Volcanoes homer in four straight at-bats

Class A Salem-Keizer plated seven runs in the first inning on Monday night. Three innings later, the fireworks really began.
The Volcanoes belted four consecutive home runs and five overall in the fourth inning en route to a 13-3 rout of Everett at Funko Field.

Gameday box score
Holding a commanding 7-0 lead after a monster top half of the first inning, Salem-Keizer's Jeff Houghtby led off the fourth against righty Juan Mercedes by launching the first home run of his professional career over the right-field fence.
Yorlis Rodriguez was hit by a pitch following Houghtby's blast. Then the power got cranked way up. Sean Roby lined a two-run blast to right-center and Franklin Labour followed with a shot to left-center. Ricardo Genoves -- who cranked a three-run homer to right-center during Salem Keizer's seven-run first -- walloped his second of the game to right-center. The final piece fell into place when Tyler Flores swatted his team's fourth straight homer over the fence in right-center field. They all came at Mercedes' expense.
"I'm super proud of our guys for their approach," Salem-Keizer manager Mark Hallberg told The (Everett) Daily Herald. "They stuck with their approach all day, got good pitches to hit, and when they got those pitches, they did damage with it. It's a by-product of good process sometimes comes good results.
"I've never seen anything like that. It was contagious and balls were flying out of here left and right."

The four consecutive roundtrippers were a franchise first for the Volcanoes. Houghtby finished the day 3-for-4 with three RBIs while falling a triple shy of the cycle. Genoves plated four runs for Salem-Keizer.
"For me, last year was a bit (harder) because I couldn't hit really well," Genoves -- who batted .243 with a .639 OPS for Salem-Keizer last year -- told the paper. "(In the) mind, I just feel way better, I know what work for me, what doesn't work for me. I just stay with a plan every single day, my approach for the game and my relationship with the pitchers, everything is just a little different, because I know how hard I have to work for the season."
The first three AquaSox hurlers -- Major League rehabber Sam Tuivailala and relievers Ivan Fortunato and Mercedes -- were charged with all 13 runs -- 10 earned -- over the game's first 3 1/3 innings. Kipp Rollings, Nate Fisher and Garrett Westberg combined to allow one hit in the final 6 2/3 frames.