AquaSox hold off Tri-City for second straight win

Published 12:05 am Thursday, July 2, 2026

EVERETT — Josh Caron tossed his bat down and started to take off his batting gloves, convinced he worked a four-pitch walk to put runners on the corners for the Everett AquaSox in the first inning against the Tri-City Dust Devils at Everett Memorial Stadium on Wednesday.

Home plate umpire Bayron Matos disagreed, calling a strike to put the count at 3-1. Caron froze briefly, stunned by the call, before picking up his bat and rushing to reset. He avoided a strike via pitch clock violation, but he still needed to keep the inning alive with shortstop Felnin Celesten waiting at third base with two outs.

What Caron did with the next pitch was more than enough.

After sending the first four pitches toward the outside of the plate, Tri-City starter Chase Shores delivered one inside. Caron was all over it, clobbering it over the left field wall for a two-run home run. It was the 22-year-old catcher’s 14th homer of the season, which moved him to second in the Northwest League leaderboard behind Tri-City outfielder Randy De Jesus (15).

“I think I should be thanking the home plate umpire,” said Caron, who was the designated hitter on Wednesday. “… I mean, I was actually just worried about the (pitch) clock because I looked up there and there was something wrong with it. It was like ticking way down, and I just had to get back in the box quick, and I figured I’d just get my swing off.”

Caron would drive in two two more runs to lead the AquaSox to a 9-5 win. After dropping the last three games of its road series against Eugene last week, Everett (6-5) has two straight wins against the Dust Devils (4-7) and is tied for second behind Spokane (7-4) in the Northwest League second-half standings.

“We had a really good week last week overall. I know the results of the last three games didn’t really tell that,” AquaSox manager Ryan Scott said. “We got walked off twice in a row in those two games, so it means we’re in it every single time, and sometimes the ball’s not going to bounce your way. It’s part of it, and we’re just going to come back out and keep competing, and the guys came back out this week and have done a phenomenal job so far.”

In addition to Caron, catcher Luke Stevenson went 3-for-5 with two RBI and three runs scored. Celesten and infielder Brandon Eike each had two hits.

Just one night after the Everett pitching staff totaled 15 strikeouts, starter Adam Maier & Co. combined for 14 on Wednesday. Maier led the way with seven over five innings. The Vancouver, British Columbia native earned his fourth win of the season on Canada Day.

“(My changeup) was getting a lot of depth today,” said Maier, who also allowed just three hits and two earned runs. “I threw a lot of quality two-strike pitches for some strikeouts. I think I had maybe four on the changeup today, so I mean, just being confident with throwing the pitch over the plate and down.”

Maier pitched a 1-2-3 first inning, fielding two grounders back to him with a strikeout in between. Caron’s home run in the bottom of the frame gave the AquaSox an early 2-0 lead after Celesten smacked a triple.

“Those are tough scenarios when you feel like the at-bat’s kind of over and then you got to really like lock back in quickly,” Scott said. “So a lot of credit to (Caron) being able to lock back in on that next pitch.”

Maier picked up two more strikeouts in the second inning after allowing a leadoff double to De Jesus, then pitched another 1-2-3 inning in the third to keep Tri-City at bay.

Caron picked up his third RBI of the night in the bottom of the third with a sacrifice fly to left field, scoring Stevenson, who doubled to center field. Caron had worked a 3-0 count yet again, and he felt good about keeping the green light on in that position rather than automatically taking the next pitch.

“It looked like a good pitch,” Caron said. “I mean, it was a good spot to swing. We were up a couple runs in the game, and I tried to just extend the lead.”

Maier went three up, three down in the fourth, notching his fifth and sixth strikeouts, and outfielder Anthony Donofrio padded the lead to 4-0 with an RBI double to the right field corner in the bottom of the frame. Infielder Austin St. Laurent reached on an error from Dust Devils shortstop Capri Ortiz, and infielder Carter Dorighi worked a full count before driving in two runs with a double to left-center.

Dorighi made it to third on a passed ball, and Stevenson extended the lead to 7-0 with an RBI single to right field. Stevenson stole second, then advanced to third on a throwing error before Caron pushed it to 8-0 with an RBI double to center.

After Maier allowed just one total base-runner through four innings, Tri-City loaded the bases in the fifth. Infielder Johan Macias drove in the first run with an RBI single, and Maier worked down to the final strike before drilling outfielder David Mershon to give the Dust Devils another run while keeping the bases loaded. Keeping his composure, the 24-year-old righty reeled things back in and struck out infielder Harold Coll to strand the remaining runners with his seventh punch out of the night.

“Hearing the energy from the dugout, hearing the energy from my defense, (Stevenson) behind the plate definitely helped me get locked in,” Maier said. “It’s one of those times where I clearly just didn’t have my best control, didn’t have my best command, didn’t have my best stuff in that fifth inning, and you just got to battle through.”

Everett relievers Jose Geraldo and Sam Whiting each retired the side over the next two innings. Whiting notched three consecutive strikeouts to ring up the bottom of the Tri-City order in the seventh, but he allowed a two-run homer to Coll in the eighth, which cut the AquaSox lead to 8-4.

Stevenson pushed it back to 9-4 in the bottom of the eighth with a solo shot over the tallest part of the wall in right-center, and the Dust Devils picked up one more run off reliever Lucas Kelly with an RBI single from outfielder Jorge Ruiz after infielder Kevin Bruggeman legged out a triple, but Kelly ended the game with a strikeout to secure the win.

On the same night that the United States Men’s National Team advanced to the Round of 16 in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the AquaSox looked to channel all the soccer teams competing for glory this summer.

“The message has really been just stay on the attack, and really kind of control the tempo,” Scott said. “(We) gave it a little bit of a reference to the World Cup and watching those teams, and the ones that are going to control the ball and really control the tempo of the game are the ones that are normally going to win and dominate.

“So us as a baseball team, if we can control our tempo and not play to the other team’s tempo and not do what they want us to do, but play our game and do the things we want to do and not try to fall out of that rhythm, we’re going to win more games. Those guys are coming out doing a phenomenal job doing that right now.”