Sonoma Stompers produce 8 homers in 2 games for 24 runs

The Sonoma Stompers appear to have found their rhythm, exploding for 12 runs in both of their last two games, both played at Palooza Park before appreciative local baseball fans.

Tuesday it was a rout over the Salina Stockade, who defeated the Stompers in the season opener on June 1. The Stompers got their revenge with a 12-2 shellacking of the traveling team, and Brock Hartley tied a league RBI record in the process – and pitched an inning to boot.

Salina opened the scoring in the top of the second inning when Stompers right-hander Nick Barnese issued a bases-loaded walk to Justin Byrd to force in the first run of the game.

But the Stompers had a ready answer in the bottom half of the inning on Hartley’s second home run of the season over the right field wall, a two-run shot to give the Stompers a 2-1 lead. Designated hitter Hartley struck again in the bottom of the fourth inning when he drove in his third run on a sacrifice fly to score Chris Kwitzer, extending the lead 3-1. But he wasn’t done yet.

In the bottom of the sixth inning the Stompers scored again on a two-out bleeding single up the middle off the bat of catcher Bronson Butcher, his first RBI of the year, extending the lead to 4-1.

That was it for Salina starter Chip White (0-2), who was replaced by Erick Gaylord in the bottom of the seventh. Though White left behind 4-1, it took all of two-thirds of an inning for Gaylord to give up another four runs, including a three-run home run to Jacob Barfield, his third of the season, inflating the lead to 8-1.

In the Stompers half of the eighth, the bases were loaded when Hartley came to bat again. He ended his big night with an emphatic grand slam, his second homer of the game, on the first pitch he saw off of Ryan Doerr to blow the game wide open 12-1. That added up to 7 RBIs for the night.

The 6-3 right-hander capped his record-setting night by taking a turn on the mound in the top half of the ninth. Though he gave up a run, the final 12-2 score made that lapse irrelevant.

The next night was closer, almost too close, as last year’s league champions from San Rafael showed up at Arnold Field for the second time this year. The Pacifics won that first game, 7-4, so the Stompers were eager to get whatever vengeance they could.

The Pacifics came in with the league’s best record of 7-2, but they faced the hot bats of the home team which delivered no fewer than five home runs – by Rob DeAngelis (his first), Dondrei Hubbard (his fourth), Daniel Molinari (his first), Hubbard (again) and Jacob Barfield (his third).

All those dingers added up to a seemingly insurmountable 12-4 Stompers lead going into the final innings, but not for nothing are the Pacifics consistent league leaders. They scored six times in the eighth off Miles Williams, and when Jacob Cox entered in the top of the ninth to salvage the game he faced a too-close 12-10 score.

Cox gave up a solo home run to Corey Dempster to lead off the inning, but the one-run lead helped focus the mind, and Cox stranded the tying run at second to secure the 12-11 win and earn his second save.

The four-game home stand continued Thursday night with a game against the Vallejo Admirals (results not available at press time), and ends on Friday with another match against the Stockade, starting at 6:05 p.m.

That will be the last of four nights honoring Sonoma Little League, and the second annual JDRF night, celebrating the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the largest nonprofit funder of Type 1 diabetes research. Singing the National Anthem will be Ava Jensen, whose mother is living with Type 1 diabetes. More information at stompersbaseball.com.