EVERETT — Matthew Ellis did everything in his power to protect the 1-0 lead the Everett AquaSox held over the Eugene Emeralds at Everett Memorial Stadium on Sunday.

Eugene had runners at second and third in the top of the fourth inning, and Ellis blocked two consecutive low pitches from Everett starter Walter Ford to keep the ball in front of him and prevent the runners from advancing. Even when Emeralds outfielder Walker Martin laid down soft contact to first baseman Brandon Eike, Ellis corralled the fielder’s choice throw and spun around to tag designated hitter Cam Maldonado at the plate to maintain the lead, which the 26-year-old created with a solo homer in the second.

“It was huge,” AquaSox manager Ryan Scott said. “And those are the plays, as a catcher especially, that you want to be able to make. Those are the ones where — They always say ‘a good catcher’s one that normally doesn’t get recognized,’ and those are the plays that are going to get you recognized right there.”

Ultimately, that effort was all for naught.

Eugene infielder Hayden Jatczak hit a three-run home run in the next at-bat, and after Ford walked infielder Robert Hipwell, catcher Daniel Rogers hit a two-run shot of his own to quickly give the Emeralds a 5-1 lead.

Can’t protect that.

Everett (63-63 overall, 30-30 second-half) found some life in the late innings, but ultimately wrapped up their home finale with an 8-4 loss to Eugene (75-50, 33-26). The AquaSox will close the 2026 season with a six-game road series in Spokane, and they currently sit four games behind Vancouver in the Northwest League second-half standings.

“Just the same as every day this year,” Everett infielder Austin St. Laurent said. “We’re going to focus on Tuesday. When we get to Tuesday, focus on Tuesday, and then after Tuesday focus on Wednesday. So just kind of try to stack as many days, but be where your feet are.”

Each starter pitched a 1-2-3 first inning, but Ellis opened the scoring with a solo home run to right field in the bottom of the second. Ford looked strong through the third inning, tossing another perfect frame before it unraveled in the fourth.

“Obviously, he has to locate well, and (Ford) missed a couple spots there. That made that difficult,” Ellis said. “But at the same time, he did a really, really good job up until that point. I think he’s progressed as the year’s went on, which is good. Hopefully he can take that on to the next week.”

Ellis’ home run remained Everett’s lone hit through the first four innings. Infielder Luis Suisbel tried to spark things with a one-out bunt single in the fifth, but outfielder Anthony Donofrio and infielder Carter Dorighi each struck out to end the frame.

Ford returned to pitch the fifth, retiring the first two batters before allowing a double from outfielder Damian Bravo, who barely beat a tag at second to remain safe. Ford finished the day with six hits, five earned runs, two walks and one strikeout in 4 2/3 innings to drop to 0-12 on the season. Reliever Jose Geraldo entered to pick up the last out, and both he and Pedro Da Costa Lemos pitched 1-2-3 innings with two strikeouts to send it to the seventh-inning stretch.

The AquaSox finally brought a little run support in the seventh when Eike led off with a double and St. Laurent scored him with an RBI single up the middle. Each hit came on a full count after Everett started the afternoon 0-for-5 with one strikeout and one walk in that situation.

“We’re trying to get ourselves into counts and make those guys throw pitches,” Scott said. “Normally the more pitches we see, the better chance we’re going to have to hit something hard, and he’s going to have to come over the plate, and the more we get into good counts. So just trying to make this guy get over the plate and get into a spot where we can hit the ball, and ultimately, we did a good job for the most part, and then just kind of missed some opportunities there (earlier).”

Suisbel hit a double and Donofrio worked another full-count walk to load the bases for Dorighi, who smacked a two-run single to right field and cut it to 5-4, but the rally ended abruptly when outfielder Carlos Jimenez struck out and was ruled to have interfered with Rogers’ attempt to catch Dorighi stealing second.

“The whole game, we were kind of just getting picked apart a little bit,” St. Laurent said. “Had a couple calls not go our way, and a couple calls go their way, but I mean, we just kept playing our ball, and that’s what Scotty’s been saying the whole year: ‘Play our brand. Don’t play theirs.’ So I don’t think we changed anything (in the seventh). We just kind of got the right pitches to hit and kind of picked it up a little bit.”

The Emeralds added a cushion with an RBI single from Jatczak off Everett reliever Casey Hintz in the eighth to make it 6-4. Eike got hit by a pitch with two outs in the bottom of the inning, the second time he was hit this week, which led to the benches and bullpens clearing. However, the umpires and coaches were able to diffuse the situation and keep the sides separated before it escalated into anything physical.

“I like the fire,” Scott said. “I like the boys being able to do that, and go out there and stand up for themselves. Eike’s been hit a couple times this week, and he kind of took exception to that and made it known, and sometimes it’s just competing and part of the game. As long as the boys are under control enough and no one’s going to do anything that’s going to get themselves fined or suspended, I don’t mind the guys having a little bit of fire standing up for their teammate and Eike standing up for himself.”

Eugene reliever Matt Dunaway walked Ellis before inducing an inning-ending groundout from St. Laurent, and Maldonado and infielder Kaeden Kent each drove in a run with back-to-back, extra-base hits to push the Emeralds lead to 8-4 in the top of the ninth.

Marty Gair had little trouble disposing of the final three AquaSox batters in the bottom of the ninth, pumping fastballs in the high-90s and even a few that topped out at 100 in a 1-2-3 frame to secure the win.

Everett faces an unlikely path back to the Northwest League Championship. The AquaSox would have to sweep Spokane while Vancouver goes 1-5 against Tri-City, or have the Dust Devils sweep while Everett goes 5-1 or better. The Canadians hold the tie-breaker of best head-to-head record in the second half (7-5), which means even a 5-1 AquaSox finish and 1-5 Vancouver finish would still give the Canadians the nod.

Despite the long odds, the AquaSox plan to keep it simple.

“There’s nothing different that we’re going to try to do,” Ellis said. “I mean, we’re just going to go out there and just try to win every single game. I mean, that’s all we can do, you know?”