Stompers Remain Undefeated, Defeat Admirals, 8-3

Erik Gonsalves picked up his first win of the season on Friday night with 3 1/3 no-hit innings.

James Toy III/Sonoma Stompers

Tim Livingston, Director of Broadcasting & Media Relations

Before the Sonoma Stompers franchise came to be, pitcher Erik Gonsalves spent the summer of 2013 pitching for the Vallejo Admirals. After a fine season with the team, the Stompers signed him to be at the front of their starting rotation during their inaugural season. He obliged the team with 106 innings of solid work in 2014, the second most in the Pacific Assocation.

Now in his third year in the league, Gonsalves has seen his role change once more, as he's being asked to come out of the bullpen to begin 2015 with Sonoma. If Friday night's appearance is any indication, Gonsalves might be returning to the starting rotation much sooner than later.

Thanks to Gonsalves' phenomenal 3 1/3 innings of relief and a costly Vallejo error from left fielder Brad Young, the Stompers made a four-run fourth inning hold up in an 8-3 victory over the Admirals, keeping Sonoma undefeated on the young season.

Gonsalves (1-0) pitched two scoreless innings of relief during Sonoma's first home series earlier this week, but got called upon in the fifth inning in a 6-3 ballgame. Vallejo had loaded the bases with two outs thanks to two Sonoma errors in the inning, and the red hot Michael Cerda came to the plate. Cerda was 5-for-14 with a double and two homers in his first three games coming in and already had two hits on the evening, including a two-run double.

Working the Vallejo (3-1) infielder on the inside part of the plate, Gonsalves got Cerda to pop out meekly to shortstop to end the inning, but his mastery did not stop there. Scattering only two walks, Gonsalves didn't allow a hit and struck out five, stopping any notion of a comeback by the Admirals during their Opening Night.

In fact, it was Sonoma (4-0) who had to make the comeback, as after the Cerda double, Sonoma and Vallejo traded runs back and forth to make it a 3-3 ballgame. The costly error by Young came in the fourth on a bases loaded RBI single by Fehlandt Lentini. Young misplayed the ball that landed in front of him, and as it rolled to the wall, all three runners came in to score, giving Sonoma the 6-3 lead.

Joel Carranza reached four times for the Stompers, including two hits. The Stompers first baseman only had one hit in eight at bats coming into Friday's action. In his first game at Vallejo since joining the Stompers, Isaac Wenrich also notched two hits against his former team. Lentini scored three times and stole third on a throw back to the pitcher in the first, getting himself into position to be brought home on Carranza's first hit of the game.

Although it's only four games into the season, the Stompers are way out in front of the other three teams in the Pacific Association in all major hitting categories. Their .327 team batting average is 77 points higher than second-place Vallejo's, and their .430 team on-base percentage is 97 points higher. 41.5% of the league's total walks have been tallied by Sonoma hitters.

While he didn't qualify for the victory, starter Jeff Conley looked good after a rough first inning. In all, he struck out six in 4 2/3 innings and allowed only four hits and three walks. Of the three runs he gave up, two were earned. Paul Hvozdvoic pitched a scoreless ninth inning, as well. This season, Stompers relievers have given up only one run in 29 2/3 innings with a 19/5 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Game two of the three-game weekend series takes place Saturday afternoon at Wilson Park in Vallejo with a change in gametime. The 5 p.m. start time has been moved up to 4 p.m., with the radio broadcast beginning at 3:50 on StompersBaseball.com and via the TuneIn radio app.

How Sweep It Is: Sonoma Wins In 10, 10-9

Mark Hurley is mobbed by his teammates after he scored the winning run on a wild pitch in Sonoma's come-from-behind victory on Wednesday night. Hurley scored twice on wild pitches in the game.

James Toy III/Sonoma Stompers

Tim Livingston, Director of Broadcasting & Media Relations

How sweep it is, indeed.

