By Elakai Anela, Beat Writer
Right-handed pitcher Matthew Schallberger fires the pitch to home plate despite the Walnut Creek Crawdads runner racing to steal second base. Schallberger pitched 2.2 scoreless innings and collected four strikeouts for the Stompers in a 6-4 win Friday at Arnold Field in Sonoma, Calif. Photo Courtesy of Karsen Kaidan / Sonoma Stompers
SONOMA, Calif. — The Sonoma Stompers returned to California Collegiate League play Friday night against the Walnut Creek Crawdads to wrap up a five-game homestand. Sonoma defeated Walnut Creek 6-4 at Arnold Field to secure its sixth victory of the season, improving to 6-1 overall and 2-1 in California Collegiate League play.
Sonoma plated the first run of the contest in the second inning. Infielder Misael Uriepero singled to collect the Stompers first hit before he stole second base. Two batters later, he scored on a single by outfielder Chase Taylor.
Sonoma starting right-hander Andre Munoz tossed three scoreless innings, striking out three and walking three. He departed after throwing 54 pitches and facing 13 batters.
Stompers manager Zack Pace said that Munoz looked “really good” in his first start of league play and second appearance of the season.
After Munoz was pulled for left-handed pitcher Brady Carvalho, the Crawdads broke through to tie game at 1-1. Outfielder Dylan Perez doubled and stole third base to open the top of the fourth inning. Then, catcher Riley Winchell drove Perez in with a soft RBI groundout to second base.
The back-and-forth continued as each team answered the other's scoring threats.
Walnut Creek scored three runs in the top of the fifth to take a 4-2 lead. Carvalho struggled in his first outing of CCL play, allowing two hits, two walks and four earned runs.
The Stompers answered with a run on a wild pitch in the bottom half of the inning but stranded the bases loaded with two outs. Infielder Bryson Ayala struck out swinging and outfielder Nic Sebastiani flew out to centerfield.
Sonoma took its second lead of the game during a three-run sixth inning, one the Stompers maintained for the rest of the affair.
After a single by outfielder Trent Keys to left-field on a 3-1 count, infielder Tino Vasell worked an eight-pitch walk to set up catcher Hunter Carlson. Carlson delivered, hitting a two-run single into right field. Two batters later, Ayala grounded out but drove in Vasell from third base.
Pace said Keys’ “approach has gotten very good”, compared to last year. He also talked about Vasell’s walk “setting up” the rest of the inning which was something that he talked about in his postgame speech to the team.
“Kind of feeding off each other, that’s the goal,” Pace said. “I’ve preached to players before about leaving a good blueprint for the guy that’s hitting behind you. Building on that through the order.”
The other player to exemplify the approach Pace was talking about was Carlson. The Hudson, Wisconsin native has gone 5 for 9 with three RBIs, two walks and a hit-by-pitch in his first three CCL games.
“I think just getting comfortable with the team and the guys and knowing everyone can pick me up is big,” Carlson said. “My approach is staying toward the middle of the field and not being too big and being selective... I just want to stay loose and find the barrel.”
In those three games, Carlson has started twice at first base, for the first time in his career, and once at catcher. While he’s still “figuring out how to play first base,” his versatility in the field has proven to be critical.
“It’s good to have that versatility,” Pace said. “We got our four-man catching rotation going on right now and we’ll stick with that until we want to change it later down the road. It’s really nice having that flexibility.”
Sonoma's bullpen recorded the final 14 outs without allowing a run. Right-handed pitchers Matthew Schallberger and Mateo Heredia pitched a combined scoreless 3.2 innings and struck out five.
Right-handed pitcher Devon Laguinto picked up his first save of the year in CCL play after throwing only seven pitches across three batters in the ninth inning.
Sonoma will go on the road for the first time this season to San Bruno Park, Calif. to face the San Francisco Seagulls on Saturday with first pitch being at 6:05 p.m. before returning home Sunday.