By CHRIS BRANAM
Staff Writer
MODESTO - Having been embarrassed after losing a game in which they led by eight runs the night before, Ken Cloude and the Lancaster JetHawks had an emphatic response.
The JetHawks handed the Modesto A's their first home loss in 11 games, 7-5 Wednesday night in front of 676 at John Thurman Field.
Lancaster improved to 17-17 in the California League's second half, while the Northern Division-leading A's dropped to 22-13.
The JetHawks, who got 15 hits and had three pitchers combine for 15 strikeouts, took a 7-3 lead into the ninth before Mike Neill hit a two-run homer off John Thompson that cut into the lead.
Cloude (12-3) followed one of his worst outings of the season (six earned runs and 10 hits in 4 1/3 innings against High Desert) with nine strikeouts and just two hits allowed in six innings.
He won despite walking five, tying his season-high, and hitting two batters.
Cloude, whose next start will be in Appleton, Wis., against Seattle in an exhibition game, threw 116 pitches.
He was helped by a Lancaster offense that piled up 12 hits against Modesto starter Chris Nelson (1-5) in the first five innings.
Continuing to reverse a recent trend, the JetHawks scored first.
Lancaster took a 1-0 lead in the first when Shane Monahan scored from second base on an infield hit by Jesus Marquez.
Monahan had extended his hitting streak to 19 games with a single leading off the game.
The JetHawks added to the lead in the third.
Mike Lanza led off with a single and went to second on a passed ball. Monahan drove Lanza home with his second single.
It took back-to-back doubles to get Monahan home from second after a groundout.
Marquez hit a double to left, but Monahan had to hold up on the blooping fly ball and made it only to third. He walked home, though, when Scott Smith ripped a double into the gap into right-center field.
That two-run double gave Smith 32 RBI in 29 games as a JetHawk.
The JetHawks knocked Nelson out of the game with three runs in the fifth to take a 7-0 lead.
With two outs, Smith singled to left. James Clifford's bloop hit dropped in between three Modesto players in center field, and when the throw went into second, Smith came all the way around to give the Jethawks a 5-0 lead.
After Chris Dean reached on an infield single, Doug Carroll broke out of a 1-for-14 slump with a tworun double down the right-field line.
Cloude struggled with his control again in the fifth, and this time the A's made him pay.
He quickly got in trouble, hitting Danny Ardoin with a pitch and giving up Jose Castro's bunt single, the A's first hit of the game.
Then Cloude hit Wilfredo Ventura in the back to load the bases, and after he struck out Dave Newhan for the third time, Emil Brown hit a sacrifice fly to deep center field that broke up the shutout.
Mike Neill had a run-scoring single, cutting the lead to 7-2, but then Cloude slammed the door on the comeback, striking out Derrick White to end the inning.
Todd Niemeier was on his way to an easy outing in the eighth - he retired five of the first six hitters he faced - before he walked Ardoin and gave up a run-scoring double to Castro that made it 7-3.