By Jordan Kimball, Beat Writer
The Stompers trailed by one run entering the bottom of the 10th inning, but one swing from Nic Sebastiani was all it took to power them past the Crawdads and into the CCL Championship.
The crack of the bat silenced the dugout chatter. The entire Stompers’ bench rose to their feet and straddled the fence. Five relief pitchers from the bullpen exited onto the field. For a split second, everyone at Arnold Field stood still. Time slowed, as eyes fixed on the ball soaring toward left field.
Most fans and players couldn’t have been more attentive to the flying white sphere. Nic Sebastiani, however, blacked out. Sonoma’s lineup is filled with local kids, but in that moment, Sebastiani was so much more. He was the final heartbeat of a team on the brink of elimination.
The Stompers trailed by one run. They were hanging onto the defending CCL North champion Walnut Creek Crawdads by a thread. The Crawdads had the momentum. Sonoma had Sebastiani.
After taking pitch No. 1 from Walnut Creek reliever Brady Wilson, Sebastiani readjusted his batting gloves. His feet remained planted in the batter’s box. He didn’t move an inch.
Chants echoed across Arnold Field. They all came to a halt when Sebastiani annihilated Wilson’s second pitch down the left field line. Max Handron was on second base from the CCL’s ghost runner rule. As the ball traveled over the fence, the Crawdads’ defense slumped into place. Motionless. Resigned. Beaten.
Handron crossed home. Then came the hometown kid.
“This is definitely the coolest baseball moment I’ve ever had,” Sebastiani said postgame. “I can’t really describe what I’m feeling.”
Sebastiani’s home run didn’t tie the game. It didn’t pad a lead. It ended it, the final swing in a must-win contest for Sonoma.
“That was just a great, outstanding moment for the kid. He’s one heck of a ball player,” manager Zack Pace said of Sebastiani postgame. “To do it in front of this crowd tonight, in front of his family, in that moment, it doesn’t really get much bigger than that.”
With the 3-2 victory, the Stompers (32-17, 25-15 CCL) head to their first-ever CCL Championship series to face the defending champion Conejo Oaks.
Sebastiani is no stranger to Arnold Field. He knows the confines all too well from his four seasons with Sonoma Valley High School. But the lights had never been as bright as they were Wednesday.
Since joining the CCL in 2022, the Stompers’ most notable run came in 2024, when they reached the North Championship against the Crawdads. In that game, Sebastiani hit fifth in the lineup as Sonoma’s designated hitter but finished 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. The Stompers lost 5-2 at Monte Vista High School, ending their season one win short of the CCL Championship.
For Sebastiani, among others, it was a game to forget. Yet for Pace, that loss served as fuel. Success is hard to come by in one of the nation’s premier collegiate summer leagues, but settling was never an option. Since that defeat, Pace has been driven by redemption. He finally got it.
After starter Shawn McBroom twirled three shutout innings, he returned to the mound. Things started as usual. Cam Calvillo flew out to Trent Keys in left field. Joey Donnelly was then put away for out No. 2. Zach Justice then popped a shallow fly ball back to Keys.
Sonoma’s defense began jogging toward its dugout. Justice approached first base ready to turn around. Yet the ball ricocheted off Keys’ glove, dropping into left field. If he had 99 more chances, he’d catch every single one, Pace said, but not that time; The Crawdads made him pay.
As Keys turned in disarray, McBroom fired a strike to Kam Taylor. His next pitch, though, was clubbed down the right field line. Quinn Medin chased it down and fired a rocket to second baseman Xander Sielken, who one-hopped Connor Pawlowski at the plate. Pawlowski fielded it cleanly, but Justice, just in time, slid past the tag to break the deadlock. The run was charged to McBroom, but Keys wore the mistake in left field.
“He knows that cost us in that situation,” Pace said. “He’s been with us all year and had to be the guy in the lineup today. Unfortunately, he had one mistake in the outfield, but so what?”
Though Keys’ error set up what would have been the season-ending run, his response at the plate was spectacular. In 84 at-bats before Wednesday, the Delta College sophomore had just three doubles. Against the Crawdads alone, he matched that total.
Keys’ bat sparked the Stompers’ offense. Still trailing by one in the eighth, the lineup finally came alive. Keys began the frame with a two-bagger. Medin was hit by a pitch, and Keys advanced to third base when Handron flew out. After Sebastiani singled, Sielken kept the line moving with a base hit of his own to plate Keys and tie things up.
All of a sudden, it was a brand new ballgame. This time, Sonoma held the momentum. Its once-deficit felt like a distant memory. Kyle Olimpia opened the ninth with a walk. An error by Justice at the plate put Gabriel Tapia on first. Pawlowski walked right after.
Up to the plate came Keys. It was his moment to erase his previous error and walk things off as he had last week against the Tigers. However, it took four pitches for Keys to go down. Then six for Medin. Finally, five for Handron. After having bases loaded with no outs, the energy flipped entirely.
In the top of the 10th, Walnut Creek broke the deadlock with a sacrifice fly. As Sebastiani watched the Crawdads seize control, he stayed composed. Pace pulled him aside before he was due up in the bottom half. The message was simple.
“I just told him to walk their sh*t off,” Pace said.
Sebastiani stepped into the box and glanced back at Pace one final time. The message hadn’t changed. Two pitches later, the local product turned on a fastball and sent it soaring over the left-field fence. Sonoma was headed to the CCL Championship.