AquaSox late rally falls short against Spokane

EVERETT — When Charlie Pagliarini stepped to the plate in the bottom of the eighth inning, the crowd at Funko Field could sense a big play coming.

The Everett AquaSox second baseman had hit the first of back-to-back homers along with third baseman Luis Suisbel in the seventh to cut the deficit to 4-3 against the Spokane Indians on Saturday, and Pagliarini was batting with runners on the corners and two outs.

The first pitch from Indians reliever Fidel Ulloa went up by Pagliarini’s face, but the 24-year-old from Trumbull, Conn. pulled his head away in time. He watched the second pitch breeze outside the zone to make it a 2-0 count.

With an ideal hitter’s count, Pagliarini caught the third pitch inside and lined a rope in the air along the first base line. If it landed fair, the game would be tied. With a fortunate roll and shortstop Felnin Celesten running on contact from first base, it could give Everett the lead.

But almost as quickly as the ball left Pagliarini’s bat, it zipped into Aidan Longwell’s glove. The Spokane first baseman’s quick hand to snatch the ball out of the air abruptly ended the inning, and shut down any chance to tie the game. After all six batters between both sides were retired in the ninth, the Indians walked away with a narrow 4-3 win.

“I got an advantage count there and he made a good pitch, but I thought I hit it pretty well,” Pagliarini said. “Just unfortunately, Longwell plays a good first base. Actually hit to him a few times tonight, but it’s the way it goes sometimes.”

Saturday marked the first home start for Ryan Sloan, whom the Seattle Mariners promoted on Aug. 10 before he made his debut in Hillsboro on Aug. 16. The 19-year-old right-handed prospect ranks fifth in the Mariners’ system and No. 42 overall in MLB.

Sloan bookended his first inning at Funko Field with a pair of strikeouts, but he let up three hits in between, including an RBI double from Blake Wright that gave Spokane an early 1-0 lead.

The bottom of the first saw a rare occurrence in the new world of baseball: a strikeout after a pitch clock violation. Catcher Josh Caron was ruled to not be in the batter’s box in time and received an automatic strike with the count at 2-2, ending his at-bat despite the protests from Caron and AquaSox manager Zach Vincej.

Sloan allowed just one hit between the second and third inning, but got into trouble in the fourth when singles from Andy Perez and Tommy Hopfe put runners on the corners. With two outs and a 1-1 count, Sloan tested Spokane outfielder Tevin Tucker with a pitch in the inside-middle part of the strike zone. Tucker made him pay, crushing it off the left field foul pole to make it 4-0.

“I feel like I executed pretty well,” said Sloan, who threw 79.7 percent strikes after eclipsing 80 percent in his debut. “I was filling (the strike zone) up, but maybe just (need to get) more fine with my two-strike pitches. I mean, there’s definitely more I can take away. I really haven’t thought about it a lot yet. I just wanted to be here for the team and try to squeak out a win.”

That was Sloan’s last pitch of the night, and Pedro Da Costa Lemos entered to get the final out of the inning. Lemos pitched 2.1 perfect innings in relief, and the Indians did not record a single base hit for the rest of the game, with Jose Geraldo allowing one walk over two innings and Calvin Schapira pitching a 1-2-3 ninth.

“(Lemos has) done a fantastic job for us since he got here (on Aug. 1),” AquaSox pitching coach Matt Carasiti said. “I mean, covering both innings like that, since the moment he’s got here, it’s been really impressive.

“Just fills it up, throw strikes and gets quick outs, and that was the theme tonight with all the relievers. They did a really good job.”

Everett got on the board in the fifth inning, when Anthony Donofrio hit an RBI single to left field and scored Tai Peete following his leadoff double. Donofrio was caught trying to advance to second, but still cut the score to 4-1.

Pagliarini and Suisbel hit home runs on back-to-back pitches in the bottom of the seventh to make it a one-run game, but that was all the AquaSox could muster once the eighth-inning rally fell short.

Everett wraps up the home series against Spokane on Sunday at 4:05 p.m.