EVERETT — The scent of baseball has arrived in Everett.
The first batch of Everett AquaSox players arrived in town Sunday evening, heralding the beginning of the 2010 Northwest League season.
This is the 27th season Everett’s fielded a team in the short-season Class A Northwest League. It’s also the team’s 16th season as the AquaSox, an affiliate of the Seattle Mariners.
Everett’s players hail from two sources. Approximately half the roster will be comprised of players who have been at extended spring training at the Mariners’ complex in Peoria, Ariz. The other half will be college players selected in last week’s amateur draft.
Jose Moreno is back for his second stint as AquaSox manager. Moreno managed the Sox in 2008, guiding Everett to a 32-44 record. Last season, he managed the Pulaski Mariners, Seattle’s entry in the rookie Appalachian League, to a 28-36 record. Former Everett players Rich Dorman and Scott Steinmann will serve as pitching and hitting coaches, respectively.
The team’s first practice is at 5 p.m. today at Everett Memorial Stadium. The Sox play one exhibition game, Wednesday’s seventh annual Everett Cup contest against the Pacific International League’s Everett Merchants. The regular season begins on the road Friday against the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, and the first home game is next Monday versus the Yakima Bears.
This season the Sox double their chances of making the postseason for the first time since 2002. The Northwest League adopted a new split-season format, with four of the league’s eight teams qualifying for the playoffs. In each division, the first-half and second-half winners face one another in a best-of-three divisional series. The two divisional winners then square off in a best-of-three championship series.
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