JetHawks put lid on Storm

Scott Atchison, Aaron Looper and Brandon Parker combined for Lancaster's fifth shutout of the season.

Three JetHawks pitchers combined on an eight-hit shutout of the Storm, winning 3-0 before a crowd of 5,173 at Pete Lehr Field.

"We got some solid pitching from (Scott) Atchison tonight," Lancaster manager Mark Parent said. "I'm glad he's doing well here because we're going to start him on the road in the playoffs."

Atchison (5-5) was solid for five innings and picked up the win before needing to be bailed out by Aaron Looper in the sixth.

Left fielder Elpidio Guzman picked up a one-out single off Atchison in the fifth and advanced to third on a stolen base and a throwing error by catcher Travis McClendon.

Looper came in to get the final two outs of the inning and threw a pitched a scoreless frame in the seventh.

"Atch pitched a hell of a game," Parent said, "and Loop came in and put out the fire. That was big."

In the bottom of the eighth, Looper ran into trouble when Guzman picked up a two-out single and stole second.

With the potential tying run at second, catcher Angel Diaz hit an infield single to the left side that the shortstop Perez fell on at the edge of the outfield grass, holding Guzman, who was running on the play, at third and preserving the one-run lead.

After Diaz's single, Looper was pulled in favor of Brandon Parker and the closer struck out Marcus Knight with four pitches to end the inning.

"A lot of us in the pen are pitching good right now," Looper said. "It's competitive for sure. We know that if we don't pitch well you might not be out there again for a while."

Parker came out again to start the ninth and struck out the side to pick up his league-leading 22nd save.

Down 1-0 in the ninth, Lake Elsinore brought in reliever Doug Bridges to keep the game close and give the Storm a shot in the bottom half of the inning.

Bridges started by giving up a single to Freddie May and followed that by allowing a double by Peanut Williams that scored May.

Bridges got little help from his defense as the center fielder, Guzman, overran the ball and allowed it to roll all the way to the wall.

After getting McClendon and Wilfredo Quintana to ground out into back-to-back fielder's choice groundouts, Bridges served up a triple to Antonio Perez that scored Quintana and again looked catchable. This time though, it was left fielder Marcus Knight who couldn't come up with the ball.

"It took us a while," Parent said, "but Peanut came up with a big one and Perez hit a ball pretty hard too."

Mario Mendoza Jr. (1-1), son of manager Mario Mendoza, started for the Storm and dominated the JetHawks for eight innings, giving up one run on four hits but left the game down 1-0 and was the eventual loser.

First baseman Craig Kuzmic led off the fourth inning with a single off Mendoza and he moved to second after Guzman could not handle the ball.

Third baseman Bo Robinson picked up his 96th run batted in two batters later when he singled home Kuzmic for the game's first run.

Uploaded September 2, 2000