By Stompers Staff
The Sonoma Stompers defeated the Alameda Merchants 8-7 in a Saturday night battle that saw four total home runs, two from each side. After the first four innings, it looked like Sonoma was going to run away with, as they went up 7-0. But two massive innings for the Merchants evened the game going into the seventh inning. A wild pitch in that inning ended up being the decider, when Jack Lazark scored from third base.
The Sonoma offense was electric tonight, namely in the second and third innings. After two singles and a hit by pitch, the Stompers loaded the bases in the second. Jack Scheri stepped up and was hit by a pitch, which scored the first run. With the bases loaded again, Trent Abel stayed hot and hit a two run single.
Then in the third inning, a two out rally spurred by a walk and hit by pitch began. With two runners on, Sonoma native Nick Sebastiani launched a 373 foot home run to left center. After a pitching change, Scheri followed the freshman with another homerun, smacking a ball to left. This gave the Stomps a 7-0 lead.
However, the Merchants quickly jumped back into the game, scoring two runs in the fifth and five in the sixth. In the sixth, Alameda launched two homeruns over the right field fence. So it was tied when the Stompers were able to move Lazark to third. He then easily walked home after a wild pitch from the Merchants hurler. This ended up being the winning run, as Shawn McBroom and Mick Kelley mowed down the Alameda lineup. These two relievers gave up no hits and struck out three combined to silence the visitors. McBroom got the win, Kelley the save.
Sebastiani had two hits on the night, and he walked once and got hit by a pitch, getting one base in each of his plate appearances. He also had three RBIs and scored twice. Abel had a huge three hit night, knocking in two runs. Scheri added the two other RBIs. Alijah Ramos also added a hit tonight, extending his on base streak to a mind boggling 26 games. Catcher Jack Vanoncini also had a hit tonight.
The Stomps look to keep up the high energy from tonight’s game with another crucial matchup with division leaders, the Walnut Creek Crawdads. This is an away game, set for 4:00 first pitch. You can follow only with our radio broadcast, which will be on Mixlr: https://sonoma-stompers.mixlr.com/.