After spotting the Pittsburg Diamonds a 9-2 lead in the early innings, the Sonoma Stompers roared back to tie the game in the eighth inning and won it in the 10th as Mark Hurley raced home on a wild pitch for a wild come-from-behind victory, 10-9, completing an opening series sweep.

The maddening comeback began in the fifth when Sonoma (3-0) sent 10 men to the plate and scored five times. The biggest jolt of the inning came off the bat of player-manager Fehlandt Lentini, who launched a three-run homer to left to cut the lead to 9-7.

From there, the Stompers took advantage of the inconsistency of the Diamonds battery. Justin Martinez (0-1) had four wild pitches in his three innings of work and miscommunicated with catcher Billy Gonzalez to the tune of two passed balls. Two of those wild pitches allowed runs to score, and both of those runs were scored by Hurley, with the final one costing Pittsburg (0-3) the game.

The Stompers had to come back because of a rough start for right-hander Gregory Paulino, who made his first start since having Tommy John surgery nearly two years ago. The former Oakland A's farmhand threw strikes, but they were hittable, as he gave up eight runs on eight hits in only 1.2 innings.

After Paulino was given an early exit, the Stompers bullpen came through big to keep Sonoma in the game. Save one run given up by Jon Rand, Jr. in the fourth, the Stompers relievers were untouchable. Former Santa Rosa Junior College standout Jerome Godsey threw three shutout innings following Rand before giving way to Sean Conroy (1-0) in the ninth. The sidearmer threw two shutout innings himself and turned an impressive 1-6-3 double play in the 10th on a Chris DeBiasi sacrifice bunt attempt.

The Stompers employed their first shifts of the regular season, all against left-handed hitters. Of their four total shifts, one ball found a hole to the right of second base and Diamonds first baseman Nick Oddo beat the shift with a perfect bunt down the third base line.

Offensively for Sonoma, Lentini led the way with his 2-for-5 night, including that big three-run shot. Daniel Baptista reached base four times while going 2-for-3. Kristian Gayday was 2-for-5 and scored three runs while TJ Gavlik went 3-for-6 in his first start of the season as the designated hitter. The exciting Yuki Yasuda went 2-for-2 as a late-inning replacement, as well.

As a team, the Stompers now have 40 hits in their first three games of the season and have a collective triple-slash line of .342/.430/.504, including five home runs. Even for a small sample size, the early offensive firepower is a good sign of things to come for a team that features a lot of pop up and down the lineup.

With their first home series in the books, the Stompers will look forward to a day off Thursday before beginning a six-game road trip Friday, starting with the first of three games against the Vallejo Admirals. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. with the audio broadcast beginning at 6:55 p.m. both on StompersBaseball.com and the TuneIn Radio app.

Stompers Crush Diamonds, Play For Sweep Wednesday

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.

Baseball Outside Of Major League Baseball Is Different, But So Is Major League Baseball

Eric Garcia McKinley/SB Nation

Originally Published: Beyond The Box Score

Eric Garcia McKinley, Contributor

Baseball Prospectus’s Effectively Wild podcast is known for the quirky questions the hosts Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller receive for its weekly listener email show. My favorite question, and I believe the favorite of many others, was about the essence of baseball: "If baseball were different, how different would it be?" To truly understand something, it’s not enough to investigate the object in question, but also what makes that object different from others. For someone who regularly says the phrase "the difference of difference," out loud and to human beings, this question piqued my interest. I don’t recall the exact answer, but the question was more important anyway.

Ben and Sam are currently entering into an experiment in different baseball. They have taken the reins of baseball operations for the Sonoma Stompers, they of the Pacific Association of Professional Baseball Clubs, for the 2015 season. Their foray into baseball outside of Major League Baseball allows for reflection on the question of different baseball. While not about the difference of baseball itself, we can draw conclusions about different varieties of baseball. All baseball is different—it’s just different in different ways.

