Sonoma sluggers continue ?to rack up the runs

The Sonoma Stompers’ winning ways came to a temporary end last Thursday night at Arnold Field, as they ended up on the short end of a 9-6 score despite a 15-hit outburst against the Pittsburg Diamonds.

But they dusted themselves off to win the next night to split the series, then headed to Vallejo, where they took two from last year’s champion Admirals.

In Friday’s game, Tyler Sharp put in another stellar performance in his second outing with the team. The right-hander from Lake Tahoe delivered an eight-inning start, striking out five with no walks, allowing allowed just one run on four hits – all of which came in the first three innings.

Despite the uneven start, Sharp retired the final 16 batters he faced, and 21 of his last 23, throwing five consecutive 1-2-3 innings to end the outing. In the ninth, Jacob Cox retired the Diamonds in order to end the game.

After the Stompers scored two in the third inning on a Rob DeAngelis double to take a 2-1 lead over Pittsburg, Kam Stewart launched his seventh round-tripper of the season to left field with two outs, scoring Daniel Comstock and giving Sonoma the 4-1 lead that held until the final out.

“Slowly but surely, everything started working for me,” Sharp said. “Once my command was on, it was over from there. Definitely a good outing.”

On Saturday at Vallejo, Kenny Mathews picked up his second win of the year as the Stompers topped the Admirals, 11-5. Mathews pitched six strong innings, allowing just one run on two hits and a walk. The left-hander struck out eight and retired the final 10 Admirals hitters he faced.

Saturday’s contest unraveled in the seventh and eightn innings with the two teams scoring a combined 11 runs, with the Stompers slugging four home runs in the seventh inning alone.

Miles Williams, Daniel Comstock and Kenny Meimerstorf connected for back-to-back-to-back home runs in the inning, driving Admirals starter Jalen Miller, Jr. out of the game. Kevin Farley added another round-tripper a few batters later, his fourth of the season and the team’s fourth of the inning and game, tying a single-game record for team home runs in 2018.

Three more hits gave the Stompers three additional runs in the eighth inning and 15 hits in the game, again tying their single-game record this season.

Sunday’s contest was another high-scoring game, as the Stompers topped the Vallejo Admirals in a come-from-behind 13-12 victory.

Sonoma’s offense exploded early, with three big hits scoring six runs over the first three innings. Comstock crushed his ninth home run of the season in the first to score Miles Williams, Marcus Bradley singled in two in the second and Mitchell Ho singled in two in the third.

Despite Vallejo scoring 10 runs between the third and fifth innings, Sonoma refused to give up, scoring at least once in each of the remaining frames.

Bradley hit his first home run of the season in the sixth to score Rayson Romero, and Stewart’s solo home run in the seventh – his eighth homer of the season – brought the Stompers within one run.

“We can put up runs at any point, anybody can hit,” Bradley said of the Stompers’ offense Sunday. “We looked at the scoreboard, we knew we had plenty of time to come back.”

Kenny Meimerstorf tied the game in the eighth inning with a double that scored Bradley and gave Sonoma a chance to take the lead, which it did in the ninth.

The Stompers loaded the bases with two outs and Comstock emptied them, doubling to give his team the lead 13-10.

Cole Watts pitched perfect seventh and eighth innings to give room for the Stompers to storm back, then Jacob Cox moved to the mound in the ninth.

Even though Vallejo tagged Cox for two runs in the ninth, the right-hander held on to pick up his 16th save, furthering his lead in the league. He now has 10 more than the next closest closer in the Pacific Association and stands two saves away from tying the league’s single-season record of 18, set by Vallejo’s Sammy Gervacio last year.

As the week ended, the Stompers had made a big jump in the standings,and are now sitting only a game behind the San Rafael Pacifics with a 30-16 won/loss record.

After a day off on Monday, Sonoma travels to Martinez, then Napa for two games each. Their next home games are Saturday and Sunday, July 28 and 29, against Pittsburg.

To purchase Stompers tickets and to find more information about the team, visit stompersbaseball.com.