‘Special players, special times’: AquaSox win championship

EVERETT — The last thing Lucas Kelly remembered was seeing the ball hit Matthew Ellis’ catcher’s mitt. The next thing he knew, he was wrapped up in a hug as his teammates flooded around him.

By striking out his third batter of the ninth inning, Kelly secured the 2025 Northwest League Championship for the Everett AquaSox.

Final: #AquaSox win 6-3

The Everett AquaSox are the 2025 Northwest League Champions pic.twitter.com/gLi6M7Eeqp— Joe Pohoryles (@Joe_Poho) September 14, 2025

With a 6-3 win in Game 4 against the Eugene Emeralds at Funko Field on Saturday, the AquaSox won the best-of-five series 3-1, locking up their second championship and first since 2010. (The Everett Giants won the 1985 Northwest League Championship against Eugene as well.)

As the celebratory mosh pit migrated back towards the dugout, manager Zach Vincej stood back, misty-eyed, and watched his players enjoy the moment. In his third year as a manager, the 34-year-old has three championships, winning back-to-back titles with Single-A Modesto in 2023 and 2024.

In his first season in Everett, Vincej added more hardware to the trophy case. Asked if he ever could have envisioned winning three straight titles to start his managing career: “No chance.”

“It’s so hard to win a championship,” Vincej said. “It’s hard to win in general in baseball. …

“Just seeing how excited the guys are and seeing how much energy they have, and how they’re rooting for each other, and it’s one collective effort. That’s what it’s all about, and that’s what we’re trying to do here at the (Seattle) Mariners, is just build that winning culture, you know. It starts from the minor leagues, all the way up.”

Perhaps fittingly, the three Everett players who hit home runs in the decisive victory have been on the roster since Day 1 of the 2025 season: Charlie Pagliarini, Tai Peete and Luis Suisbel. Suisbel hit the go-ahead, two-run homer in the bottom of the third inning to give the AquaSox a 4-3 lead.

The contributions went all the way down to newcomers like Kelly, who pitched just six innings across five games in the regular season after joining the team on Aug. 18. The Mariners selected the 22-year-old righty in the sixth round of the 2025 MLB Draft out of Arizona State in July.

Kelly called it “Deja vu” coming out to pitch the ninth inning on Saturday, citing his closing experience in college. Of course, the championship stakes added some tension, but he never felt uncomfortable. He tried not to think about it.

“Our hitters put us in a good spot with a three-run lead, so just attack them,” Kelly said. “I know I had good stuff, (so) see if they can hit it.”

In short: They couldn’t. Save for a two-out single from Eugene infielder Jean Carlos Sio on the first pitch of the at-bat, Kelly fanned the three other batters he faced. Emeralds outfielder Jonah Cox whiffed on three straight pitches to end the game, sending the crowd and Everett dugout into a frenzy.

“I may or not have blacked out after that,” Kelly said.

It secured something of an upset victory for an AquaSox team that won the first-half title (37-29), but finished last in the second-half standings (23-43), a whole 26 games behind Eugene (49-17). Everett even lost five of six games to the Emeralds just two weeks ago, in a six-game homestand from Aug. 26-31.

Through all the struggles down the stretch, the AquaSox held a confident front, but with the season complete, Vincej shed some light on what it meant to push through all the losing in recent weeks.

“Obviously, we all want to win,” Vincej said. “The boys were frustrated at times, but you know, they kept showing up, they kept getting better, and you know, this is all worth it. We do it for this moment right here, and to show up in big spots like that, it just shows a lot about the character of our club.”

The first one to show up in a big spot on Saturday was starter Nick Payero, who retired three of the first four Emeralds hitters. Then Pagliarini continued his trend of hitting leadoff home runs in meaningful games.

The 24-year-old infielder hit leadoff home runs on the very first pitch both when the AquaSox clinched the first-half title against the Spokane Indians on June 19, and in Game 1 of the championship series in Eugene on Tuesday.

His homer on Saturday came on the second pitch of the at-bat, but it had the same effect either way. As soon as the ball left his bat, Pagliarini stared into the AquaSox dugout and gave his bat a light flip before rounding the bases. He was greeted with an amped-up dugout. He gave Peete a sweeping “low-five” as Suisbel slapped his back. Pitcher Taylor Dollard flexed both arms in the background.

“There’s nothing more I want to do, especially in that spot, (than) to give the boys some energy,” Pagliarini said on Tuesday. “(…) I was fired up, trying to get the boys fired up early.”

But the Emeralds stormed back to score three in the top of the second. A Jack Payton single and Jakob Christian walk put two runners on right away. Catcher Onil Perez laid down a bunt, and Payero fumbled the grab and rushed the throw to first, which deflected into the outfield and allowed Payton to score.

A sacrifice fly from designated hitter Quinn McDaniel and an RBI double from Zane Zielinski tacked on two more runs to give the Emeralds a 3-1 lead entering the bottom of the second.

But those were the last runs Everett would give up all season, and the comeback was quick and emphatic. Peete led off the bottom of the frame with a home run of his own — tossing his bat even harder than Pagliarini the inning prior — to cut the deficit to 3-2, and Suisbel put them ahead for good in the third, lining a two-run homer just inside the left field foul pole following a walk by Ellis to give Everett a 4-3 lead.

Outfielders Jonny Farmelo and Colin Davis added insurance with a couple of sacrifice flies in the seventh and eighth, respectively. Meanwhile, Gabriel Sosa, William Fleming and Ben Hernandez combined to allow just one hit across four scoreless innings to set up Kelly for the save in the ninth.

Then, euphoria.

“Obviously, we didn’t have the greatest second half, and the guys showed up to play and they competed,” Vincej said. “I knew they were capable of doing it, and they showed up when they needed to in special moments.

“When you have a group of special players, you’re going to get special times.”

For the Funko Field crowd who stayed long after the final out to revel in the championship the AquaSox brought back to the city, it was a special time indeed.