Hawks at home for easy victory

By ED HARBOUR
Valley Press Staff Writer

Lancaster lived up to expectations, blowing out the Storm 13-6 at Lancaster Municipal Stadium.

The JetHawk offense sputtered early, scoring one run in five innings, but got going with a little bit of help from the Storm defense.

"I was mad as hell for the first five innings," Lancaster skipper Mark Parent said. "We couldn't do anything right.

"They deserved to win and we won by a big margin."

In the bottom of the sixth inning, newcomer Jamie Bubela connected for his first hit as a JetHawk, a screamer over second baseman Alfredo Amezaga.

Bubela later scored on a single by Freddie May with two outs.

"I made contact, hit the ball hard two or three times," Bubela said. "I think getting the first one out of the way will be big in the next couple of games I get to play."

After loading the bases by walking Bo Robinson, Lake Elsinore looked on its way to ending the inning when Peanut Williams tapped a groundball to Amezaga.

But Amezaga couldn't handle the ball, and threw it away to boot, as Juan Silvestre and May came around to score.

The JetHawks were not through, though, as they tacked on four more runs in the inning, highlighted by a bases-loaded triple by shortstop Antonio Perez to conclude the seven-run inning.

The rout carried on into the seventh as Lancaster added five more runs, highlighted by Robinson's three-run double, to put the game out of reach.

For the JetHawks, it was the 29th time they have batted around in an inning and 21st instance of six or more runs in an inning.

Lancaster scored its first run in the second as Silvestre and May both singled to start the frame.

Silvestre was later called out at home on a delayed double steal, but May came across on a sacrifice fly by Robinson to center field.

In the first, Perez hit a long fly ball to left field that Bienvenido Encarnacion misplayed into a twobase error. But instead of capitalizing on the mistake, Perez was doubled up at second after Bubela lined out to center fielder Elpidio Guzman.

"We had a lot of baserunning mistakes tonight," Parent said, "too many in fact. I don't know what Perez was doing. He took off for no reason. I don't think he looked up once."

Enmanuel Ulloa got the start for Lancaster and went 6 innings, allowing four runs on five hits and setting himself up for the win with four punch outs and three walks.

Ulloa never gave up a big inning to the Storm, instead manager Mario Mendoza's club nickel and dimed him out of the game.

"I don't think Manny deserved to win," Parent said. "He can do so much better and everyone knows it."

Lake Elsinore got on the board first after Mike Christensen doubled to leadoff the second and came home to score on a groundout by Jason Hill.

Amezaga smacked a leadoff double of his own to start the third, coming in to score on backto-back groundouts.

In the fourth, Ulloa walked No. 9 hitter Brian Specht with one out as the Storm pushed the lead to 3-1 after Specht scored on a double by Jeb Dougherty.

The final run off of Ulloa came from cleanup hitter Bill Mott, who blasted a shot off Ulloa to lead off the sixth that landed near the onramp to Hwy. 14.

Ulloa started the seventh, but after getting two quick outs walked Amezaga and was pulled in favor of reliever Caleb Balbuena who closed out the inning scoreless.

Uploaded August 21, 2000