SONOMA, Calif- The Sonoma Stompers avenged their 4th of July loss to Salina on Wednesday night behind the right arm of Nick Barnese (4-0).
Salina got on the board first in the top of the 3rd inning when leadoff batter Justin Byrd took Barnese deep the other way, giving the Stockade a 1-0 lead.
The Stompers offense sputtered the first time through against Neil Lang (2-2), but gained traction in the bottom of the 4th inning.
Nick Gotta led off the inning with a base hit back up the middle, the first of the game for the Stompers. Miles Williams followed with an opposite-field blast, hit 5thhomer of the season, putting the Stompers up 2-1. But the offense did not cease there.
Rob DeAngelis and Dondrei Hubbard collected back-to-back singles and Brent Gillespie drove them both home with a laser double down the right field line, increasing the lead 4-1. Later in the inning, Pedro Barrios hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Gillespie and cap off the 5-run inning which put the Stompers ahead 5-1.
In the bottom of the 6th inning, Daniel Molinari and Barrios notched back-to-back hits and were both moved up on a groundout by Rayson Romero. With one out, Michael Pope balked to bring Molinari home to make it 6-1.
Barnese impressed once again with 6, 1-run innings while allowing just 5 hits and striking out 7. Well on his way to his 4th win of the season.
The Stompers tacked on one more for good measure in the bottom of the 7th on a Hubbard single to score Gotta and make it 7-1.
Pat Barnett, Willie Ethington, and Ethan Gibbons tossed 3 shutout innings to close the game out and give the Stompers the win to improve their record to 21-7, 3.5 games ahead of San Rafael.
The Stompers are in Vallejo Thursday and Friday but will be back home Saturday for Autism Awareness Night at 6:05 and on Sunday for the first home day-game of the season at 1:05.
Tickets can be purchased at stompersbaseball.com.