By Jordan Kimball
Thursday’s game was barely five minutes old when the Stomps lost their leader. After dealing with inconsistent calls in the Merchants’ first few at-bats, Sonoma manager Zack Pace voiced his annoyance by walking onto the field and having a conversation with the umpires.
The decision by Pace led to a quick ejection, a momentum-shifter that resulted in the Stomps (5-4, 1-2 CCL) falling 4-3 to Alameda Thursday. The loss was highlighted by a quiet offensive performance, with Sonoma tallying six hits yet just two runs before the eighth inning. Meanwhile, the Stomps’ pitching held the Merchants to five hits but allowed three runs in the first inning.
“Hats off to (Alameda). They had some arms. They did their job,” Stomps acting manager Paul Maytorena said postgame. “We got some good swings off when we needed to, but it just fell in the wrong hands.”
In Sonoma’s recent games, it’s taken an early lead and forced its competition to match. But right from the get-go Thursday, the Stomps fell behind. In starting pitcher Brandon Leon’s first appearance in CCL play, he allowed three earned runs in one inning of work. Control was Leon’s issue, as he threw 21 balls and hit one batter in the frame.
Unlike Wednesday’s loss, when the Stomps continued to match the San Luis Obispo Blues, a single from Colton Boardman was all Sonoma received in the first inning. He entered scoring position on a stolen base, but a McCann Libby groundout erased the threat.
From there, the Stomps’ pitching held their ground. Harun Pelja replaced Leon on the rubber and quickly retired the Merchants’ top four hitters.
Sonoma capitalized on Pelja’s strong performance. After the Stomps’ first two hitters were sat down, Brady Shannon was hit by a pitch. Trent Keys followed with a single, and Connor Pawlowski’s base hit drove Shannon home.
Sonoma wasn’t done, though. Pawlowski and Keys each advanced 90 feet after a wild pitch, giving the Stomps their second run of the game. The rally put Sonoma down one, but it would be challenging to score again.
Pelja struggled in the third inning, allowing a run on Frank Zapata’s single that scored Jace Jeremiah. That was all the Merchants would get for the rest of the game, though.
As the contest progressed, it seemed like a constant battle for the Stomps to find magic at the plate. They consistently put runners on base but couldn’t find ways to drive them home.
In the third inning, Boardman led off with a walk, but Nick Sebastiani, Libby and Paul Lizzul went down in order to end the inning. A similar sequence occurred in the fourth. Adam Alharbi and Shannon were retired quickly, but Keys showed some fight. After six pitches, though, Keys struck out swinging for out No. 3, bringing Sonoma closer to a loss.
“Thirteen runners was plenty, but we just didn’t get the big hit,” Maytorena said. “Tonight was the big hit. We need a productive at-bat, and we didn’t get it at the time.”
The game became repetitive. Another strong showing by Pelja in the fifth inning — his fourth and final frame of the game — brought the Stomps to the dish with a fighting chance to break their silence. However, a Landon Akers single was all Sonoma received, a brief flicker of light in a dark inning.
The sixth saw the Stomps in one of their best positions of the night. After Libby was put away on a groundout, Esteban Sepulveda and Alharbi walked. Charlie Malton did his job, moving both runners over with a groundout to second base.
But with two outs, Sonoma’s threat was erased. Keys chopped one to third, where a deep throw was made to catch him at first.
While the Stomps’ time seemed to be running out, their pitching held firm. After Pelja’s four-inning relief outing, Jaxen Rowland, Jason Olvera and Nicholas Poulus continued to clean up from the bullpen.
The seventh inning saw Rowland retire Alameda in four batters to complete his day on the hill, before Sonoma again showed life. But the trend continued. Pawlowski and Akers reached base. They advanced when Boardman hit a ball to third. Yet Sebastiani and Libby couldn’t get the ball out of the infield, stranding two runners in scoring position.
The momentum only crumbled from there. The eighth saw Sonoma put runners in scoring position again, scoring one on a wild pitch. But at the plate, hitters failed to battle, swinging at pitches out of the zone to head to the ninth.
With one chance left, the odds looked promising. But in the same fashion as the rest of the game, the Stomps put a runner on base but couldn’t drive him home, resulting in the 4-3 loss.
“The scoreboard shows it. We’re in reach every time. We’re not down by a touchdown,” Maytorena said. “That’s the dog in (us).”
Sonoma returns to Arnold Field on Friday, looking to snap its two-game losing streak with a 6:05 p.m. matchup against the San Francisco Seagulls.