By Jordan Kimball
On June 5, the Stompers fell victim to the Alameda Merchants’ early attack. In the first inning of that matchup, Sonoma manager Zack Pace was ejected, and the Merchants tallied three runs. Despite a late Stompers comeback, Alameda held onto its early momentum, taking a 4-3 win in the lone meeting.
“Thirteen runners was plenty, but we just didn’t get the big hit,” Stompers acting manager Paul Maytorena said postgame that day. “We need a productive at-bat, and we didn’t get it at the time.”
A familiar script unfolded Wednesday when Sonoma battled against Alameda for a second time. After allowing an early run, the Stompers took a lead in the fourth inning. But the result stayed the same. The Merchants prevailed 5-3 to improve to 2-0 against Sonoma (6-6, 3-4 CCL) this season.
With Jayden Harper on the mound for the Stompers, expectations were high. Coming off a season at Cal State Fullerton and, more recently, a three-inning scoreless outing against the San Luis Obispo Blues on June 3, Harper looked poised to lead Sonoma to its third straight win.
However, he struggled early on. After the Stompers went down in order, besides Anthony Scheppler reaching on an error, a double by Ben Reiland was followed by an RBI single from Ben Giovannetti, giving Alameda the early lead.
It didn’t last long, though. Adam Alharbi got things started for Sonoma with a walk before Brady Shannon stayed hot with a single. Shannon tried to take an extra bag and was caught up, but Alharbi scored to even the game at one apiece.
From there, back-and-forth baseball occurred until the fourth inning. The Stompers stole the lead with more magic. Nick Sebastiani knocked in Paul Lizzul with a single, and Shannon scored on a Colton Boardman base hit.
But after the two runs, it was all Alameda. In the bottom of the fifth, it struck sidearm reliever Ryan Seo. Ryan allowed two hits, a walk and a hit-by-pitch, allowing the Merchants to tie the game at 3-3.
In the sixth and seventh, they added on. Now facing Ryan’s brother, Kyle, Alameda scored two runs in as many innings. It forced a walk and four hits out of Kyle, resulting in the commanding lead late in the contest.
In the sixth, Noah Smallwood scored on a passed ball on the first pitch to Merchants’ leadoff man Dominick Najar. The seventh saw Cy Turner score on a Jace Jeremiah sacrifice fly, in which Jeremiah wasted no time by hitting Kyle’s first offering.
The Stompers surrendered to Alameda’s momentum, going 1-2-3 in the eighth and not causing much of a threat in the ninth.
After pure dominance from Sonoma in its final two games against the San Francisco Seagulls, it showed Wednesday that its offense isn’t always going to be that dominant.
The Stompers have a chance to return to the win column with a 6:05 p.m. rematch Thursday against the Merchants at Arnold Field.