"Tonight we didn't get any hitting," Lancaster manager Dave Brundage said, "and we didn't get any pitching and we didn't get any defense. I would say that's probably our worst defeat of the season."
The Lake Elsinore Storm beat the JetHawks 11-0 Wednesday night in front of a paid attendance of 3,394 at The Hangar.
The loss not only dropped the JetHawks (19-15) a game behind the Storm (19-13) in the California League's Southern Division, but it was also their sixth loss in seven games.
On May 2, the JetHawks were 18-9 and coming off a thrilling 8-7 come-from-behind win over San Bernardino at The Hangar.
But that was the last win at home for Lancaster, and they were nearly swept by Rancho Cucamonga last weekend, winning the fourth game 12-10.
"We just need to get back on the winning track," JetHawks catcher Dusty Wathan said. "It's just baseball. (Lake Elsinore) threw a guy out there who did a good job."
That "guy" is Lake Elsinore's Brian Cooper, an ex-USC standout who shut them out on 96 pitches.
"I had to get aggressive and get ahead of the hitters," Cooper said.
Cooper gave up six hits and only one was hit especially hard - Jesus Marquez' second-inning, lead-off triple.
But Cooper (3-2) struck out the next three batters to strand Marquez, setting the tone for the rest of the game.
Lancaster wasn't able to get a runner past first base after that. Two JetHawks runners were caught stealing by catcher Bret Hemphill and a third, Marcus Sturdivant, was thrown out at second trying to stretch a single into a double.
The JetHawks were trailing 6-0 at the time.
Like Cooper with his pitches, the Storm got the most out of their eight hits.
That's because they walked 12 times against three JetHawks pitchers.
They took advantage of two walks by Lancaster starter Chris Beck in the second to take a 3-0 lead. Phillip Dauphin and Joe Urso both had RBI singles to right in the rally, with two coming in on Urso's blooper.
A couple of JetHawk errors led to more runs later on.
In the fifth, and Beck nearing 100 pitches, shortstop Luis Molina bobbled a grounder by Tony Moeder with one out.
Ty Bilderback struck out, but Beck walked Kevin Young and Hemphill hit a ground-rule double to left-center field after fouling off four-consecutive 3-2 pitches.
Paul Failla followed with a liner to left that got away from a diving Shane Monahan, giving the Storm a 6-0 lead.
Of the six runs Beck gave up, only three were earned.
"I actually thought (Beck) had good stuff," Brundage said. "He just got tired a little bit."
In the eighth, Wathan dropped a throw from third baseman Carlos Villalobos on an attempted force out, allowing Juan Henderson to score the Storm's seventh run.