By CHRIS BRANAM
Staff Writer
BAKERSFIELD - It was appropriate that the Lancaster Jethawks' hot hitter of the night, the newly-acquired Ricky Jordan, came to the plate at the same time a fire began across a river near Sam Lynn Ballpark, home of the Bakersfield Blaze.
Jordan capped a four-hit night with a two-run home run that put the finishing touches on a 9-4 Lancaster victory Wednesday.
The JetHawks improved to 9-6 in the California League's second half with a series sweep of the Blaze in front of a fireworks night crowd of 6,674.
The Blaze, last in the Cal League's Northern Division, fell to 2-13. The JetHawks finished the season 10-2 against Bakersfield.
The fire was contained by the bottom of the ninth, but Lancaster's Ken Cloude remains the league's hottest pitcher.
Cloude (10-2) gave up 12 hits and four earned runs in seven innings to earn his eighth-straight win, but was helped by Shane Monahan's arm and a mental lapse by the Juan Espinal-Todd Johnson duo in the fifth.
After Mauricio Gonzalez, Josh Watts and Espinal all doubled against Cloude to cut what was a 7-2 Jethawks lead to 7-4, Chris Paxton singled Espinal to third.
Alex Cabrera's fly ball was caught by Monahan at medium depth in center field, and he fired a strike to catcher Scot Sealy, who gave no indication of a throw and tricked Espinal into thinking a throw was not coming.
It worked, because Espinal came in standing up and was tagged out by Sealy. The on-deck batter, Johnson, didn't tell Espinal to slide and he didn't.
Paxton, by the way, continued his success against Lancaster with a two-run single in the first that gave the Blaze a 2-0 lead.
In Paxton's last four games against the JetHawks entering Wednesday, he was hitting .357 (5-for-14) with two homers and four RBI.
He singled in his first three at-bats Wednesday.
After taking a 1-0 lead against Blaze starter Brett Palmer on Jordan's RBI single, the JetHawks tied the scored at two on Monahan's infield single.
They made it 5-2 in the third.
Jesus Marquez and Jordan had back-to-back singles to start the rally, and Scott Smith reached on the third baseman Espinal's 26th error of the season.
With the bases loaded, Marquez scored after Palmer balked and the JetHawks went up 3-2.
Palmer walked Sealy on four pitches to reload the bases, and then forced in a run with a walk to Carlos Villalobos.
One batter later, Mike Lanza hit a sacrifice fly to increase the lead to 5-2.
Cloude gave up four hits in the next three innings but kept the Blaze off the scoreboard.
Craig Daedelow doubled with two outs in the second but was stranded on a nice play by shortstop Mike Lanza, who threw out the speedy Kyle Towner at first with a running throw across his body.
In the third, Cloude gave up singles to Josh Watts and Paxton and was helped again by his defense.
Cabrera, who hit a three-run homer in the ninth Tuesday, lined a ball near the right-field line, but Jesus Marquez made a running catch to end the inning.
The JetHawks took advantage of Palmer's wildness and reliever Aaron Sellner for two more runs in the top of the fourth to take a 7-2 lead.
Palmer walked Cook to open the inning, Jordan hit a one-out single. After Smith struck out, Palmer threw two-straight wild pitches that scored Cook.
Palmer came out of the game after a walk to Sealy and Sellner's first pitch was in the dirt which allowed Jordan to score and put the JetHawks up 7-2.