I’ve only watched one independent baseball game, and it was actually a professional game that approximated independent ball. It was put on by Baseball-Bundesliga, Germany’s professional baseball league. The game pitted the home team Berlin Sluggers against the Solingen Alligators. While the game was actually professional, it felt independent. The diamond is located far south in Berlin. It’s the only baseball field in the metropolis.

It was an informal environment, which contributed to the feel. The informality was due to a couple of factors. The first and most notable is that in Germany, soccer is king—baseball is more the court jester.

My baseball companions and I purchased tickets from someone sitting in a lawn chair. We sat wherever we wanted. Our options ranged from second row bleacher-like seat to first row bleacher-like seat. In other words, there were two rows and options. And after the game, I strolled right into the Sluggers’ dugout to chat with a couple of players. It was not a security breach. The atmosphere was incredibly light. In this way, the game probably resembled a high school matchup rather than an independent league game. The Stompers will pull in a crowd—who could resist a four-and-a-half foam fingers on Jose Canseco night?

The game itself was different than anything I, or anyone else, has seen in Major League Baseball. First, the final score of the game has never happened in a MLB game. It was 30-0. According to Baseball Reference’s Play Index, since 1901 a team has only scored 30 runs once. In 2007, the Rangers beat the Orioles 30-3. Even if that game was 30-0, the one I witnessed in Berlin would still have been different. Germany’s professional league employs the mercy rule, so the game was called after seven innings. That is to say, parity was not on display in this game.

The players are weekenders. Games are played Friday through Saturday. Not all of the players get paid, and those that do get paid don’t make that much. The teams are mostly populated by Germans. The highest paid players tend to be from the U.S. I wish I knew for sure what level they could reach in the U.S., but my guess is independent ball. The players are responsible for their equipment. Sometime in the third or fourth inning, one of the Berlin Sluggers broke his bat while popping out to second base. He was really angry about it, too—definitely angrier than one should be for turning in an out in a 23-0 game. It turns out he was mad because he had to replace his own bat.

Like Berlin itself, the Sluggers were rough around the edges and much less refined than their counterparts from western Germany. I didn’t capture a particular moment in time due for change, either. The Alligators have played 420 games in 12 seasons for the first division Baseball-Bundesliga, and have a pretty good .736 winning percentage. In seven seasons of play at the top level of play, the Sluggers have a .337 winning percentage in 196 games. Since this game, the Sluggers have been relegated to the second division Baseball-Bundesliga.

The Sluggers' rawness was part of the charm. The starting pitcher for the Sluggers allowed ten runs in the first, but he stayed in the game (rosters max out at about 20). Other pitchers to enter included someone who threw nothing but curveballs, and the person who began the game as the third base coach, who was also the manager. I imagined the sequence a little bit too dramatically. "Enough of this shit," I fantasized him saying, "I’ve got this to the end, even if it means no more dozen run innings." Instead, his first pitched sailed about five feet above the catcher. He gave up a bunch more runs.

It was great.

What makes Major League Baseball different from other forms of baseball—from independent baseball to baseball in foreign countries where the sport is not very popular and all the way down to little league baseball—is the intense scrutiny it receives by newspaper writers, writers who blog, and other members of the media. Additionally, the myriad statistics Major League Baseball collects (the reason that a site like Beyond the Box Score exists) make it different from everything else. The material for calculating batting average, wOBA, ERA, WAR, FIP/xFIP/cFIP, SIERA, WHIP etc. exists in every baseball game, including the one I saw in Berlin back in 2012. But the ingredients that make those statistics are left unmixed far more often than they're put together.

But whether or not the game receives scrutiny and statistics, whether introductory or advanced, says something about the brand of baseball in question. In this way, the difference between Major League Baseball and possibly every other variety (I don’t know enough about foreign leagues such as Japan, Korea, Mexico, etc. to say for sure) in the world is greater than the difference that exists between all others. In the game I went to in Berlin that approximated independent play, the most important figures were the number of runs that evoke the mercy rule and how much the player who broke his bat will have to pay for a new one. Germany’s Baseball-Bundesliga is indisputably different from MLB. That is not to say that the professional and statistical self-legitimization that exists in MLB makes it better—it just makes it different.

