SONOMA, Calif- The Sonoma Stompers took on the Salina Stockade on Saturday night with Jacob Cox on the mound in just his 3rd start of the season.
Cox was rudely introduced to the game when Justin Byrd homered (7) to open the game and give Salina the early 1-0 lead.
The Stockade extended their lead to 4-0 in the top of the 2nd inning on yet another Byrd home run, this time a 3-run shot to open the Salina lead up to 4-0.
The Stompers answered in the bottom half of the inning, loading the bases on a hit from Pedro Barrios and walks from Jacob Barfield and Rayson Romero. With a left-hander on the mound, Ben Herrick, Barfield stole home in exciting fashion with 2 outs to crack the goose egg for the Stompers. Then, Nick Gotta singled home Barrios to cut the lead in half 4-2. Romero later scored on a wild pitch to bring the Stompers within 1, 4-3.
Salina got another run in the top of the 3rd inning after Cosimo Cannella reached on an error and scored on a wild pitch to make the score 5-3.
Dondrei Hubbard led off the bottom of the 4th inning with a ringing double and he scored on a Barrios RBI single, bringing the Salina lead back to just 1, 5-4.
The Stompers broke it open in the bottom of the 6th inning when they scored 3 times. Romero led off the inning with a single and scored on an error by catcher Nick Crouse to tie it up 5-5. Chris Kwitzer drove a 2-run double to left-center to bring home Rob DeAngelis and Hubbard to give the Stompers their first lead.
Kwitzer drove in another insurance run in the bottom of the 8th inning, hitting a sacrifice fly to bring DeAngelis home and put the Stompers ahead by 3, 8-5.
The score would hole there and the Stompers got 4 shutout innings from the bullpen. 2 innings from Willie Ethington; one inning each from Ethan Gibbons and Ryan Richardson, who collected his 6th save.