An unusual character fails 'Hawks

Lancaster's pitching staff, the league's top crew, failed as the JetHawks fell to San Bernardino.

When all was said and done, they sure didn't look like it.

After being down 5-2 early and even getting within one run late, Lancaster ended its six-game, weeklong tussle with San Bernardino by getting blown out 13-6 before a crowd of 3,048 at Lancaster Municipal Stadium.

The loss shrinks the JetHawks' lead in the Cal League South Division to 4 1/2 games over San Bernardino. The Stampede erased all hopes of a JetHawk comeback by scoring six runs off reliever Aaron Looper in the top of the ninth, capped off by a two-run home run from Pete Paciorek.

Looper failed to record an out in the inning.

"Our guys battled back tonight," Lancaster manager Mark Parent said. "We just had a few guys that let us down tonight."

In the seventh, Lancaster used a four-hit, two-run inning to cut into San Bernardino's lead and draw within 5-4.

The inning was near disastrous for the Stampede, after Freddy May knocked a double off the scoreboard in right, driving in Sheldon Fulse.

On the play, Harvey Hargrove was called out at home trying to score the tying run from first and looked safe after catcher John Hernandez's tag appeared to completely miss Hargrove.

"He went up to catch the ball and I thought the only way he could tag me was with his rear end," Hargrove said of the play. "It was a big run. We would have been tied, but unfortunately we couldn't get it."

Parent tried to use the situation as a motivational tool for his team.

"I was trying to get tossed," Parent said. "I wanted to get the team going."

The JetHawks looked as if they would take the game going away early after putting up a pair of runs in the bottom half of the first off San Bernardino starter Carlos Garcia.

Corey Freeman, working as the designated hitter, opened up with a single and came around to score on a triple to right by Willie Bloomquist.

Bloomquist would trot home two batters later on a single by Bo Robinson.

Garcia (5-3) earned the win for the Stampede, going 6 innings, striking out four and walking one.

Lancaster starter Enmanuel Ulloa (2-2) struggled to fool the Stampede batters, giving up five runs, four earned, on six hits.

"Manny just didn't have his `A' game tonight," Parent said. "He gave us what he had, he just didn't have his sharp stuff today."

In the eighth, San Bernardino's Darron Ingram knocked a two-run shot of his own off reliever Neil Longo to give the Stampede a 7-4 lead.

Newest JetHawk Larry Haynes made an immediate impact on the team in garbage time in the ninth.

After tagging a two-out single, he scored on a double from catcher Travis McClendon.

Uploaded May 20, 2000