By Jordan Kimball, Beat Writer
After facing a 9-4 deficit in the ninth inning, the Oaks used five free passes and recorded three hits to stun the Stompers and take Game 1 of the CCL Championship Series.
It was anything but silent, yet the Stompers were at a loss for words.
Entering the bottom of the ninth inning, they’d written the script in Game 1 of the CCL Championship Series. Sonoma led 9-4. Its offense had exploded for seven runs in the first five innings.
The Oaks rank second to last in the CCL in errors with 65, and the Stompers abused them. Conejo made five miscues in the field. In return, Sonoma scored two unearned runs that proved crucial.
It was three outs away from a Game 1 victory, further cementing its greatest season since joining the CCL in 2021. Tyler Holley grabbed the pen, though. He inked all over the Stompers’ script.
In a split second, a Gatorade jug was being aggressively poured on a man in blue. It wasn’t Sonoma manager Zack Pace in his navy blue. Instead, it was Holley in his sky blue uniform with 20-plus teammates chasing him through left field. Designated hitter Landon West stripped Holley’s No. 7 jersey and held it high toward Sonoma’s dugout. It cut deep. Absolute stunner.
After the Stompers seemed poised to take the win, Holley became Conejo’s hero with a two-run walk-off double to cap a six-run ninth inning. With the 10-9 loss, Sonoma (32-18, 25-15 CCL) now faces elimination, while the Oaks sit just one win away from repeating as CCL champions.
Holley’s all too familiar in Wine Country. A La Verne native, he made the move up to Northern California last summer to serve as an infielder and power bat for the Stompers. The Cal State Fullerton junior hit .233 across 40 games at Arnold Field, but he was ready for a change. So he joined the 2024 champion Oaks, where he’s enjoyed an offensive resurgence.
He leads Conejo in home runs and RBIs and has displayed a clutch gene that fueled it to the finals. His most recent showing was a two-hit, two-RBI day in the Oaks’ win over the Arroyo Seco Saints in the South Championship. In the sixth inning, with the score knotted at one apiece, Holley annihilated the eventual game-winner, a 96-mile-per-hour double off the right-field wall to clear the bases and give Conejo a 3-1 lead.
Sonoma must keep a heating-up Holley cool. On Friday, it did no such thing. Dealing with a 2-2 count, Chris Albee — who was a member of the Stompers last season — tossed a middle-middle fastball Holley’s way; He clobbered it down the left-field line. Tommy Kendlinger scored. Devon Wilkes crossed home. 1-0 Oaks.
Holley’s knock entirely flipped the script. A team that never led until the final swing burst into an outrageous celebration. It was Sonoma’s game to lose. It set the rhythm. What had happened? It didn’t look like a collapse was coming. The Stompers had the edge.
In the first inning, Xander Sielken scorched a line drive to second baseman Ethan Gonzalez, who gloved it and nearly doubled Nic Sebastiani up at first base. Instead, Gonzalez’s throw rolled near the Stompers' dugout. Quinn Medin came in, quickly putting Sonoma ahead.
Gonzalez righted his wrong in the second with an RBI single, but in the next frame, Sielken traded places with Max Handron at second base when he doubled toward the 320-sign in right field.
The Stompers’ feet remained on the gas. Handron drove in Trent Keys when he pinned a single over the leap of shortstop Zach Mora in the fourth. Medin scored on a passed ball. Sielken singled to plate Handron. All of a sudden, a 2-1 lead had ballooned into a 5-1 cushion.
Anthony Scheppler continued the breakout when he placed Oaks’ reliever Spencer Kratt’s 0-0 offering off the right-field fence, chugging into third base with a double before advancing 90 feet on an error. Paul Lizzul scored on the play.
Two pitches later, Scheppler was home after Connor Pawlowski joined the party with a single. Devon Laguinto held it down on the mound through six innings. Sonoma backed him up on the other side of the ball. In the eighth, Pawlowski and Keys both singled to make the lead 9-4.
Then, all at once, everything came crashing down.
A CCL Showcase selection, Harun Pelja often opened games for the Stompers. But despite making four starts this season, he’s shifted to a relief role down the stretch. The Melbourne, Australia, native can pitch multiple innings, helping Sonoma limit bullpen usage in games where every arm counts. With everything on the line, a 9-4 lead is the perfect situation to let Pelja keep working if his stuff is on.
First it was. Pelja escaped a bases-loaded jam in the seventh inning after winning an 11-pitch battle with Gonzalez. The next frame, one walk nullified what would’ve been a 1-2-3 inning for the Youngstown State righty. Then came the ninth, the biggest appearance in Pelja’s young Stompers career.
After taking a ball, Nolan Johnson grounded out to Handron at shortstop. One away. Jax Gimenez followed with a walk. Then Landon West walked. Mora was hit. Gonzalez plated a run on another free pass. Just like that, 9-5.
Kendlinger singled, cutting the lead to 9-6. Albee entered in relief for Pelja. Nothing changed. Wilkes doubled. Mora and Gonzalez scored. The lead was cut to one run. Joey Donnelly was intentionally walked.
A familiar face stepped up: Holley. He’d done damage before. He was ready again. Six pitches later, the game was over. Sonoma’s script had been rewritten.