By Jordan Kimball, Beat Writer
After pitching no more than 4.2 innings in an outing this season, Shawn McBroom went six strong on Friday against the Seagulls, leading the Stompers to a 5-0 victory while recording a season-high eight strikeouts.
Justin Jones eyed Max Handron at third and took a deep breath. He then turned toward Kyle Olimpia at shortstop. Another pause. The Stompers were ahead 5-0, but the way Jones paced, it seemed like the bases were loaded in the ninth inning.
A swift step swung Jones’ body toward the plate. With all his momentum, the Los Medanos senior fired a fastball down the pipe to Jaxon Byrd. Byrd, on time, rifled it right back up the middle, but standing in center field was Cam Hegamin, who raced left, reached his glove up and made the catch.
Olimpia and Xander Sielken chestbumped near second base. Handron and Trent Keys did the same after sprinting in from the corners. Hegamin’s catch sealed the 5-0 victory over the Seagulls, but it was a whole team effort that clinched the Stompers (29-17, 23-15 CCL) a postseason berth for the second straight year.
“I love our team. We got a bunch of great dudes,” manager Zack Pace said postgame. “This is the hardest-working group that I’ve seen. I have all the confidence in the world in them.”
On Wednesday, when Sonoma played San Francisco, its bats fell flat. After scoring four runs in the first three innings, the Stompers’ pitching allowed the Seagulls to tie it up with a four-spot in the third and take the lead with three more runs in the seventh.
It was just a down day in what should’ve been a victory. Pace admitted it but said his team had to move on. Luckily for Sonoma, the Blues fell to the Barons that day, keeping it in first place in the CCL North. The loss was a blessing in disguise. While the Stompers could’ve inched one game closer to clinching a playoff spot, the defeat to San Francisco served as a teaching moment for what had to go right next time around.
No. 1 was the importance of command. Sonoma surrendered just two walks Wednesday but allowed base hits early in counts that put the Seagulls ahead. It ran through six arms, but no pitcher lasted longer than 2.1 innings.
No. 2 was driving runners in. Reaching base hasn’t been an issue for the Stompers. Their 230 walks rank first in the CCL while their 293 hits place sixth. Sonoma’s 200 RBIs and 256 total runs also sit higher than any other squad. So out of the blue, when the Stompers put runners on base in every inning, their offense was expected to explode. Instead, 16 players were stranded on base while only four runs crossed home.
Friday’s rematch was the final contest between the two teams this season. Sonoma wanted to go out on top, and after displaying the two lessons they’d learned from Wednesday, a victory was in sight.
Shawn McBroom toed the rubber to open the game for the Stompers. The Antioch native had been solid following his first start against the Merchants on July 2, but two outings later on July 18, one of his weapons was lacking.
McBroom pitched 4.2 innings against the Crawdads, where he willed Sonoma to a 10-6 win after giving up just two runs. Yet in the performance, McBroom didn’t record a strikeout. It was a first for him, someone who had relied on swings and misses before, with four-plus Ks in his previous two outings.
Friday, he swept through San Francisco’s lineup. When a batter stepped out, McBroom would stay put on the bump, prepared to catch them off guard. That’s the way he worked. His day was done after six frames, striking out eight batters, but the Stompers led just 2-0 at the time.
“I thought his stuff, all three pitches, were really good today,” Pace said of McBroom. “He was keeping hitters off balance, and he was locating his fastball. He had a lot of quick outs, too.”
After just 66 pitches, 42 of which were strikes, McBroom sat down. Relief settled in, as a smile filled his face. But lesson No. 2 from Wednesday still hadn’t been achieved. Handron’s 350-foot two-run home run over the right field fence in the first inning was Sonoma’s only sign of offensive life.
Runners were reaching. Two of them were even gunned down at the plate on deep fly balls to right and left field. Six innings after adding to the scoreboard for the first and only time, the Stompers’ bats came alive again.
As Jones flew through the Seagulls’ order with no issues, the offense played the way Pace had always hoped, what he calls the Stompers way. Handron continued his career year with a sacrifice fly before Nic Sebastiani — who hadn’t been in the lineup since July 3 due to injury — followed Handron up with one of his own.
“I thought our guys did a great job of grinding out at-bats and getting a good pitch to hit,” Pace said. “It was really good to see us play that small ball. I truly believe that small ball will lead to big ball at some point.”
Jones was cruising, but as a form of insurance, one more run came across in the eighth.
In the ninth, Hegamin sealed the victory for Sonoma. Just one pitch earlier, though, Jones had paced around the mound like the game was on the line. Now, he turned calmly toward home plate and finally exhaled.