Two for the road

JetHawks up 2-0 as series shifts to San Bernardino

By ED HARBOUR
Valley Press Staff Writer

The JetHawks took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series with a 9-6 win over the Stampede before a crowd of 3,336 at Lancaster Municipal Stadium.

"This was huge," Lancaster skipper Mark Parent said. "The twogame lead gives us a lot of leeway, not that we're going to use it."

The JetHawks bounded to an early lead but were forced to score late to retake the lead after starter Melqui Torres ran into trouble.

After being staked to a 6-0 lead, Torres was hit for three runs in both the third and sixth innings to tie the game at 6-6.

The Stampede rattled off three consecutive singles off Torres to start the top of the third and smacked two more in the inning to pull within 6-3.

Michael Collins, Joe Thurston and Pete Paciorek all drove in runs in the inning.

In the sixth, Darron Ingram singled off Torres to lead off the inning and came in to score after Lamont Matthews hit a triple to left. Matthews would score two batters later when Bubba Crosby tripled to draw San Bernardino within 6-5.

That triple was the final pitch Torres would throw as manager Mark Parent relieved him Enmanuel Ulloa, who normally works as a starter.

Ulloa served up a scoring fly ball to Jesus Feliciano that scored Crosby and induced Collins to ground out to end the inning with the score tied 6-6.

"Manny was very uneven toward the end of the year," pitching coach Scott Budner said after the game, "and Mark made the decision to use him out of the pen."

Ulloa picked up for the win after Stampede reliever Matt Pool's good fortune on the hill came to an end with one swing in the bottom of the sixth. That pitch turned into Juan Silvestre's first home run of the postseason, a solo tape-measure shot over the second row of billboards in right center.

For four innings, Pool had surrendered no runs on one hit in relief of starter Apostol Garcia. But then came Silvestre's home run.

"I think that was good for Juan," Parent said. "It lets him focus more on his game now that he got one out of the way."

Lancaster initially got on the board in the bottom of the first after shortstop Antonio Perez drew a walk from Garcia and Bo Robinson and Craig Kuzmic followed with back-to-back run-scoring doubles as Lancaster jumped out to a 2-0 lead.

Freddie May and Peanut Williams also drove in runs in the inning, as Lancaster scored four runs in the frame.

Garcia started the second with another leadoff walk, this time to No. 9 hitter Harvey Hargrove.

Perez drove in Hargrove with a double and scored on Kuzmic's second double of the game.

In the first 1 1/3 innings, Lancaster had five run-scoring doubles as a team.

After Kuzmic's second double gave Lancaster a 6-0 lead, Matt Pool relieved Garcia and brought the Lancaster offense to a screeching halt, limiting it to one hit and no runs over the next four innings he pitched.

In that time, San Bernardino Mark Parent left the game early when in the top of the seventh he was ejected for arguing balls and strikes with plate umpire Bill VanRapphoorst.

In the bottom of the seventh, the JetHawks tacked on a pair of insurance runs on an RBI double by Scott Maynard and a run-scoring forceout by Perez to take a 9-6 lead.

Notes

The JetHawks learned that Thurston would be unavailable to San Bernardino on Sunday and Monday as his grandfather passed away and he will attend the funeral in the Sacramento area.

Closer Kris Foster will also be unavailable for the reminder of the playoffs as his sore right shoulder flared up over the weekend and he was shelved for the rest of the year.

San Bernardino ace Carlos Garcia (14-7) will face Lancaster's Scott Atchison (5-5) in game three of the series today at the Ranch at 2 p.m.

Garcia has made three starts against the JetHawks this year, going 1-1 with an earned run average of 2.33. Atchison was 0-1 vs. the Stampede in three starts and was hit around to the tune of 12 runs in 15 1/3 innings (6.89 ERA).

Uploaded September 11, 2000