Kam Stewart celebrates with Rob DeAngelis (21) after hitting his 10th home run of the season, a two-run shot in the first inning of the Sonoma Stompers game against the Vallejo Admirals, August 15, 2018 in Vallejo, Calif.(James W. Toy III / Sonoma Stompers)
BOX SCORE
VALLEJO, Calif. – In the most lopsided shutout in the history of the Pacific Association of Professional Baseball Clubs, the Sonoma Stompers routed the Vallejo Admirals 18-0 Wednesday night behind 20 hits and a stellar outing from Vijay Patel.
The 18-run difference in the game was not only the largest margin for a shutout victory in the league, but ties for the largest margin in a game ever in the league, when the Pittsburg Diamonds topped the Admirals 19-1 on Aug. 11, 2016.
The 18 runs and 20 hits were both single-game highs for the team as a whole this season. Only once in the team’s history has Sonoma scored more than 18 runs, June 17, 2017, when they put up 20 on San Rafael. 20 hits ties the team’s single-game record, which had been previously done twice, most recently on July 13, 2017, against the Pittsburg Diamonds.
Ten different Stompers record hits, with six connecting for more than one. Nine players drove in at least one run and eight Stompers scored runs, including Brock Hartley, who set a team record by becoming the first player to score five runs in a game.
Hartley broke out to go 3-4 on the day with three runs batted in, including a two-run single in the first and a solo home run that led off the sixth inning.
“In the first couple of games, I just wasn’t there and couldn’t contribute to the team,” Hartley said. “I’m glad today that I got to contribute, got to show my true colors today. Glad we got the W in a big way.”
The Stompers started the scoring quickly in the first with a six-run frame, the first of four times in the game the team batted around.
Kam Stewart launched a two-run home run to kick things off, then Daniel Baptista brough Kenny Meimerstorf home, Hartley singled in two and Rayson Romero drove in his first of three runs in the game with his first of two doubles on the night
The scoring picked back up in the third when Rob DeAngelis singled in two, then two more runs scored on a Meimerstorf single.
After Hartley’s sixth inning home run, which made the score 11-0, the Stompers struck for four more in the seventh, as Ryan Cooper singled in one run, Romero doubled in two and DeAngelis singled in one more.
Despite a 15-0 lead, Sonoma’s offense did not stop, adding on three more in the eighth with Bronson Butcher’s first run batted in as a Sonoma Stomper, Niko Pacheco’s first hit and RBI with Sonoma and DeAngelis’ fourth run driven in on the night.
In the ninth, Butcher and Meimerstorf each took their seventh at-bats of the game, becoming the first ever Stompers to record more than six in one contest.
While the offense made nearly all of the storylines, Vijay Patel pitched a gem for his team, throwing seven shutout innings on just four hits and one walk with 10 strikeouts.
“It was just competing down in the zone and hitting spots,” Patel said. “If you take a pitch off with [the Admirals] they’ll take advantage and it can become four runs like no other, they’ve got some good guys on the team. So it’s not taking a pitch off, winning every pitch and trusting an 18-run lead they gave me, it’s amazing.
Patel picked up his seventh win of the season, which now leads the team.
Two innings of scoreless relief from Joseph Broderick gave the Stompers’ pitching staff 28 strikeouts and just two walks in the two-game series with the Admirals.
Vallejo and Sonoma do battle once more as the Stompers welcome in the Admirals for the first game of a four-game homestand, before the Pittsburg Diamonds and Martinez Clippers come to town for the remainder of the series.