Spokane ends AquaSox win streak
Published 11:45 pm Saturday, August 15, 2026
EVERETT — Jordy Vargas served the Everett AquaSox a golden opportunity.
The Spokane Indians starter allowed back-to-back singles to start out the second inning at Everett Memorial Stadium on Saturday, and despite striking out the next two batters, a four-pitch walk to AquaSox outfielder Anthony Donofrio loaded the bases. One solid hit from infielder Axel Sanchez and Everett would be in business in its quest to win a fifth straight game.
Sanchez held up his check swing on a pitch low and away, but fouled off the next pitch to bring the count to 1-1. That would be the best chance Vargas would give him.
After making Sanchez whiff twice to strand the loaded bases, Vargas retired the next 10 AquaSox batters. Meanwhile, Spokane (51-61 overall, 22-24, second-half) scored four runs in the top of the third en route to 9-2 win against Everett (58-55, 25-22).
AquaSox starter Evan Truitt lasted just 2 2/3 innings, allowing eight hits, three earned runs and one walk. Reliever Jack White needed just 12 pitches to get through a 1-2-3 sixth inning, but Calvin Schapira, Jose Geraldo and Casey Hintz each allowed one run in their relief stints. For the bats, outfielder Korbyn Dickerson and infielder Ricardo Cova each went 3-for-4, combining for six of Everett’s nine hits on the night.
After the AquaSox failed to capitalize with the bases loaded, Spokane grabbed the lead in the top of the third with an RBI single from infielder Roynier Hernandez to score outfielder Cameron Nelson, who got hit by a pitch to get on base. Designated hitter Wilder Dalis and infielder Kelvin Hidalgo followed that up a few batters later with back-to-back RBI singles to right field to make it 3-0.
Indians catcher Alan Espinal appeared to ground into an inning-ending groundout to shortstop, but Sanchez double-clutched the throw and Espinal reached in time as Dalis scored. Truitt walked outfielder Clayton Gray to load the bases for the top of the order, and that marked the end of his day. Schapira entered and immediately got Nelson to ground out and end the frame.
“Truitt was running out of pitches. That would have been a big out to get Truitt out of that inning and allow him to continue to go back out and finish his outing,” AquaSox manager Ryan Scott said. “… One of those ones where it stinks that the play wasn’t made and one of those ones where we got to try to fight through it and hopefully try to minimize the runs we’re allowing there. It would have been a nice play to make, but sometimes errors are going to happen. We got to live with it and find a way to compete through it.
Vargas protected the lead with nine straight outs between third and fifth innings, but six came from balls in play. Scott said he was happy with the team’s at-bats overall, but with most of the hard hit balls going straight to the defense, the production was hard to come by.
“Sometimes that’s just baseball,” Scott said. “You’re going to hit balls that are going to be right at people. … We’re a team that draws a lot of walks, and so for (Vargas) to go out there and make us put balls in play, that’s a way teams, I guess, can beat us. We did our job, we hit balls hard, and sometimes they’re not going to drop.”
Schapira struck out each of the first two batters in the top of the fifth, but he allowed a solo home run from Gray to push it to 5-0. Two more runners got into scoring position, but Schapira notched an inning-ending punch out on a full count to strand them.
White took over for the sixth and retired the side with two strikeouts. He tossed three straight strikes to get out of a 2-0 count against infielder Ethan Hedges, then got infielder Tanner Thach to ground out on another 2-0 count before getting Dalis to swing and miss on a 1-2 count.
“All I got to do is kind of get it in the zone, and if they put it into play, my guys are going make a play for me,” White said. “So I’m just trusting that, and then it worked out and got to a strikeout.”
Vargas recorded his 11th straight out when outfielder Carlos Jimenez lined out to second base to lead off the bottom of the sixth, but Dickerson broke the skid with a single to center. It turned out to be just a blip; catcher Luke Stevenson struck out on a full count, and Nelson robbed designated hitter Brandon Eike with a diving catch in center field to end the inning.
Geraldo walked two batters in the top of the seventh, then allowed a two-run double from Bernard to bring the score to 7-0 with two outs. Spokane reliever Justin Loer replaced Vargas for the bottom of the seventh. Cova led off with a double to center, and infielder Matthew Ellis brought him home with a single to left to cut it to 7-1.
Hedges reached on another throwing error from Sanchez to lead off the top of the eighth, and Espinal drove him home four batters later to push it to 8-1. Dickerson led off the bottom of the frame with a solo homer to right field, his second in as many games, but Indians outfielder Robert Calaz led off the top of the ninth with a solo home run to make it a 9-2 final.
Everett will close out the homestand against Spokane on Sunday at 4:05 p.m. PT.
