AquaSox book spot in championship series, eye 2nd-half title

The Everett AquaSox will be playing for the Northwest League championship.

Everett booked its place in the Northwest League championships series with five games to spare when it defeated Eugene 2-1 Monday at Funko Field.

The Sox came into their final series of the regular season, a six-game homestand against the Emeralds, needing just one win to secure their postseason berth. Though Everett is still vying with Vancouver for the second-half title, the Canadians already had their spot in the championship series wrapped up because they won the first half, meaning the Sox would qualify if they clinched second. With Everett entering the week with a five-game lead over Eugene, just one win in the final series would do the trick.

Everett made sure there was no drama by winning Monday’s series opener. However, there was plenty of drama in the game itself, as the Sox were held scoreless until the bottom of the eighth inning, when Ben Ramirez slugged a two-out, two-run homer that turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead and ended up clinching the playoffs for Everett.

“That was exciting,” Everett manager Ryan Scott said about Ramirez’s homer. “The game was kind of a stalemate with us not being able to push across any runs, but Hogan Windish did a great job of getting a two-out single in front of Ben, and Ben got a fastball over the plate that he didn’t try to do too much with, he barrelled it up and hit a homer.

“It was nice to get it out of the way,” Scott added about getting the playoff-clinching victory in the first game of the series. “Everybody knew what was at stake, all the players knew what we were playing for. We came out and executed, especially the pitching staff, and didn’t let the moment get too big.”

With the postseason already wrapped up, Everett can use the final five games of the regular season to prepare for the best-of-five championship series against Vancouver, which begins next Tuesday. Scott said the priority was getting the pitching staff optimally lined up, with ace Reid VanScoter, who struck out 12 in 6.2 innings Monday, seemingly in line to pitch Game 1.

But Scott also said he believes there’s value in winning the second half. Everett had been playing catch-up against the Canadians the entire second half. But the Sox’s recent surge, combined with Vancouver’s five-game losing streak, meant Everett (37-24 second half, 71-56 overall) grabbed a half-game lead over the Canadians going into Vancouver’s game Tuesday night at Tri-City.

“It’s something we still should be playing for,” Scott said. “We’re going to come out and try to win baseball games this week, we’re not going to roll over and let Eugene win five games. We want to play good baseball and have that roll into next week when the games truly matter. And these games still matter for the players’ careers and development.”

Players of the week

Hitter: Cole Young. The 20-year-old shortstop, who was the Seattle Mariners’ first-round pick in the 2022 draft, continued to be a hitting machine as he smacked 12 hits in seven games, including a four-hit game in Sunday’s 11-0 victory at Spokane. For the week Young triple-slashed .462/.531/.654 with five runs, one home run and four RBI, and since arriving in Everett in mid-July the top prospect is triple slashing .295/.403/.489 in 44 contests.

Pitcher: VanScoter. The 24-year-old left-hander, who was a fifth-round pick by the Mariners in the 2022 draft, was magnificent in Monday’s playoff-clinching victory. In 6.2 innings he allowed just one run on seven hits and one walk, and his 12 strikeouts was a career high. He is leading the league in wins (10, tied with teammate Kelvin Nunez) and strikeouts (157 in 143.1 innings) and is second among qualifiers in ERA (3.27).

The week ahead

Everett finishes off the regular season with five more academic games at home against Eugene — because of Labor Day the teams played the first game of the series Monday and had an off day Tuesday. The Emeralds, who are an affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, are 30-31 in the second half (64-63 overall) and in third place in the league standings. Everett is 14-8 against Eugene this season.

Eugene is led by a pair of solid prospects in center fielder Grant McCray (.256, 13 homers, 64 RBI, ranked No. 7 among Giants prospects by MLB.com) and shortstop Aeverson Arteaga (.242, 17 homers, 73 RBI, ranked No. 12 among Giants prospects by MLB.com). McCray leads the league with 48 stolen bases. Right-handed pitcher Trevor McDonald (3-1, 0.53 ERA, seven walks and 35 strikeouts in 33.2 innings), who started Monday’s game for the Emeralds, has been lights out since returning from injury at the beginning of August.