AquaSox clinch first-half title with win in Spokane

From the first pitch of the game, the Everett AquaSox were in the driver’s seat.

Facing the Spokane Indians on Thursday with a chance to claim the first-half title, and therefore a spot in September’s Northwest League Championship Series, the AquaSox jumped ahead immediately after leadoff hitter Charlie Pagliarini crushed the first pitch he saw for a solo home run to right field.

Two batters later, Michael Arroyo homered on the first pitch he saw, and then the AquaSox loaded the bases to set up a 2-RBI double from Freuddy Batista, which gave Everett a 4-0 lead heading into the bottom of the first.

AquaSox starter Ashton Izzi allowed six hits and three earned runs in six innings, and the AquaSox (37-29) won 8-3, extending their win streak to six while securing the championship berth.

Everett was not in control of its own destiny going into this week, trailing the Vancouver Canadians by one game. However, entering their series against Spokane, the AquaSox only focused on themselves.

“We (couldn’t) care less about what Vancouver’s doing,” AquaSox bench coach Hecmart Nieves said after Sunday’s 13-1 win against Tri-City. “We just come in here, we do our thing. We’re trying to perform, win baseball games, and that’s our mentality right now.”

By taking care of their own business — with a 5-1 win on Tuesday and 9-3 win on Wednesday against Spokane — the AquaSox got their opening. Vancouver lost 8-1 to Eugene on Wednesday, snapping an 11-game win streak to match Everett at 36-29 entering Thursday.

The AquaSox owned the standings tiebreaker with a 7-5 record against the Canadians this season, which meant all they needed was a win on Thursday to secure the first-half title.

Had Everett lost, it still could have clinched a spot in the championship series with a Vancouver loss to Eugene. Ultimately, it wouldn’t matter what Vancouver did. The AquaSox took care of business themselves.

It started with the Pagliarini and Arroyo home runs to take a quick 2-0 lead. Singles from Lazaro Montes and Tai Peete sandwiched a walk from Luis Suisbel to load the bases, and Batista scored two with a single to left field. Peete was tagged out trying to reach third, but Everett had positioned itself in a good spot nonetheless.

The AquaSox tacked on three more runs in the third with a two-run homer from Montes and an RBI-double from Josh Caron, who talked about how the first-half race impacted his mindset after Everett’s win against Tri-City on Sunday.

“The biggest key to having success myself is just focusing on the team winning,” Caron said. “I think if we stay focused on that race that we’re in in this first half, I think that’ll be better for all of us as opposed to focusing on personal success.”

Spokane responded with three runs in the bottom of the third to cut it to 7-3, with home runs from Darius Perry and Aidan Longwell — the latter a two-run blast — but Izzi pitched cleanly for the rest of his outing, finishing with three strikeouts and no walks.

Montes extended the lead with his second homer of the game, this time a solo shot in the top of the seventh inning. Relievers Ben Hernandez, Tyler Cleveland and Stefan Raeth combined to strike out four, allowing just one hit and one walk across the final three innings to set up the 8-3 final.

Raeth struck out Spokane’s EJ Andrews Jr. to end the game, and the AquaSox spilled out of the dugout to swarm the mound. After the way the season started, it was hard to imagine the first half would end like this.

On May 14, Everett sat alone at the bottom of the Northwest League standings. By May 31, the AquaSox sat second-to-last in front of Vancouver. In just a few weeks, both teams surged to the top, and after Thursday, it will be Everett competing for the Northwest League Championship in September.

“We know (that) the first part of the season, we don’t have a good moment,” Suisbel said on Sunday. “But now, we have. Now we show our abilities, and I think (that) we have a good team to go into the championship.”