VALLEJO, Calif- The Sonoma Stompers traveled to Vallejo for the final time in 2019 and walked away with a big road victory, 11-4.
The Stompers showed their discipline at the plate against Vallejo right-hander Carl Brice (3-5) who struggled to find the strike zone on Thursday night. With 1 out in the top of the 2nd inning, Miles Williams, Rob DeAngelis, and Nick Kern all walked to load the bases. With Daniel Molinari at the plate, Williams scored on a wild pitch to open the scoring and give the Stompers a 1-0 lead. Molinari then walked to load the bases, the 4thstraight walk allowed by Brice. Matt Hibbert hit a sacrifice fly to center to score DeAngelis and give the Stompers a 2-0 lead. With 2 outs, Jacob Barfield singled up the middle to score 2, the first hit of the game for the Stompers, extending the lead 4-0.
Vallejo got on the board in the bottom of the 3rd inning on a solo home run making the score 4-1. The first hit for Vallejo against Ethan Gibbons (3-3) who got the start Thursday night.
In the top of the 5th inning, Barfield walked for the second time to open the inning before Chris Kwitzer launched his 7th home run of the season, this one to straight away center field, extending the lead to 6-1.
The Stompers got one more in the top of the 6th inning. Molinari doubled to open the inning and scored on an RBI single by Barfield to extend the lead 7-1.
The Admirals scored twice more in the bottom half of the 6th inning on RBI hits from Matt Eureste and Chris Fornaci to bring the Admirals closer, 7-3.
Gibbons was well on his way to a win in a quality start on Thursday night, tossing 6 innings while allowing 3 runs on 4 hits while striking out 5.
Hibbert added another RBI with a single to score Kern in the top of the 7th inning to put the Stompers lead at 8-3.
Vallejo tacked on a run in the bottom of the 7th inning on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Montrell Marshall to score Gomez, cutting into the lead 8-4 with Willie Ethington (4-0) in the ballgame for the 7th.
The Stompers added some insurance in the top of the 9th inning. after 2 quick outs, Molinari walked and Hibbert hit a flare single down the right field line. Pedro Barrios added to the lead with a monster 3-run blast to dead-center field, extending the lead 11-4.
The Stompers got shutdown innings out of the pen from newest Stomper Spencer Backstrom in the 8th and a 1-2-3 9th by Lenny Gwizdala as the Stompers go on to win 11-4.