With help of Dumont, Dragons reach .500

Jared Dumont was all business on the mound Wednesday night, striking out 21 en route to a Dragons’ 5-3 victory over Cloverdale at Arnold Field in Sonoma.

By Matt Hanlon

Wine Country Baseball.com

Rohnert Park starting pitcher Jared Dumont was all laughs after the game. And why not? After all he’d just thrown nine innings without an earned run, gotten a win, and oh by the way, struck out 21 batters.

“It was only 21?” he said, with a laugh that was cut short a moment later as the former Sonoma State pitcher quickly returned to a more seriousness tone. “I’ve been feeling good the last couple days… But I expect nothing less of my self, being a former collegiate pitcher.”

Expectation or not, the bottom line for the Dragons is that their record is back at .500 after Dumont led Rohnert Park to the 5-3 win over the Cloverdale Bandits at Arnold Field in Sonoma on Wednesday night.

Dumont threw 153 pitches in the effort, allowing only four hits and a walk to Cloverdale.

Rohnert Park (4-4) took the lead in the first inning when Matt Kasch scored on an error after a leadoff single. They went on to score three more times before the Bandits reached the board, including a homerun by Kasch in the third and an RBI single by Eric Walker in the fourth.

The Bandits (2-6) scored three runs in the fifth inning off two hits and a slough of errors by Rohnert Park but it wasn’t enough. Cloverdale was held to just three baserunners in the final four innings.

J.J. Jamerson received the loss for Cloverdale after pitching six innings and yielding only one earned run on four hits.

In the eyes of Dragons’ coach Rene Torres the game was a must-win if they want to make the playoffs.

“This was a huge win because this puts at .500,” he said. “I was expecting to win by more than we did but a win’s a win. When we work together as a team, we’re a good team.”