By Stompers Staff
The Sonoma Stompers began a stretch of away conference matchups at Alameda this Tuesday, losing 6-5 in a tight one. Again, the bats were not able to get going for the Stompers, as only 2 of their 5 runs were earned, most coming from a series of walks and errors by the home team, the Alameda Merchants. The loss moved Sonoma below the San Francisco Seagulls, to sixth in the CCL North, only ahead of the Merchants.
Sonoma’s eighth inning pitcher, Paul Valdivia, got the loss after giving up one run on two hits. Alameda’s reliever, Andres De Leon received the win, throwing two and ⅓ innings, walking three Stompers, but also striking out four. Anthony Gamboa closed in the ninth for the Merchants, earning the save by striking out two.
Sonoma started the game going one, two, three in the top and then gave up two runs in the bottom of the first inning, on a sac fly and passed ball. The Stompers stayed quiet offensively, leaving two on in the third inning. After giving up another run in the bottom of the third, the Stomps responded by putting together an impressive four run inning. It started with hits from Jack Scheri and Luke Rossi, and then a hit by pitch and two walks scored the two Stompers. After a pitching change for Alameda, a Kaiden Dossa ground ball to third base forced an error that scored two more for Sonoma.
Another error by the Merchants allowed the Stomps to score another in the fifth, making it a 5-3 game. But, Alameda then scored on a base hit in the bottom of the fifth. They then tied it up in the sixth, on a wild pitch from Sonoma. This set up a crucial last three innings, where the Stompers were unable to convert on offense. In the bottom of the eighth, two hits from the Merchants scored a sixth run, putting them in the lead. Sonoma went down one, two, three in the ninth, resulting in a tough loss.
This sets up an important game as the Stompers travel to San Francisco to face the Seagulls, where they look to turn around the momentum. Our broadcast team is working diligently to put together a radio broadcast for these CCL away games, so make sure to tune in and support the Stompers! This can be found at this link: https://sonoma-stompers.mixlr.com/!