By Stompers Staff
The Sonoma Stompers secured a fourth straight win after beating the Menlo Park Legends in a pitching duel, 2-1. A bloop single, an error, and electric pitching was the difference as the Sonoma defense held the Legends to only four hits, and only one run. Manager Zack Pace talked about what has been going well for the Stomps, noting “really good defense, pitchers are filling up the zone, getting a lot of outs, and hitters are doing a good job getting our quality at bats.” Despite only scoring two tonight, Sonoma was working counts and hitting the ball hard all around the field, but most of them were finding Menlo Park gloves.
Hawk Hill started tonight and continued his consistency, striking out two, walking two, giving up one hit and only one run. His ERA moves to 0.60 in conference play. After Brent Mallet and Riley Phelan relieved Hill, shutting out the Legends, Shawn McBroom came in for the seventh and eighth innings. He had two strong innings, striking out two, allowing only one hit and silencing the Legends in his winning performance.
Then, up one in the top of ninth, Yale product Mick Kelley came in to close. After getting the first two batters out, two runners were able to get on via hits, setting up first and third for Kody Watanbe. Kelley said that going into the last hitter “I knew I had to pound the zone, I’d be getting behind in counts early…just looking to attack the zone.” Kelley beared down and struck out Watanbe to win the game, earning the save and giving a salute to the crowd. When asked about it he said there was no origin behind the salute but he “was just fired up to be out there and it was the first thing that came to mind, you know, just went with the flow.” Sonoma pitching has been going with the flow quite well recently, pitching another one run game.
While the Stompers offense had six hits, they had a lot of good contact at the plate. Namely, Jack Scheri had several hard line drives into the outfield that took unlucky paths right towards Legends fielders. Jack Lazark continues to have a presence in the batter’s box, going 2 for 4 on the night, and scoring in the fifth off of Trent Abel’s bloop RBI single. Lazark commented on his hitting approach recently saying, “I’m just trying to simplify things, having that yes yes mentality.” Abel also had a two hit game, having the only RBI for Sonoma. Scheri and AJ Carter added the two other hits for Sonoma.
The second run for Sonoma came off of Scheri’s hit, where he grounded a ball between the first and second baseman. The first baseman fielded and attempted to throw Luke Rossi out at third after he took a turn. But, the ball sailed over the head of the third baseman and Rossi easily scored, bringing in the game winning run.
This marks a four game winning streak in CCL play for the Stomps, keeping their second place spot for the moment. Sonoma has another home game tomorrow, for the last of their six straight. They play the Petaluma Athletic Edge in a non-conference game at 6:05 from Arnold Field. Come out and support or catch the broadcast on our YouTube channel!