Bottom of lineup wins it for 'Hawks

By ED HARBOUR
Valley Press Staff Writer

But in his last three starts, he's done just the opposite. Heaverlo was 0-2 with an ERA of 6.60.

On Monday night, he looked to break that slump against the San Jose Giants.

In 4 innings of work, Heaverlo gave up just one run on one hit but walked six batters and hit two others as the JetHawks fought their way to a 3-2, 10-inning win before a crowd of 1,159 at San Jose Municipal Stadium.

In the top of the 10th, the bottom of the JetHawks' order came through with the go-ahead run. Right fielder Mike Abate, batting seventh, doubled on a bloop to right, to open the inning.

After a perfect bunt single by Travis McClendon moved Abate to third, Guillermo Martinez brought Abate in on a sacrifice fly to right, giving Lancaster a 3-2 lead.

"Martinez looked (nervous) up there with no outs," Parent said. "McClendon gets the bunt down, Martinez hits the ball, its all incredibly big for us.

"They all just came up big for us."

It was the third extra-inning game for Lancaster this season, which is 2-1 in extra frames, all lasting only 10 innings.

Lancaster (20-12) manager Mark Parent called in Allan Simpson to close out the game in the bottom of the ninth with a 2-1 lead, with normal closer Brandon Parker resting after pitching in the last two games.

Simpson got two quick outs, but back-to-back walks to San Jose's (12-20) Joe Jester and Clay Greene ran him into trouble.

And trouble came in the form of Tony Torcato's game-tying single to right field.

"It was an ugly game for us but we still won the game," Parent said. "We weren't able to able to score runs or throw strikes. What else can I say? It was ugly."

In the bottom of the 10th Parent gave Simpson the chance to close out the game again. This time, Simpson (2-0) bore down to retire the side in order and earn the win.

In the fifth inning, Parent left Heaverlo in to start the bottom half of the inning, in an attempt to get him the win, but things just went from bad to worse for the former University of Washington star.

Heaverlo walked Jester to start the fifth, got a groundout, balked to send Jester to third and walked Tony Torcato.

Parent finally had seen enough and called Kenny Rayborn in to relieve. Rayborn gave up a sacrifice fly to John Summers, which plated Jester and ended Heaverlo's night by getting Sammy Serrano to pop out to first base.

To start the bottom of the sixth, Rayborn walked Carlos Mendoza, the fifth straight inning that San Jose got the leadoff man aboard.

But for the fourth time, San Jose failed to get a run home in that scenario.

That inability became the savior for Lancaster. San Jose stranded 10 base runners on the night - nine in the first six innings.

The Giants had just two hits in the game, but both led to runs for San Jose.

On Monday, Lancaster got an early offensive spark from Bo Robinson's leadoff solo home run to start the third inning.

"That was about my only good hit of the night," said Robinson who finished 1-for-4. "When you play good situational baseball like we did tonight, you're able to win ball games with good defense like we had."

San Jose starter Jeff Verplancke looked solid, giving up just two earned runs, but by no means was fooling the JetHawks,

In six innings, Verplancke scattered seven hits in the first four innings, but bounced back to strike out the side in the sixth. Juan Silvestre, Robinson and Craig Kuzmic - the JetHawks four, five and six hitters - all walked back to the dugout in the sixth.

Matt Wells relieved Verplancke in the seventh and didn't allow the JetHawks to grab an insurance run over the final three innings.

Uploaded May 9, 2000