Mears solves wind, Mavericks

Lancaster's Chris Mears held High Desert to one run in 6 1/3 innings and the JetHawks scored seven runs during the third and fourth innings.

Friday night, starter Chris Mears solved the wind and the JetHawks' nemesis, High Desert, with a gem of an outing. Mears went 6 innings and gave up two runs, as Lancaster topped the Mavericks 9-1 before a crowd of 3,223 at Lancaster Municipal Stadium.

"For my money that was the best game we've played all year," Lancaster manager Mark Parent said. "We didn't strand guys on third, we put the ball in play, didn't strike out and got a great game from Mears."

In his last few outings, Mears has struggled, but he scattered six hits and struck out five, walking two.

The source of his recent troubles has been traced to his mechanics, which pitching coach Scott Budner has focused on in his work with Mears.

For Mears, getting into the seventh inning was a nice change.

"It's nice to go longer than four innings," Mears said. "It's a plus and I will definitely work to build on that.

"I've been struggling with mechanics for a while but today I felt as good as I have all year."

Mears ran into trouble in the seventh, coughing up a solo home run to Brian Gordon to open the inning and a double to Jhensey Sandoval to follow.

Kenny Rayborn relieved Mears (3-3) and gave up a single to Francisco Belliard to start but got Luis Terrero to strike out for the second out. Belliard was then caught stealing by catcher Travis McClendon to end the inning.

Rayborn went on to pitch a clean eighth, giving way to Aaron Looper in the ninth. Looper threw a scoreless ninth to finish the game.

"It was nice to see Looper get back on track," Parent said. "Rayborn, Looper, Mears they all looked good today."

High Desert left-hander Jarrod Jensen, in the early going, again stymied the JetHawks at the plate. In a start last Sunday against Lancaster and Mears, Jensen threw five innings of four-hit, two-run ball to up his record to 2-3.

On Friday he started scoreless, facing eight batters throughout the first two innings.

But he was chased after 3 innings and seven runs, with an abysmal third and fourth innings, to drop his record to 2-4.

"Left-handers have been giving us problems all year and we know they have," third baseman Bo Robinson said. "We finally got to one and we needed that as a confidence builder."

In the third, a leadoff triple by Guillermo Martinez snowballed into a three-run inning for the JetHawks.

Martinez scored on a groundout by Corey Freeman and Craig Kuzmic added a run-scoring single and Harvey Hargrove a run-scoring double to finish the inning.

Designated hitter Larry Haynes got things going in the fourth off of Jensen with the first of his two doubles on the night.

After a pair of walks to Freeman and Sheldon Fulse loaded the bases, Terrmel Sledge knocked a sacrifice fly to score Haynes. Freeman would also come home on an errant pickoff throw from Jensen to give Lancaster a 5-0 lead.

Jensen was finally pulled from the game after graciously extending Robinson's 15-game hitting streak with a two-run homer to left.

"I didn't know about the streak until a couple of days ago," Robinson said. "I'm going to try to keep it up. That's what I want to do, get a hit a game."

On the flip side of that, Sledge had his 13-game streak snapped with a 0-for-4 night.

The Lancaster offense, which has looked lackluster without the injured Willie Bloomquist and Juan Silvestre, the No. 1 and No. 2 hitters in the league, came to life up and down the lineup.

Fulse, feeling the pressure of a lineup returning back to health, went 2-for-3 with a pair of walks and two runs scored. Kuzmic also added a solo home run to lead off the seventh to finish 2-for-4 while Martinez and Haynes also collected two-hit games.

Uploaded May 27, 2000