JetHawks help bail out Ayala

Julio Ayala gave up five runs, three earned, in two innings before Lancaster rallied to beat Rancho Cucamonga.

By ED HARBOUR
Valley Press Staff Writer

Ayala squared off with Rancho Cucamonga's Roger Luque in front of a sellout crowd of 6,567 at the Epicenter, a game the JetHawks had to rally to defeat the Quakes 8-5.

Ayala gave up five runs, three earned, in his first start of the year, in just two innings of work.

After finding themselves in that early 5-0 hole, the JetHawks battled back on the strength of a three-run homer by Juan Silvestre and a four-run sixth to ensure a victory.

Willie Bloomquist and Terrmel Sledge took back-to-back walks in the fifth to set up Silvestre's fifth homer of the year. Silvestre's home run was Lancaster's first in five games.

In the sixth, right fielder Harvey Hargrove led off with a triple off the right-field wall. Catcher Scott Maynard followed with a bloop single under the glove of right fielder Josh Loggins to drive in Hargrove and tie the game at 5-5.

Three batters later, Bloomquist doubled down the right-field line to drive in Maynard.

Sledge and Kuzmic both reached on fielder's choice RBI grounders for the final score.

Ayala dug himself into a 5-0 hole early. In the bottom of the first, the left-hander walked two of the first three batters and gave up a run-scoring single to first baseman Graham Koonce for the game's first run.

An errant throw from third baseman Bo Robinson plated Alex Pelaez and a wild pitch from Ayala scored Koonce.

The Quakes threatened to score in the fifth off JetHawks reliever Aaron Looper. Looper, who picked up the victory, got a pair of quick outs to start the inning after retiring the side in both the third and fourth innings. He then gave walked Koonce on four straight pitches.

Robinson then earned his second error of the game, throwing away a routine grounder from Shane Hopper.

Looper (1-0), however, was able to finish the inning by getting shortstop Christian Berroa to ground out to Bloomquist.

Looper (1-0) bounced back again, retiring the side in the sixth.

In his first four innings of work, Looper threw just 33 pitches. Looper gave up one hit and two walks in five innings while striking out four - three in the seventh. He got Quakes batters to ground out for 11 of the 16 outs he recorded.

Allan Simpson struck out six of the seven batters he faced to earn the save for Lancaster.

"I try to go out there every time and let it loose," Simpson said. "I try to take every outing the same."

Lancaster manager Mark Parent was also impressed with Simpson.

"Aaron did a tremendous job for us," Parent said. "Simpson was just icing on a good bullpen performance."

Shortstop Antonio Perez broke out of a 0-for-12 slump with a bunt single in the third inning.

Uploaded April 24, 2000