I’ve never followed an independent team in the United States. But as the Sonoma Stompers’ season kicks off tonight, I’ll be paying attention. It just might lead to the discovery of a new, different, kind of baseball.

★★★

I would be remiss not to take this chance to recommend the Effectively Wild podcast—it is well rated and reviewed on iTunes. Additionally, a group of Effectively Wild listeners got together and created a truly excellent blog (that I was a part of for a hot minute) called Banished to the Pen. Visit and bookmark that, too.

Sonoma Stompers Give Baseball Writers A Chance To Run The Team (NPR)

Originally Published (With Audio): NPR Morning Edition

David Greene, Host

Writers/podcasters Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller will make real-life player moves. Lindbergh tells David Greene that they're used to making those moves — but in their fantasy leagues.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Most sports fans have had that moment when they become absolutely convinced they could do a better job than whoever is running or ruining their favorite team. Well, what if you actually got your chance? Baseball writers Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller just did.

BEN LINDBERGH: We are very happy to report that Sam and I will be serving as the Sonoma Stompers baseball operations department this summer.

GREENE: The Sonoma Stompers, they're an independent professional baseball team in California's wine country. Think grape stomping. Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller do a weekly podcast where they said they would love to run a team, and the owners of the Stompers heard this and decided to take them up on it. The two writers are passionate about sabermetrics, the kind of baseball number-crunching made famous in the movie "Moneyball."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MONEYBALL")

JONAH HILL: (As Peter) Of the 20,000 notable players for us to consider, I believe that there is a championship team of 25 people that we could afford, like an island of misfit toys.

GREENE: That emotional moment from actor Jonah Hill in the movie "Moneyball," a character Lindbergh says he can really relate to.

LINDBERGH: We're looking for skills that are underappreciated. Really sabermetrics, it just means the search for objective knowledge about baseball.

GREENE: Knowledge that gets put to the test today in the Stompers' home opener. When we reached Lindbergh in Sonoma, we asked what in the world drove him to do this.

LINDBERGH: These days, everyone's an armchair general manager, right, 'cause we all have our fantasy teams and we sit at our keyboards and it's, you know, easy to do when you're not actually in that room, making that decision. And there's the human side of it, you know. There's interacting with players and what happens when you have to cut a player who's underperforming. You know, it's not as easy as pressing the drop button in your fantasy league. You have to sit a guy down and tell him he's out of a job because he wasn't good enough. And so, we're hoping to get a little bit of a culture shock by getting out from behind our computers and getting into the clubhouse and seeing how these things really work.

GREENE: And that brings us to the Sonoma Stompers. So tell me about them.

LINDBERGH: Well, the Sonoma Stompers are an independent league team. And for people who don't know what that means, there are many leagues across the country, professional players who are paid to play baseball, but they're not affiliated with a major league organization. And so, they have more freedom in terms of what they can do, and that's what appealed to us. Sonoma plays as part of the Pacific Association, which is a California league, relatively new, relatively small. So we're hoping it's the perfect place to kind of be a testing ground for some things that might not work as well in the majors.

GREENE: Just take me to the place, if you can. I mean, I've seen the logo for the Stompers. It looks like a vineyard. I mean, is the stadium set in, you know, idyllic wine country of Sonoma County?

LINDBERGH: It absolutely is. It is not a bad place to spend the summer, which is the upside. No matter how this project goes, we will have been in Sonoma for a few months. It's a small town, you know. It's 9,000, 10,000 people, and 2,000 of them will be at Stompers' opening day.

