Minor tremblor

Rancho Cucamonga sent 11 batters to the plate in the eighth inning and scored eight runs on seven hits.

One night after rallying from a four-run deficit to beat the Quakes 13-9 in 12 innings, Rancho Cucamonga used an eight-run eighth inning to beat the JetHawks 9-1 in front of 5,182 fans at The Epicenter.

"It's no big deal," Lancaster manager Mark Parent said of the lopsided loss. "Every team is going to have nights like this . . . (Friday night) it was our turn. We just come back and go back to work like we have all season."

Lancaster (23-6) still holds a 5 1/2-game lead over second-place San Bernardino. The Stampede lost 8-6 to visiting High Desert.

Suffering the blunt of the blows from the Quakes' bats was Lancaster reliever Aaron Looper.

Looper gave up eight runs on seven hits, including the first grand slam given up by a Lancaster pitcher in 2000, to take the loss.

Looper entered the game in the bottom of the eighth and faced 11 Rancho Cucamonga hitters. The Quakes' batters hit for the cycle against Looper in the inning: three singles, two doubles, a triple and the slam.

Jeremy Owens led off the inning against Looper with a double and later in the inning hit the grand slam with two outs. Owens finished 3-for-5 with four RBI.

Despite the poor performance, Parent didn't think that Looper pitched all that badly.

"I don't think he struggled and I told him that," Parent said. "Eight of the 11 hitters he faced hit the ball on the ground. They just found the holes. He went after their guys and threw strikes."

Before Looper's nightmare inning, Lancaster starter Scott Atchison pitched strong for seven innings, giving up five hits with eight strikeouts. Atchison was tough throughout, facing a maximum of five Quakes' hitters in an inning in only the third and sixth.

Leading 1-0, Atchison gave up his run in the sixth inning on an RBI single by Al Benjamin. Atchison got out off the inning by inducing the next hitter, Josh Loggins, to fly out to second base.

"I thought Atchison pitched a great game," Parent said.

Atchison's counterpart, Blair DeHart, was equally strong. DeHart performed nothing like a pitcher who entered the game with an 0-2 record and a 16.88 ERA.

DeHart pitched six innings, allowing two hits and an unearned run, with eight strikeouts and no walks.

Juan Silvestre scored the only run off DeHart from second on a single by Harvey Hargrove.

"(DeHart) just came after us," Parent said. "He threw in the zone and kept our guys off balance."

The JetHawks might have struggled offensively because they elected not to have batting practice. Lancaster instead chose to arrive to Rancho Cucamonga later after playing 12 innings on Thursday night and not leaving for home until after midnight.

Johnny Hunter replaced DeHart in the seventh and pitched two scoreless innings to improve his record to 3-4 with the win.

Uploaded July 22, 2000