By Kiran Costa
It’s been an up-and-down first half in Sonoma, but the Stompers head into the All-Star break in sole possession of second place in the CCL North with a 14-13 record. The Stomps came out of the gate hot starting the season 4-1 including a win in the CCL opener against the Walnut Creek Crawdads. The Stompers picked on one CCL foe in particular, dominating the Menlo Park Legends, winning 5 of the 6 meetings. That includes 13-1 and 16-1 wins over Menlo Park, the two highest-scoring totals from the Sonoma offense, topped off with a 4-game-winning streak in early July to catapultted Zack Pace’s crew into second place.
Alijah Ramos was a first-half standout for Sonoma, the Cal State Fullerton second baseman led the Stompers in multiple offensive categories. Ramos hit .303 with a .429 on-base percentage and got on base in all 25 games he played. Eighteen-year-old Center Fielder Paul Contreras also had a great first half. After a breakout season at Modesto JC, Contreras leads the CCL in walks with 23 as well as leading the team in home runs. Ramos along with fellow middle infielder Trent Abel were picked to represent the Stompers at the CCL Showcase Game, with 3rd baseman Tyler Holley set to participate in the Home Run Derby.
The Stompers pitching staff was fantastic in the first half of the season, posting a CCL North bet 4.38 ERA. Pitching Coach Milke Nunes’ staff also led the North in strikeouts with 249. Four pitchers were selected to represent the Stompers at the Showcase game; Dylan Goff, Bryant Thornton, Destin Allen-Fox, and Hawk Hill. Allen-Fox the southpaw out of CSUN, led the squad with 35 strikeouts including an impressive 4.2 shutout innings in a 4th of July victory. Fellow All-Star Dylan Goff, a reliever turned starter out of Cal State Fullerton posted a 1.92 ERA with an astounding 26/2 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
The Stompers have just nine games left in the regular season, and sit 4.5 games back of the Walnut Creek Crawdads for first place, with a 1.5 game cushion over the SLO Blues. The top three teams in the CCL North enter the playoffs, the two-seed and three-seed facing off in a one-game playoff, the winner taking the one-seed. Post all-star break, Sonoma will welcome a few new faces to the team as they open up the latter half of the campaign on Friday, July 19th vs Alameda at Arnold Field.