GREENE: Let me ask you this, Ben. I mean, is there one player who you've kind of decided to put on the roster and you can kind of point to him and explain for our listeners, you know, exactly, you know, what the science said about him that makes you confident that he's, you know, the right person to have on the team.

LINDBERGH: I guess I would mention Sean Conroy. He is from a Division III school and so he was not drafted. He doesn't throw particularly hard. He throws sidearm, and then he switches sometimes to throwing over the top so there's a bit of deception. But he is not a big guy. He doesn't have your typical athlete's body. But when you look at his stats and even after adjusting for the quality of competition and the ballparks and the weather and there's so many factors to take into account, after you apply those adjustments to his stats, he looks like one of the best college seniors. So that's kind of the prototype for the guy that we have gone after.

GREENE: So you come in as a baseball writer, you and your colleague, and you tell, you know, this group of baseball professionals who work for the Stompers, we know the science. Here's a pitcher who you might never have looked at, but trust us. Like, he's going to be a great pitcher. I mean, how have the other people involved in the organization reacted to things like that?

LINDBERGH: Thus far, it's worked out well. And, you know, we were as nervous and anxious as anyone when these guys showed up that we picked from a spreadsheet. But luckily, they've all showed up and actually looked like baseball players, which we were very relieved to see.

GREENE: All right. So opening day, Sonoma Stompers, where are you going to be and what are you most excited about?

LINDBERGH: Well, I'd probably be right behind home plate. You know, we're going to have technology tracking all the pitches, tracking all of the batted balls so that we know how hard guys are throwing and how hard they're hitting, and we'll be looking at those numbers throughout the games and after the games. But we'll also, I think, just take a moment to sit back and appreciate where we are and what we're doing. It's a beautiful ballpark. I'm sure it'll be a beautiful night. We'll just try to get the total opening day baseball experience.

GREENE: You promise me you'll take time to grab a beer or a sip of wine, I guess.

LINDBERGH: Yes, I will have some wine.

GREENE: Well, Ben, it's been really cool hearing about this, and I know we're going to follow your story and the story of the Sonoma Stompers as the season goes on. Thanks a lot.

LINDBERGH: Yes, I look forward to talking to you again.

GREENE: That's Grantland baseball writer Ben Lindbergh, who, this summer, is running the Sonoma Stompers with fellow writer, Sam Miller. And we will be checking back in with them as the season progresses.

Stompers Win 2015 Debut, 6-3

Stompers outfielder/manager Fehlandt Lentini celebrates Sonoma's 6-3 victory over the Pittsburg Diamonds Monday night. Lentini was 3-for-5 with 2 runs, 2 stolen bases and an RBI.

Danielle Putonen/Sonoma Stompers

Tim Livingston, Director of Broadcasting & Media Relations

Whether it's June 1st or July 1st, the Stompers know how to win their first home game of the season.

In front of over 1,000 people at Arnold Field, the Sonoma Stompers began their 2015 season with a solid victory over the Pittsburg Diamonds, 6-3, behind a 13-hit attack and a well-pitched game from three newcomers.

Before moving on to begin the 2015 season, the Stompers awarded the family of the star of their 2014 team with the Pacific Association Most Valuable Player trophy, as Jayce Ray's family accepted the award on his behalf. Ray has continued to play well after his promotion to the Wichita Wingnuts of the American Association, batting .394, with a .459 on-base percentage while slugging .576  through his first nine games with his new team.

Once the calendar turned to the 2015 season, Ray's replacement in center turned in a performance that fans have gotten used to see from their Stomper center fielders. After Fehlandt Lentini singled to lead off the bottom of the first, he beat a pickoff to second base and came around to score on a Sergio Miranda single to give Sonoma (1-0) the early 1-0 lead.

In the Pittsburg (0-1) second, Joe Lewis reached second after a fielding error by Joel Carranza at first to lead things off. After going to third on a Nash Hutter groundout, Diamonds second baseman Jalen Harris got into a high fastball from Stompers starter Matt Walker and hit it up and out to left field, with the two-run homer giving Pittsburg the lead, 2-1.

