AquaSox flounder in all facets in loss to Eugene

EVERETT — It looked like a routine force-out.

With the Everett AquaSox hosting the Eugene Emeralds at Funko Field on Tuesday, Emeralds first baseman Charlie Szykowny grounded a ball between the first and second base gap into Charlie Pagliarini’s glove.

Eugene outfielder Jack Payton made a mad-dash to second base, where Everett shortstop Luis Suisbel stood with his glove ready. It would be a close call. That is, if the ball ever left Pagliarini’s hand.

The 24-year-old hesitated on the throw, ultimately deciding it couldn’t beat Payton there, and turned to put out Szykowny at first instead. But by the time he made the decision, Szykowny reached safely to set the Emeralds up with loaded bases.

“They just seemed to hit balls in spots that were difficult to make plays,” Pagliarini said. “I didn’t think we had a chance at second, so (I) tried to turn and go to first. Honestly, it was a well-placed ball. He had those all day, but it’s all good. It’s one of those games, man.”

With the AquaSox already trailing 2-0, starting pitcher Nico Tellache walked Zane Zielinski to give Eugene another run. Pitching coach Matt Carasiti walked out to the mound for a quick meeting, then Tellache let up back-to-back home runs. First, a Dayson Croes grand slam to right field to balloon the lead to 7-0, and Quinn McDaniel followed up with a moon shot to left field to make it 8-0 two pitches later.

In the span of a couple minutes, the game went from manageable to out-of-hand, and the Emeralds kicked off the six-game series in Everett with a 12-5 win. Eugene starting pitcher Dylan Carmouche struck out 10 batters and allowed just two hits in seven innings of work.

“(Carmouche was) locating all of his off-speed (pitches), kept us off-balance, and yeah, pitching backwards, I think,” AquaSox manager Zach Vincej said. “So yeah, we weren’t able to make an adjustment, but that’s baseball. Just get them tomorrow.”

After the third-inning blow-up, Tellache ended the night with nine hits and eight earned runs in three innings, walking one and striking out three. Jordan Jackson entered the fourth inning in relief and pitched two clean frames before allowing four earned runs in the sixth.

It wasn’t much better for Everett offensively until they managed to plate a few late runs on the Emeralds bullpen. In their first game since the promotions of big bats Lazaro Montes and Michael Arroyo — and with Colt Emerson held out due to hamstring tightness — the AquaSox missed some fire-power.

The AquaSox are looking to replace the production of the two players who ranked first and second in the Northwest League, respectively, in home runs (Montes with 18, Arroyo with 15) and OPS (Montes with .959, Arroyo with .934). Vincej and Pagliarini have faith the rest of the group can fill those gaps.

“We got a great team, so that’s not a concern for us,” Pagliarini said. “Those two players (Montes and Arroyo) are great, they deserved it. They’ll be missed for sure, but we got a lot of players on this team that are ready to go.”

Emerson, meanwhile, is expected to return sometime this week, and was mainly held out on Tuesday for precautionary reasons after he exited early from Everett’s 3-2 win against Spokane on Saturday, according to Vincej.

While not tagged with any errors, the AquaSox defense had trouble corralling the Emeralds grounders all night. Payton’s RBI single in the third to make it 2-0 was an infield hit, and the Emeralds took advantage of some odd bounces to reach base safely on three straight singles in the sixth, with the third scoring Jose Ramos to make it 9-0. The next batter, Drew Cavanaugh, cleared the bases with a three-run homer to center field to extend it to 12-0.

“They found some holes on some weak contact,” Vincej said. “It was one of those games where it felt like everything was falling for them.”

The AquaSox had just one hit entering the sixth inning until Tai Peete broke the shutout with a two-run homer to cut it to 12-2.

“I stayed patient, got the pitch I was looking for,” Peete said. “Stayed on the pitch. My approach was center field. I was trying to (hit a) line drive, so it was a good at-bat.”

The AquaSox had another defensive lapse in the seventh when catcher Freuddy Batista, thinking he secured an easy pop-up in foul territory, quickly dropped the ball out of his glove to get back behind home plate for the next batter. The umpire disagreed and called the play foul instead of an out, which drew the ire of Batista and the home crowd.

Carasiti voiced his displeasure from the dugout — although not quite loud enough to be heard in the press box — and was ejected. He slammed his clipboard down and stormed onto the field to let out the rest of his frustrations.

Must have been some jawing from the dugout, as the umpire ejects pitching coach Matt Carasiti, who then slams his clipboard down and walks out of the dugout to get his money's worth. He yells… some words, then leaves.

Everett trailing 12-2 in T7— Joe Pohoryles (@Joe_Poho) June 25, 2025

Vincej declined to elaborate on what was said, noting it was “a quick comment” that initially got Carasiti tossed. Ultimately, relief pitcher Ben Hernandez struck out Croes on a full count to prevent any harm.

Anthony Donofrio and Batista each hit an RBI-double in the eighth to cut it to 12-4, and Josh Caron led off the ninth with a solo home run to left field for the 12-5 final.

“I liked our energy. I liked how we played,” Vincej said. “It’s just we could have cleaned up some things on the defensive part of things. It’s just they found some holes and they capitalized on it.”