Wooten goes the distance as 'Hawks win

This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press July 21, 1996.
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By CHRIS BRANAM
Staff Writer
LANCASTER - Second baseman Chris Dean hadn't played but 4½ games with the Lancaster JetHawks before a torn hamstring put him out of action for three weeks.

Welcome back, Chris.

Dean, hitting .157 (6for38), hit an RBI double that scored Scott Smith with the goahead run and Greg Wooten threw the JetHawks' second, nine-inning complete game of the season in a 3-2 win Saturday night at The Hangar.

The JetHawks (16-15) won their second in a row and the Giants (16-15) lost their thirdstraight.

Wooten (4-1) gave up one hit after the third inning and struck out eight.

"I was getting all my pitches over for strikes," said Wooten of his successful formula.

Lancaster manager Dave Brundage said Wooten was in control for most of the game.

"He had his rhythm, he was in his groove," he said. "(The Giants) didn't even have that good of swings off him."

Wooten was helped out by a clutch defensive play turned in by Jason Cook in the eighth.

With the score tied at two and Tim Garland (38 stolen bases) at third with one out, Cook caught Jon Sbrocco's fly ball at medium depth and threw a strike to catcher Dusty Wathan, who tagged a standing up Garland going by.

"I was totally expecting it," Cook said of Garland's daring try. "In that situation, you have to go for it."

The JetHawks capitalized in the bottom of the eighth on Dean's hit off reliever Chad Hartgivson that went to the gap in right-center field.

When center fielder Derek Reid fell trying to field the ball, Smith had no trouble scoring.

"Once (Reid) fell, I knew Scott was going to score," Dean said.

After spending most of the game chasing San Jose starter Aaron Fultz's off-speed pitches, the JetHawks took advantage of Fultz's error in the seventh to tie the game at two.

James Clifford led off with a single, the third hit of the game against Fultz, and Dusty Wathan laid down a sacrifice bunt.

Fultz fielded and threw wildly to second base, allowing Clifford to move up. Mike Lanza then hit a bad-hop single off shortstop Wilson Delgado's chest that scored Clifford.

Wooten made few mistakes, but the Giants capitalized on one bad inning to take a 2-0 lead.

After getting two outs to start the third, Sbrocco drew a walk, touching off a rally.

Reid singled, and both runners moved up on Wooten's first wild pitch as a JetHawk. San Jose first baseman Jesse Ibarra singled to right, scoring both runners.

Wooten settled down after that, retiring the next 14 batters until Garland blooped a single into right and went to third on an error by right fielder Jesus Marquez.

At one point, the 6-foot-7 Wooten retired 11-of-13 Giants by either strikeout or groundout.

He was matched through the first six innings by Fultz, a lefthander who pitched two innings of relief the last time he faced the JetHawks on June 21.

Fultz didn't give up a hit until Scott Smith's leadoff double in the fourth. Smith eventually scored on Chris Dean's groundout that cut the Giants' lead to 2-1.

Fultz gave up five hits, struck out four and walked two before being relieved after Marquez's leadoff single in the eighth.

Right-hander Brett Hinchliffe (7-8, 4.82 ERA) will face a fellow right-hander, San Jose's Joe Fontenot (7-3, 4.49) at 5:05 p.m. as the JetHawks wrap up a sevengame homestand.

After an off-day Monday, Lancaster starts a sixgame road trip at Modesto Tuesday night.


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Uploaded 07/22/96

© 1996 Antelope Valley Press, Palmdale, California, USA (805) 273-2700