But Sonoma tied it up in impressive fashion in the bottom of the inning. In his first professional at-bat with the Stompers, Gayday broke his bat on a fastball from starter Dennis Neal, yet still had enough power on his swing to knock it out of the ballpark and tie the game at 2-2. By HitF/X data, the ball left the broken bat at a speed of 92 MPH.

Sonoma got the lead once more in the fourth on Lentini's second hit of the game, as he beat out a grounder to third that scored Matt Hibbert and made it 3-2, Stompers. Pittsburg answered in the top of the fifth with a Chris DeBiasi RBI groundout to tie the game once more at 3-3.

After a scoreless sixth, Sonoma finally broke it open in the seventh. Lentini again led off with a single and stole second base. When the throw went into center, he took third and forced the infield to come in with Miranda at the plate. To a drawn in infield, Miranda bounced a routine grounder to short that froze Lentini at third. But after the throw was made, Lentini broke for home and dove head first to beat the tag and give Sonoma the go-ahead run.

After a Gered Mochizuki single, Pittsburg reliever Clint Manzo (0-1) tried to beat Joel Carranza inside with a fastball and paid dearly, with the Pacific Association home run king smashing the first pitch he saw deep and out to left field for a two-run shot to finish the scoring.

After Walker's five solid innings, two more new faces for Sonoma provided some stellar relief. Southpaw Paul Hvozdovic (1-0) struck out four of the first six batters he saw and got some great defensive help during his third inning of relief when Matt Hibbert threw out DeBiasi at third after trying to tag up on a fly ball to medium-deep right-center field. That ended the inning and three beautiful shutout innings for Hvozdovic.

In the ninth, it was the side-winding righty Sean Conroy's turn, and after getting Tim Battle to fly out, he too was the beneficiary of some stellar outfield defense. Lewis ripped a line drive to deep left center field and tried to stretch it into a double, but Lentini threw a frozen rope from over 200 feet away on the money to nail Lewis at the bag, receiving a standing ovation from the Stompers faithful in the bleachers behind him.

One Conroy strikeout later and the Stompers were on the right side of the first decision of the 2015 season.

Both Lentini and fellow newcomer Mark Hurley tallied three hits, with Mochizuki and Gayday providing two hits apiece. Miranda drove in two runs, as well.

After an extremely successful Opening Night, the Stompers return to Arnold Field on Tuesday night for game two of their three game series with the Diamonds for a 6:05 first pitch. The first 400 fans will receive a 2015 Stompers magnet schedule courtesy of Mara Kahn Real Estate.

Tickets are available online at StompersBaseball.com or at the gate beginning an hour before first pitch. For more information, visit the Stompers Fan Shop at 234 West Napa Street in downtown Sonoma or call 707-938-7277.

Stompers Net First Exhibition Win, Perspective, At San Quentin State Prison

The inmates at San Quentin Federal Penitentiary play baseball games regularly, including a recent matchup with the Sonoma Stompers.

San Quentin Stock Photo

Theo Fightmaster, General Manager

Rookie left-hander Jeff Conley barely moved from his seat on the bench. Manager Feh Lentini ricocheted around the exercise yard like a boy in a sandlot. The home plate umpire called strikes with the panache of a Broadway performer, wailing “that's a Rembrandt,” on every third strike. And what felt like 1,000 spectators — all clad in penitentiary blue — nonchalantly took in a ballgame on scrubby skin diamond at San Quentin Sate Prison on Thursday afternoon. The Stompers beat San Quentin Prison All-Stars 12-0 in a six-inning scrimmage, but the team took home far more than their first win of the exhibition season. The once in a lifetime, 3-hour experience will linger more for the context than the boxscore.

