminiscent of Conor Jackson.

And while the Bears didn't sustain their extra-base assault Wednesday night against Everett, two innings were enough.

Yakima hammered out three doubles in the first frame and another in the second, and made their collective impact stand up for a 7-3 victory, the second in three nights against the Seattle Mariners farmhands.

Jackson, of course, presently does his thumping for the Arizona Diamondbacks. But as a Bear fresh out of Cal Berkeley in 2003, he obliterated the Northwest League record for doubles with 35.

Neither Jimmy Principe, who had two two-baggers, nor Anthony Smith nor Ryan Babineau, with one each, will approach that total. Nor will Yakima threaten that team's victory total of 45.

But none of that was of consequence to Ryan Cook, who embellished the aforementioned batwork with six solid innings for his first professional victory before an announced crowd of 1,773.

"I wouldn't say having the big lead (5-0 after one inning, 7-2 after two) made it easy," said Cook, the USC right-hander who's now 1-1 with a 2.77 earned run average. "But when you're ahead like that you just try to attack the bottom of the zone and let them get themselves out.

"Another thing that helped me tonight is I had a slider, which I didn't really have my two previous starts. Tonight I had command of both that and my fastball."

To be sure, Cook issued no walks while striking out six. Ricardo Taveras, Ben Dollar and Daniel Vasquez worked an inning each -- the latter two holding Everett scoreless.

This after the Bears had teed off on AquaSox starter Kenn Kasparek.

Principe, whose 2-for-3 night hiked his batting average to .319, followed David Cooper's leadoff walk with a double to left. And after Alfredo Marte walked to load the bases, Anthony Smith doubled off the base of the boards in right-center to score two.

Ryan Babineau followed with yet another two-bagger to plate Marte and Smith, and after Babineau advanced on Andrew Fie's groundout he scored on another by Roberto Rodriguez.

Against Doug Salinas in the second, Cooper singled and Principe again doubled. And with one out, Smith dumped a single into shallow center to score both runners and inflate his evening RBI total to four.

For Yakima's offense, that was it. But it was more than enough.

"The whole thing is to keep it simple," said Principe, who also walked twice. "You try to get a good pitch, get the barrel of the bat on it and hit it hard. That's all you can control.

"And don't think, because you can only hurt the team. That's straight from Crash Davis (from the movie Bull Durham), but it's true."

Should the Bears (19-37) win tonight or Friday, they would secure their third series win in 14 tries this season.

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