AquaSox dominate series-opener vs. Spokane

Published 12:35 am Wednesday, August 12, 2026

EVERETT — It’s not often a pitcher can allow two home runs and still be considered near-perfect, but that was exactly the case for Adam Maier at Everett Memorial Stadium on Tuesday.

The Everett AquaSox starter cruised through the first four innings against the Spokane Indians, and retired three straight batters in the fifth even after infielder Tanner Thach broke up his perfect game bid with a solo shot. Maier allowed another homer in the sixth, but the AquaSox (55-54 overall, 22-21 second-half) poured on 11 runs between the fifth and sixth innings en route to a 16-2 win against the Indians (50-58, 21-21).

Maier finished the night with three hits allowed and two earned runs, striking out four and walking none across six innings. Prior to Thach’s homer in the fifth, he had not allowed a run since July 21, pitching 15 1/3 scoreless innings in between. The Vancouver native credited his increased chemistry with catcher Luke Stevenson as a big reason behind his recent form.

“He’s really helped me out, and he’s learned how I work,” Maier said of Stevenson. “… I’ve been working on a new changeup grip, and ‘Steve’s’ been pretty helpful where sometimes I can get muscly on it, sometimes I can be too kind of cute with it, try and place it, so he’s able to kind of give me cues. Primarily just stay through him, through the middle of the plate and throwing it with aggression but not trying to overthrow it. I think he’s really able to see it well, even better than I can feel it.”

Maier started the night with a strikeout against leadoff hitter Roldy Brito, utilizing that changeup before inducing two groundouts in the first inning. He continued pitching into weak contact down the lineup until striking out catcher Juan Castillo in the third.

“The changeup was really, really good tonight,” Everett manager Ryan Scott said. “And so, the more he got them off balance and got those lefties — because they have a lefty-heavy lineup — the changeup was just really, really good and got them to roll over a lot of balls to the right side of that infield, so it was really cool to see him come out there, go right at them, attack. Not really try to nibble at the edges, but go right at those guys and use his good stuff to get weak contact.”

Spokane starter Angel Jimenez held the AquaSox hitless through two innings, but Stevenson opened things up with a solo shot to right field for his 16th home run of the season. Infielder Brandon Eike and designated hitter Matthew Ellis worked back-to-back walks, and infielder Austin St. Laurent drove Eike home with an RBI single to push the lead to 2-0.

Maier remained perfect through the fourth, with help from outfielder Aiden Taurek’s catch along the foul line and a speedy putout from St. Laurent at shortstop, his throw narrowly beating infielder Ethan Hedges to first to end the frame.

“Defense was awesome behind me,” Maier said. “St. Laurent made a couple sweet plays. (Luis) Suisbel at third base had some nice plays too. Me and Eike linked up for some 3-1 (put outs).”

While Spokane finally got past Maier with Thach’s home run, the trio of Eike, Ellis and St. Laurent struck again to restore the two-run lead. Eike worked a walk on a full count, and Ellis reached base after Thach committed an error on an attempted fielder’s choice to second. With two runners on, St. Laurent hit another RBI single to make it 3-1. The 24-year-old finished the night 5-for-5 with four RBI, two runs scored and a walk.

St. Laurent has come into his own over the last few months with Everett. A 14th-round pick in 2024 out of Appalachian State, St. Laurent made a few appearances in Single-A at the end of the year before spending the entire 2025 season in now-defunct Modesto, hitting .257 with a .688 OPS, which ranked fifth on the team and tied for 24th in the California League. He struggled to start off the 2026 season with the AquaSox, slashing .146/.268/.188 in April, but he proceeded to hit .256 with a .884 OPS in the month of May.

“The work ethic with Austin is top-notch,” Scott said. “He’s out here doing what he needs to do every single day to prepare, to be ready to play each night at 7 o’clock, and it’s really a culmination of the work that he’s been doing all season. We knew it’s in there, and it was just a little bit of a slow start, but (he) just kind of slowly progressed up to where it’s at now.”

He bounced around the infield defensively to start the year, but is now getting more reps at shortstop — his natural position — following Felnin Celesten’s promotion to Double-A Arkansas on July 20. With more comfort at the plate and in the field, St. Laurent hit .323 in July with a .783 OPS, and he’s getting on base at an even better rate to start off August (.407 average and .484 on-base percentage). His performance on Tuesday raised his season-long average by 17 points to .268, and his OBP 15 points to .359.

“Just try to do less and don’t be afraid to hit the ball the other way,” St. Laurent said, detailing his process this season. “It’s very glorified to hit the pull-side homer, and it’s something that a lot of guys are really good at, but I don’t feel like that’s my title here. My job is to be able to be on base for those guys to go and hit the long ball. So we just found that sticking to that approach — going the other way and just trying to simplify everything — has been the biggest help for me.”

Right after St. Laurent’s second RBI of the night, Suisbel pushed it to 4-1 with an RBI single, and outfielder Cesar Quintas reached on a fielder’s choice as St. Laurent scored to make it 5-1.

Maier returned for the sixth, pitching three straight balls to Castillo before reeling it to a full count, where Castillo grounded out to third. The Spokane bats started to liven up a little more, as outfielder Cameron Nelson crushed a solo homer to cut it to 5-2, and infielder Roynier Hernandez legged out a triple off the outfield wall, but St. Laurent made another slick defensive play and Maier ended the inning with a strikeout against Hedges to limit the damage.

“I had faced (Hedges) in Spokane about a month ago (on July 17), threw him a first-pitch sinker, and he hit a double down the left field line, so coming up in that spot, I didn’t really want to throw him any sinkers there,” Maier said. “My spin was pretty good, so I threw him a couple sweepers, threw him a cutter away that he check swung at, and then I got him to a 1-2 count, just tried to bury the sweeper, and I did.”

The AquaSox opened the bottom of the sixth with three consecutive walks — the latter two from Stevenson and Taurek on a full count — to load the bases for Eike, who kept the bases loaded with an RBI single to shallow left. Ellis followed that up with a two-run single to right-center, advancing to second on the throw home to keep two runners in scoring position for St. Laurent, who laced a two-run double to right on the next pitch to push it to 10-2. All three of St. Laurent’s RBI base-hits came on either the first or second pitch of the at-bat.

“Just don’t miss your (selected pitch),” St. Laurent said. “It might be the only one you get, so if you’re committed to your plan, it doesn’t matter if it’s the first one or the last one. If they throw it there, you should be able to get it.”

Eight of nine Everett players reached base batting around in the sixth, and outfielder Korbyn Dickerson got hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in his second time up to make it 11-2. With two strikes and two outs, Taurek ripped a two-run single to right to push it to 13-2, but Dickerson got tagged sliding into third to end the inning.

“When playing this team, we know that they’re not going to always be around the zone,” Scott said. “So the more we can kind of hone in and try and get guys over the middle of the plate, and not try to expand and try to do too much, and try to hit the pitches that they want us to hit, but try to kind of stay in our zones, we know we’re going to succeed.”

Reid Easterly pitched two clean frames in relief of Maier, ending both the seventh and eighth innings with back-to-back strikeouts. The AquaSox added three runs in the bottom of the eighth with an RBI double from Taurek and a two-run single from Eike to make it 16-2, and Pedro Da Costa Lemos wrapped things up with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.

The series continues on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. PT.