Gered Mochizuki had a home run, a double and two RBIs in Sonoma's 9-2 win over Pittsburg on Tuesday night. He's 4-9 in his first two games with Sonoma.
Danielle Putonen/Sonoma Stompers
Tim Livingston, Director of Broadcasting & Media Relations
The bats are alive from the start for the Sonoma Stompers in 2015, as the team's 14-hit attack was more than enough in a 9-2 drubbing of the Pittsburg Diamonds.
Six players had multi-hit nights for Sonoma (2-0), as the team jumped on Pittsburg (0-2) starter James LoPresti (0-1) early and didn't let up, knocking him around for 10 hits in only 2.2 innings. Gered Mochizuki and Isaac Wenrich did the most damage against the former SSU player, as Mochizuki's opposite field shot to left and Wenrich moonshot to right-center punctuated Sonoma's early offensive barrage.
Mochizuki added a double and drove in two runs while Wenrich scored three times. Six runs in all came across for the Stompers off LoPresti, and the team scored in each of the first five innings against the Diamonds, who have now given up 15 runs in the first two games of 2015.
Amongst the other offensive superstars for Sonoma were Kristian Gayday and Daniel Baptista, who each tallied three hits. Fehlandt Lentini and Matt Hibbert each had two hits, as well, with Hibbert scoring twice and adding an RBI while Lentini drove in a run and scored a run himself.
While the offense was the big story on Tuesday night, the pitching more than held its own. Eric Schwieger (1-0) had a solid first start of 2015, striking out six in five innings while allowing four hits and two runs. In their first respective appearances of 2015, both Erik Gonsalves and Mike Jackson, Jr. threw two scoreless innings in relief.
Mike Taylor hit a solo homer off Schwieger in the second to tie the game at 1-1 and Chris DeBiasi put the Diamonds in the lead later in the inning with a sacrifice fly, but a four run bottom of the inning for the Stompers was the breaking point in the game. All nine Sonoma hitters came to the plate in the inning.
Sonoma will look for the sweep on Wednesday night in game three of the team's opening series of 2015, with the first pitch set for 6:05 p.m. at Arnold Field. Former Oakland A's farmhand Gregory Paulino is the probable starter for Sonoma, who will be hosting "NASCAR Night" presented by Sonoma Raceway.
Fans will get to see an actual NASCAR Stock Car and get greeted by the Sonoma Raceway Girls as they enter the field. Sonoma Raceway will also be giving out some fantastic raffle prizes, which include tickets to the NASCAR Toyota/Save Mart 350 June 26-28 at Sonoma Raceway.