Eugene’s five-run ninth sinks AquaSox

Published 12:50 am Thursday, July 23, 2026

EVERETT — Brendan Donovan stepped to the plate with an opportunity.

With the Everett AquaSox tied 4-4 with the Eugene Emeralds in the bottom of the seventh inning at Everett Memorial Stadium on Wednesday, infielder Axel Sanchez hit a two-out single to bring Donovan up to the plate with an opportunity to push Everett ahead, or at least put Sanchez into scoring position.

The 29-year-old Seattle Mariners infielder — playing his second game for the AquaSox in a rehab assignment, and his fifth overall since a groin injury sidelined him in May — built up a 3-0 count. If there was ever a moment for Donovan to get on base in an AquaSox uniform for the first time, this would be it. Donovan took strike one, then watched strike two go by outside the zone to make it a full count.

Emeralds reliever Matt Dunaway attacked the same spot up and away, but Donovan couldn’t connect with his swing. The strikeout ended the inning, and Eugene (56-36 overall, 14-12 second-half) took the lead in the top of the eighth with an RBI triple from outfielder Lisbel Diaz before scoring five runs in the ninth to pull away for a 10-5 win over the AquaSox (48-44, 15-11).

Donovan finished the night 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. In five rehab appearances between Everett, Triple-A Tacoma and the Arizona Complex League Mariners over the past week, he is 0-for-17 with one RBI, one walk and eight strikeouts. The 2025 All-Star has put the ball in play in his two games in Everett — his lone RBI coming from a sacrifice fly on Tuesday — but just hasn’t found the timing to get on base yet.

“Swing decisions are actually good,” Donovan said. “Just mishitting a lot of balls and putting me in some bad counts, but that’s baseball. So just need more at-bats. It’s like I’m back in Spring Training again. It’s been a few months, so it’s just going to take some time for me to just kind of back to put my feet under me.”

Donovan said his body feels good after two consecutive seven-inning games. He plans to take Thursday off before coming back Friday to get more defensive reps in at different positions while also working on his timing at the plate. He spent Tuesday in left field and Wednesday at third base, and he is hoping to jump in at second base and in the outfield again before his time in Everett is up at the end of the week.

As Donovan continues to work back to the Major Leagues — a timeline he did not have a specific update on — the AquaSox plan to take advantage of his presence both on and off the field.

“I want him to be able to do the work that he is going to do,” Everett manager Ryan Scott said. “And a lot of it is just make sure he’s going to be healthy to get back up to the big league team. We don’t necessarily need him to come out here and succeed with us. That’s not the ultimate goal for him. He’s got to just be healthy and be ready to go, and when he goes and meets the team in Seattle, hopefully it’s some point next week, when he’s full-go and fully healthy.

“With Brendan, he’s a phenomenal dude, and he’s been great around our guys. He’s asking our guys questions and getting them to start asking him some questions. He’s a wealth of knowledge, especially for a lot of our younger guys who are in their first year maybe, and it’s a guy who’s a Major League All-Star and Gold Glover, so having that experience around and having him here to interact with these guys, it’s been a huge help for us. And for ‘Donny,’ I know he’s trying to get his timing back. It’s been a long rehab for him, so that’s kind of the first step for him.”

AquaSox outfielder Anthony Donofrio went 2-for-2 with two walks, two RBI, two runs scored and a home run to lead the offense on Wednesday, and the 26-year-old raved about Donovan’s involvement with the team. Donofrio claimed that he’s walked into the facility to see Donovan already at work, even seven hours before first pitch, and that he’s been eager to talk to any players looking to learn from him.

“He is the man. Like I’m just trying to be a sponge because he’s had so much baseball experience at such a high level,” Donofrio said. “It’s truly a privilege and an opportunity to be able to learn from a guy like that, and not only is he a really bright baseball mind, but he’s so down to earth. … He’s out here working twice as hard as some of the guys — you know, we’re all working hard — but it just shows at that level, he’s never lost sight of what he’s still trying to do. He’s still trying to get better, even where he’s at.”

Donofrio led the surge in the bottom of the second inning after the Emeralds took a 3-0 lead in the top of the frame with a two-run double from catcher Daniel Rogers and an RBI single from outfielder Jose Astudillo off Everett starter Chase Centala.

AquaSox outfielder Korbyn Dickerson worked a walk to give Everett its first base-runner of the game. Dickerson stole second before outfielder Aiden Taurek worked a walk, and he made it all the way home in his attempt to take third after Eugene starter Luis De La Torre threw the pickoff attempt into foul territory.

Taurek advanced to third, putting himself in position for an easy run when Donofrio roped a double off the center field wall. Donofrio tied the game 3-3 in the same fashion that Dickerson scored, stealing third and advancing home on an errant throw into foul territory.

Donofrio credited bench coach Logan Moore for going over reads with the players and determining the best time to get a jump on De La Torre based on his delivery timing.

“We had his count down, we had his timing figured out,” Donofrio said. “(De La Torre) got a good read, to be honest with you, and he tried to pick both of us off, and it ended up going our way. I thought we were committed to what we were trying to do there, so we got the result that we wanted. The process was there.”

Centala rebounded from the second inning to face the minimum in the third and strike out the side in the fourth. The 24-year-old righty remained confident in his pitch selection, even shaking off catcher Luke Stevenson to throw the pitch he wanted on each of the first two batters of the fourth inning, and it ended with a strikeout both times.

Centala was ultimately pulled in the top of the fifth after allowing a walk and a single to finish the night with five hits, three earned runs and five strikeouts.

“I think the whole thing was just getting ahead, trying to get in a count that I have the advantage in, and let everyone else work,” Centala said.

After his RBI double in the second, Donofrio sent another deep ball to center in the fourth, but this time it cleared the wall. The Massapequa, New York native smacked his seventh home run of the year to give the AquaSox a 4-3 lead, but the Emeralds would ultimately pull ahead.

Designated hitter Jakob Christian tied it 4-4 with an RBI single in the top of the sixth, and Everett could not get a run across before Diaz hit the go-ahead RBI triple in the top of the eighth to make it 5-4. Eugene picked up five insurance runs to pull away in the top of the ninth, capitalizing on multiple 3-0 and 3-1 counts from AquaSox reliever Christian Little.

A sacrifice fly from infielder Jhonny Level and an RBI single from outfielder Carlos Gutierrez pushed the lead to 7-4, and infielder Zander Darby belted a two-run single two batters later to make it 9-4. Diaz drove in his second run of the night with a single to right field, and the Emeralds went into the bottom of the ninth with a six-run lead.

“Falling behind (in counts) definitely hurts us there,” Scott said. “When we put those guys into advantage hitter’s counts and they’re able to jump on some heaters that get over the plate, it kind of takes the question marks out of their mind whether it’s going to be a fastball or a slider or whatever whoever’s on the mound might be. So the more good counts we can get ourselves into, the better.”

The AquaSox loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth with a leadoff single from Taurek and walks from Donofrio and infielder Carter Dorighi. Infielder Austin St. Laurent — who replaced Donovan after the seventh inning — worked a walk with one out to cut it to 10-5, but designated hitter Ricardo Cova struck out and Stevenson flied out to end the game.

Everett will aim to get back into the win column without Donovan on Thursday, but the Mariners’ prized offseason acquisition is eager to take the steps that bring him back to T-Mobile Park as soon as possible.

“(The injury) just took me away from being on the field and seeing pitching for two-and-a-half months,” Donovan said. “So that’s just kind of the thing that I just kind of got to get back to doing, just playing games and seeing pitches.”