EVERETT — Jhonny Level needed just one pitch to put the Eugene Emeralds on the board against the Everett AquaSox at Everett Memorial Stadium on Friday, hitting a solo home run in the top of the first. The AquaSox tied it up in the bottom of the frame, but Level was far from finished.
With a two-run single in the top of the third and another solo homer in the fifth, Level powered the Emeralds (57-37 overall, 15-13 second-half) to a 5-3 win against Everett (49-45, 16-12).
The 19-year-old infielder is the second-highest ranked prospect in the Northwest League, slotting in at No. 46 on MLB Pipeline — behind only Tri-City Dust Devils pitcher/Los Angeles Angels prospect Tyler Bremner (No. 42) — and No. 3 in the San Francisco Giants’ organization. His performance on Friday, finishing 3-for-4 with four RBI and two runs scored, is just one example why.
“He’s a really good hitter. He’s shown it ever since he came up here,” AquaSox manager Ryan Scott said. “… It’s a guy you got to keep off balance a lot, and I mean, he’s going to do some damage like he did tonight. I know he had one that we call it a ‘Funko Homer’ here that went out to center field that’s probably not a homer in other places, but you play to the field and he earned it. He deserved it. He’s just a good player, and really just trying to mix him up and try to not get him comfortable at the plate.”
Everett starter Colton Shaw allowed all four runs that Level drove in, finishing the night with seven hits and five earned runs allowed as well as five strikeouts over five innings. Relievers Sam Whiting and Pedro Da Costa Lemos each pitched two shutdown innings out of the bullpen, but the AquaSox bats could not find a way to even the score.
Catcher Luke Stevenson and infielder Carter Dorighi each went 2-for-4 at the plate. Mariners infielder Brendan Donovan returned for another rehab appearance after taking Thursday off, but the 29-year-old went 0-for-4, which included a game-ending flyout in the ninth while representing the tying run. Donovan is now 0-for-21 in six rehab games between Everett, Triple-A Tacoma and the Arizona Complex League Mariners since July 15, but he reached base for the first time with the AquaSox when he got hit by a pitch in the seventh.
“It’s still just continuing to build him up, and it’s all dependent on how he feels,” Scott said about Donovan’s plan for the rest of the week. “He’s been feeling good physically right now, which is the biggest thing. I know he made some strides at the plate today, and I know he felt better about his day at the plate being able to make some hard contact. So for ‘Donny,’ it’s really just taking it day by day with him and making sure his body’s going to feel good and be ready to join the big league team here hopefully next week.”
After Level put Eugene ahead as the second batter of the game, Shaw dialed in to retire each of the next five batters, including two strikeouts in a 1-2-3 second inning. Stevenson tied it 1-1 in the bottom of the first with an RBI double to right field, scoring outfielder Ricardo Cova, who singled and stole second to get into scoring position.
“(Emeralds starter Jacob Bresnahan) was a good arm, had a good ride on the fastball, so I was really just trying to get him down,” Stevenson said. “(He) left a pitch up for me and hung a slider, and I just put a good swing on it.”
Level put Eugene in front again in the top of the third with a two-run single after Shaw allowed catcher Onil Perez and infielder Zane Zielinski on base with a hit-by-pitch and walk, respectively. Outfielder Lisbel Diaz pushed it to 4-1 with an RBI double that bounced past Cova, who lost sight of the ball in the sun, but recovered to throw Diaz out when he advanced to third.
Everett responded once again in the bottom of the frame, with infielder Brandon Eike scoring Stevenson with an RBI triple and outfielder Carlos Jimenez bringing Eike home with an RBI groundout to cut it to 4-3, but that’s as close as it would get.
Shaw and Bresnahan each faced just four batters in the fourth inning, but Level got the best of Shaw again in the fifth with his second solo shot of the night to extend the lead to 5-3.
Whiting replaced Shaw in the sixth inning, and despite allowing the first two batters to reach base, he retired each of the next three to get out of the frame. Whiting allowed a leadoff double from infielder Isaiah Barkett, but the defense stepped up behind him as outfielder Aiden Taurek made a sliding catch to retire Level for the first time all night, and Stevenson caught Barkett stealing third before Whiting struck out infielder Robert Hipwell on the next pitch.
“Sam’s able to make really big pitches, Taurek’s able to make great catches, so we’re playing great baseball right now,” Stevenson said. “We’re just going to keep going and doing what we can.”
Da Costa Lemos made his season debut for the AquaSox when he entered for eighth inning, and the 23-year-old righty went six up, six down to close out the game with two perfect innings of relief. Da Costa Lemos spent the majority of the season on the Development List, but was activated on July 14 for two appearances with the ACL Mariners — allowing just one hit and no earned runs across four innings — before he got called up to Everett on Monday. The Santo Andre, Brazil native finished the 2025 season with the AquaSox after his call-up from Single-A on Aug. 1, pitching 18 innings over 10 games with 16 hits, six earned runs and 18 strikeouts against six walks.
“Feeling good, it’s great to be back,” Da Costa Lemos said. “Seeing all the fans in here, seeing everybody’s happy, just playing baseball, man. It’s so much fun and great to be back.”
In his return on Friday, Da Costa Lemos induced back-to-back fly outs to start the eighth before getting outfielder Jose Astudillo to ground out to shortstop, and he got infielder Walker Martin and Zielinski to pop out on either side of Perez, who flied out to Donovan in right field.
“My (pitches were) on the zone today, but it feels like I need to work a little bit more on the finish counts, just (to) strike out guys,” Da Costa Lemos said. “I got a lot of fly balls, but yeah, still in the game.”
Infielder Luis Suisbel doubled with one out in the bottom of the ninth, and he moved to third on a groundout from Dorighi, but Donovan flied out to end the game and secure Eugene’s third win in four games. The AquaSox will look to salvage a series split with games on Saturday and Sunday.