EVERETT — For the first time ever, Brandon Williamson feels 100-percent healthy and loose every time he’s at the ballpark.
Consequently, the beginning of his professional career with the Everett AquaSox has been a success.
In possibly the most dominant start of his professional career, Williams struck out five of his six batters faced, matching his season-high, in two clean innings in Everett’s 11-6 loss to the Eugene Emeralds on Saturday night at Funko Field.
“I felt really good,” Williamson said shortly after exiting the game with a 4-0 lead. “The ball was coming out of my hands real well, I feel like I had pretty good feel of all my pitches. I just put it in the zone.”
Williamson, the Seattle Mariners’ second-round pick in the 2019 MLB draft, has been limited to just two-inning stints this year, but he’s flashed some serious potential in limited viewing.
In particular, he’s displayed a hammer curveball to compliment his fastball, which touched 95 mph on Saturday. What’s more is it’s a pitch he only started to throw with regularity this season.
“I think it’s been huge,” Williamson said. “Especially with a good fastball with good (velocity) that has like a 20 mph difference. And I can throw it for a strike, which is the most important thing.”
“Ari (Ronick), our pitching coach, has been great in working with me and helping me develop it and get it sharp. It kind of came naturally because my arm slot is pretty high, so it just came along pretty quick.”
He’s always possessed a slider, too, but it’s been an inconsistent offering this season for the southpaw. It was much firmer on Saturday and it helped yield more positive results.
“I’ve been throwing a really good slider my whole college career and I got here and it kind of got real loopy,” Williamson said. “I found it back tonight and it felt sharp.”
Williamson owns a 2.51 ERA in nine games this season and his 14.59 strikeout-per-nine innings is the sixth highest in the Northwest League among pitchers with at least 10 innings thrown.
Marysville Pilchuk alum Trent Tingelstad hit his fifth home run of the season and Robert Perez added a solo shot to lead the AquaSox’s offense.
Josh Horton covers the AquaSox for the Herald. Follow him on Twitter, @JoshHortonEDH