From the parking lot, veteran short stop Gered Mochizuki seemed the least excited about the game, but was on the field every pitch, and accumulated as large a cheering section as any player on either team. Reliever Mike Jackson Jr. got the attention of self-proclaimed prison “scouts,” as they identified his 90-MPH heater as “big league.” Rookie Infielder Danny Martinez couldn't stop using the word “awesome,” and catcher Andrew Parker was happy the only thing he received was pitches.

The prison’s basketball team scrimmaged down the left field line, playing Frogger with frozen ropes pulled foul. Two elderly Latino men played the guitar and harmonized in the native tongues, paying no head to the ball game taking place several feet away. One inmate managed the hand-operated scoreboard, and another named “Sparky” was the official score keeper.

A reporter, an inmate and a scribe from the San Quentin News, took in the game from the dugout, and showed off his byline and previous articles about other prison sports program, in-between getting quotes and color for his next story. During the informal interviews, he moved from the seated position on the bench to the ground each time the prison’s siren sounds. It happens about three times in the six innings Thursday.

The “home team” wore retired Spring Training uniforms donated by the Oakland A’s and San Francisco Giants. The Giants black mesh jerseys were a muted grey from years of dirt, sweat and sun. The chalk lines were drawn with pancake mix. “We use whatever we can get,” offers the coach.

“Is that cheaper than chalk?” Stompers General Manager Theo Fightmaster asked.

Coach: “We take donations.”

Fightmaster: “So do we.”

The San Quentin baseball season is about 35 games long. Only dozens are selected from more than 5,000 men who call the prison home. The 597 inmates on death row and those in isolation are not permitted to play.

“Thank you. You have no idea how much this means to the guys to face a team of your caliber,” said Elliott Smith, a real estate lawyer and civilian volunteer who helps run the program. “I hope you have a great season, beat the Pacifics, and come back next year.”

“To be able to provide even a few hours of variety to these guys is important,” Fightmaster said. “Baseball is our job, but seeing what the game, and this program means to these men, it's a great reminder of the spirit that lives within all of us who love the game of baseball.

“For a few hours they're ballplayers, not inmates. And I hope that helps them, regardless of what they may have done to get here.”

After the game, the teams shook hands, talked baseball and said their goodbyes. No one wanted to leave. Only 15 men even had the option.

Right-handed pitcher Gregory Paulino said goodbye to Pedro, a fellow native of the Dominican Republic, who struck up a lengthy conversation with Gregory on the home plate end of the Stompers first-base dugout, then followed his countrymen through the prison, continuing the conversation for as he was permitted.

“I’m one of the only guys from the Dominican in here,” Pedro said. “This is very special to me to speak with someone who is from where I am from.”

As the Stompers packed their bags, awaited their escort and schlepped out of the yard, past the “adjustment center,” and through the shadows of death row, one of the remaining inmates asked for a final score.

“Who won?” the inmate asked.

“You know we did, boss man,” beamed a grinning Lentini.

The team trickled out of the prison gates, realizing they were among a privileged few allowed to go home after the final out. The cool, foggy air and the spectacle of the Richmond Bridge, sparking in the sunset served as an instant reminder that though they were a mere couple hundred yards from the diamond, they were a lifetime away from the yard.

Stompers Fall Again To Pacifics, 8-0

Stompers right-hander Sean Conroy was great in this three innings of work on Wednesday.

Theo Fightmaster/Sonoma Stompers

Tim Livingston, Director of Broadcasting & Media Relations 

The Sonoma Stompers dropped their second game of the exhibition season on Wednesday morning at Peterson Field, once again falling to the defending Pacific Association champion San Rafael Pacifics, 8-0.

While Sonoma was not able to put any runs on the board, there were plenty of solid contributions all over the field. Defensively, third baseman Danny Martinez made a fine play on a soft grounder to cut down a runner heading home for a rare inning-ending 5-2 putout.

