EVERETT — In a Tuesday night matchup at Funko Field full of Everettites, the best ‘Everett’ of the night was from Manassas, Va. And he doesn’t even play for the AquaSox.
In his High-A debut with the Spokane Indians, Everett Catlett struck out 10 across seven innings, allowing just two hits and two walks. Catlett’s nearly perfect outing was hampered when AquaSox outfielder Tai Peete broke through in the seventh inning with a solo home run to make it 1-0.
In a classic pitcher’s duel where Everett’s Ashton Izzi held up his end of the bargain with six shutout innings and seven strikeouts, Peete gave the AquaSox an edge. That was until another Spokane debutante ripped it away.
On the first pitch of the eighth inning from Stefan Raeth, the Indians’ Tommy Hopfe saw it come down the middle and blasted it to right field, tying the game with his first hit and home run of his High-A career. Spokane’s GJ Hill tagged Raeth for a go-ahead solo shot in the ninth, setting the Indians up for a 2-1 win.
The AquaSox were held to just two hits to start off the six-game homestand.
“Just keep battling, just keep competing,” AquaSox manager Zach Vincej said. “There’s going to be games like this where things don’t go your way and you don’t collect a lot of hits, so you just got to keep competing and it’s just a part of it, man.”
Catlett — playing his first professional season — arrived in Spokane carrying a 3.46 ERA in 83.1 innings with Single-A Fresno this year. Hopfe, meanwhile, had a .263 average and .772 OPS while hitting five homers and 31 RBI in 68 games with Fresno this season before his promotion.
For opposing players coming up to make their High-A debuts like Catlett and Hopfe, the pre-scout strategy does not change for the AquaSox, according to Vincej. The team relies on the organization’s scouting report and videos of at bats from the lower levels to put together a game plan.
“We try to prepare the best that we can, and (Catlett) pitched really, really well tonight,” Vincej said. “He was really good. He kept us off-balance and was able to throw some good pitches where we couldn’t really pick up. But yeah, I mean, kudos to him, man. He did a really good job, and we had a tough time making an adjustment.”
Everett AquaSox Ashton Izzi pitches during the game against the Spokane Indians on Tuesday, July 22, 2025 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
For Izzi, it marked the second outing in a row in which he had seven strikeouts, which ties a career-high. The 21-year-old righty had 11 days off since his last start — as opposed to the typical six — due to the All-Star break, which he spent exploring Seattle with his fiancee, Charlotte.
Izzi said it was nice to “step away” from the game for a bit, but he was excited to be back. The 2022 fourth-round pick had allowed at least two earned runs in each of his last seven appearances, but he shut down the Indians on Tuesday.
“Just overcoming some adversity, (allowing) some hits, maybe some walks the last outing, just getting through that and staying in the zone, getting my strikeouts,” Izzi said.
“I’m not focusing on what (Spokane is) doing. My whole job is to put up zeroes. I did that today, and so did (Catlett). Ended up being a good matchup, but my job is just to go out there and put up zeroes.”
After striking out Tevin Tucker to start the game, Izzi hit Hill with a pitch. Hill later stole second, but Izzi struck out the next two batters to end the frame. In the third inning, Spokane’s Aidan Longwell looked to spark a two-out rally with a single off the right field wall, but Curtis Washington Jr. corralled it and lasered a throw to second to beat Longwell there and end the inning.
“I picked it up, looked in, and he was just touching first. They were saying, ‘he’s going, he’s going,’ so I’m like, ‘I don’t know why,’” Washington Jr. said with a chuckle. “But I made a pretty good throw, and we got the out.”
Shortstop Colt Emerson delivered a highlight defensive play of his own in the fifth, picking a hard-hit grounder and getting Jean Perez out to end the inning. Peete, who was fully prepared for the ball to slip past Emerson into the outfield, had his hands on his head in awe while watching the play unfold.
In the bottom of the frame, Washington Jr. broke up the no-hitter by ripping a pitch on the top edge of the zone into center field for a double with two outs. Charlie Pagliarini flied out to left field to end the inning, but it was a start for Everett.
Everett AquaSox outfielder Tai Peete celebrates after hitting a home run during the game against the Spokane Indians on Tuesday, July 22, 2025 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Peete broke open the scoring in the seventh with his 14th homer of the year, a solo shot that marked just his second hit of the past seven games. The 19-year-old outfielder is 2-for-23 (.087) in that span, but Vincej praised his swing selection and noted that he’s hitting the ball hard. That big swing in the seventh could be the first step in breaking the slump.
“You could take anything from confidence, really,” Vincej said. “It could be results. It could be just internal. I mean, there’s been a lot of good at bats that he’s been taking, so absolutely it can bring some confidence, so hopefully that continues moving forward.”
After Hopfe tied it minutes later, Raeth responded with three straight strikeouts. It took Spokane reliever Francis Rivera just five pitches to get through the eighth inning, and Hill hit the go-ahead homer in the top of the ninth.
AquaSox catcher Josh Caron worked a full-count walk with two outs to set Peete up for another high-leverage at bat. The Indians turned to Bryson Hammer for the final out, allowing Peete to stew in the moment even longer.
After watching the first two pitches go far outside the zone, Peete grounded out on a pitch down the middle to end the game.
“I don’t think we’ve been getting a lot of hits in games, so I think we’re just trying to figure it out,” Washington Jr. said. “It’s baseball. It’s going to come. Today we had a chance, we had the opportunity to score a couple runs late in the game, but didn’t come up with the big hits. We’re just going to continue to trust it and be back tomorrow.”
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