Josh Caron grand slam pushes AquaSox past Vancouver
Published 10:29 am Thursday, July 9, 2026
Josh Caron extended his lead atop the Northwest League home run leaderboard with his 17th of the season, which was a grand slam in the top of the seventh inning to lead the Everett AquaSox to a 7-1 win against the Vancouver Canadians at Nat Bailey Stadium on Wednesday.
Everett (44-39 overall, 11-6 second-half) has won seven of its past eight games. Caron went 1-for-5 with four RBI, and five other AquaSox batters recorded two hits in the victory. North Vancouver native Adam Maier allowed one run and four hits over six innings for Everett, and relievers Lucas Kelly and Calvin Schapira combined for three perfect innings and seven strikeouts. The Canadians (35-48, 8-9) did not record a single walk.
AquaSox infielder Luis Suisbel opened the scoring with an RBI single in the top of the second inning, but Vancouver tied it with an RBI single from infielder Manuel Beltre in the third. Maier allowed just one base-runner across his final three innings — a single from infielder Tucker Toman — and went six up, six down across the fifth and sixth innings.
Everett rallied to take the lead in the seventh. Outfielder Jonny Farmelo doubled to put two runners in scoring position with outfielder Anthony Donofrio moved over to third, and catcher Luke Stevenson hit an RBI single to give the AquaSox a 2-1 lead. Canadians reliever Jay Schueler hit Everett shortstop Felnin Celesten with a pitch to load the bases, and Caron cleared them all to break the game open at 6-1.
The 22-year-old catcher, who was the designated hitter on Wednesday, worked a full count before connecting on the sixth pitch. It was Caron’s first professional grand slam.
Kelly struck out the side in the bottom of the seventh, then notched his fourth punch out of the night during a 1-2-3 eighth inning. Farmelo padded the lead with a solo shot off reliever Gilberto Batista in the top of the ninth, and Schapira struck out all three batters he faced in the bottom of the frame to close out a dominant performance from the pitching staff.
Everett will aim to pull ahead in the series when the two teams meet again on Thursday at 7:05 p.m. PT.