On the hill, right-hander Sean Conroy threw three shutout innings and was very deceptive from his low-three quarters arm slot. Conroy is one of many hurlers looking to make the starting rotation and his appearance Wednesday served as one of the better pitching performances in the Stompers young exhibition season.

At the plate, Sonoma had only five hits but also drew three walks and a hit-by-pitch. Infielder Yuki Yasuda had a great day with an infield single and a triple to deep left-center field. Outfielders Matt Hibbert and Collin Forgey each had hits for Sonoma, as did Martinez.

San Rafael had 10 hits in all and had seven pitchers combine to shutout the Stompers, who will now travel to San Quentin State Prison for an exhibition game tomorrow afternoon.

Opening Night is this Monday, June 1 as the Stompers host the Pittsburg Diamonds at Arnold Field. First pitch is set for 6:05 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online at www.StompersBaseball.com, at the Stompers Fan Shop located at 234 W. Napa St. in downtown Sonoma, or beginning one hour before the gates open.

Stompers Lose First Exhibition To San Rafael, 3-2

Stompers third baseman Kristian Gayday waits for a pitch in the first inning of Monday morning's exhibition against San Rafael.

Eric Gullotta/Sonoma Stompers

Tim Livingston, Director of Broadcasting & Media Relations

On a beautiful Memorial Day morning, the Sonoma Stompers hosted the San Rafael Pacifics in their 2015 Spring Training opener and fell to the defending Pacific Association champions at Peterson Field, 3-2.

At the plate, the Stompers rapped nine hits all over the field, including a couple of hard hit balls by outfielder Will Price and shortstop Kyle Breault. Breault reached base twice, once on an error and once on a ground rule double that rolled past the fence down the right field line.

Player-manager Fehlandt Lentini lined a single to left field in his second at-bat and former Vallejo Admirals catcher Isaac Wenrich also singled in his first action with the Stompers. Breault and returning utilityman TJ Gavlik scored the runs for Sonoma.

The pitching was a bright spot for the Stompers, as eight hurlers held the Pacifics to only five hits. Impressive innings were thrown by returners Mike Jackson, Jr., Erik Gonsalves and Eric Schwieger, with Schwieger only needing seven pitches to get out of his inning of work and Gonsalves inducing a 1-6-3 double play to end his inning.

The team will have a workout on Tuesday before hosting San Rafael again in an exhibition game on Wednesday morning at Peterson Field at 10 a.m.

Opening Night is now only a week away, with the Stompers hosting the Pittsburg Diamonds at 6 p.m. on Monday, June 1. Tickets are available online at www.StompersBaseball.com and at the Stompers Fan Shop at 234 W. Napa St. in downtown Sonoma.

Stompers Name Trey Dunia Public Address Announcer

Longtime local public address announcer Trey Dunia will be the new announcer for the Stompers in 2015.

Trey Dunia/Personal Photos

Tim Livingston, Director of Broadcasting & Media Relations

The Sonoma Stompers have announced the signing of Sebastopol native Trey Dunia as the team’s public address announcer for the 2015 season. Dunia is well known in the Sonoma County sports scene, having been an announcer for many different sports teams for many years. He’s a member of the National Association of Sports Public Address Announcers and currently announces for Santa Rosa Junior College, the North Bay Rattlers football team and Analy High School.

He also announces for numerous District 35 Little Leagues, including the Petaluma American Little League. Dunia also announces for the West County Tigers. An avid sports fan, Dunia loves Stanford football along with the San Francisco Giants, Oakland A’s and the Golden State Warriors.

In his spare time, Dunia represents Sonoma County's 5th District on the Drug and Alcohol Problems Advisory Board, and coaches Special Olympics Softball. He is currently employed by Canteen of Northern California as their Sales Manager and has two boys, aged 13 and 15.

"I am looking forward to a great season of professional baseball in the beautiful and historic town of Sonoma,” said Dunia, “The Stompers truly are a fine organization and I hope to be here for many years to come."