VALLEJO, Calif- The Sonoma Stompers finished their quick two-game series in Vallejo on Friday night with Vijay Patel taking the mound for the first time against Vallejo since tying the strikeout record the last time he squared off against the Admirals.
Patel (3-1) did not allow a base hit until the bottom of the 4th inning when Nick Akins Sr. top-spinned a solo home run to straight away left field for the first Vallejo hit and the first run of the game for either side.
Vallejo got one more in the bottom of the 5th inning on a Vlad Gomez 2-out RBI double to extend the Admiral lead 2-0.
With Patel on the hook and likely coming out of the game, his offense got him right back into the game in the top of the 6th inning. Rob DeAngelis led off with a double down the left field line to start things off. With one out Chris Kwitzer launched his 4th home run of the season to dead-center field to tie the game 2-2.
Patel went back out and finished with 6 innings, allowing just 2 runs, 1 earned, on 6 hits while striking out 9.
The Stompers took their first lead of the game in the top of the 7th inning when Rayson Romero hit a sky-scraping home run to left, his 1st of the season, giving the Stompers a 3-2 lead. A pair of walks to Nick Gotta and Miles Williams out pressure on the Admirals defense. DeAngelis hit a grounder to Fornaci at second base who threw it away, allowing Gotta to score and giving the Stompers an insurance run, 4-2.
Willie Ethington, Connor Leedholm and Ryan Richardson all faced the minimum to slam the door and give Richardson his 5th save in 5 attempts.
The Stompers improve to 22-8 on the season and remain 3.5 games ahead of San Rafael.
The Stompers are home Saturday night at 6:05 for Autism Awareness Night and once again on Sunday afternoon at 1:05.