By CHRIS BRANAM
Valley Press Staff Writer
LANCASTER - The Seattle Mariners have The Big Unit. The Lancaster JetHawks now have The Big Yuni.
Yuni Kim, the import from Japan, slammed two home runs and had six RBI to lead the JetHawks to a 10-7 victory over High Desert Friday night.
"Quite a night," Lancaster manager Rick Burleson said of Kim's performance.
While most of The Hangar's paid attendance of 3,078 braved the chilly temperatures, Kim's bat was hot.
After striking out in the first, Kim ripped a three-run homer in the fourth that tied the game at 4, hit a double that drove in a run in the fifth and nailed a two-run homer to left in the seventh that gave the JetHawks an 8-4 lead.
"I know he's got the power," said Burleson, who inserted Kim into the cleanup spot in the lineup. "He hit the ball as hard as you can hit it three times."
Rob Luce (1-0) went five innings to get the victory in the first start of his professional career. A reliever in Everett of the Northwest League last year, Luce led the team in saves with seven.
"(Luce) went right after them like I knew he would," Burleson said. "I think he's really going to help our ballclub."
Luce can thank Kim for the win. It was his double off the right-field wall that scored Chris Dean in the fifth and gave the JetHawks their first lead, 5-4. Dean had just picked up his third hit of the game, a double down the left field line.
The JetHawks used the long ball to tie the game at 4 in the third.
Luis Molina hit High Desert starter Chad Zerbe's first pitch over the left field wall for his first homer as a JetHawk. Although Molina played in 37 games for Lancaster last year, he had no homers.
Joe Mathis and Dean followed Molina's homer with back-to-back singles, and after Luis Tinoco hit into a force out, Kim nailed an 0-1 pitch over the screen in center field for a three-run homer that tied the game.
Kim pumped his first into the air as he rounded second base.
"I was very happy," Kim said.
The Mavericks scored three unearned runs in the first against Luce, with Stanton Cameron's two-run single being the big blow.
High Desert took a 4-0 lead in the third on Mike Stoner's run-scoring single.
The JetHawks defense made three errors behind Luce; all the runs he gave up were unearned.
"The defense was shaky there in the first inning," Burleson said.
Luce, a hard-throwing right-hander who pitched in rookie ball last year, gave up five hits, walked two and struck out three. His most important pitch came in the fifth, when he got Stoner to ground out with men on second and third and two outs.
"That was my last hitter," Luce said, "so I knew in the back of my mind that I had to get that out."
Mathis slammed the JetHawks' fourth homer of the game in the eighth. His two-run shot gave Lancaster a 10-5 lead.
The Mavericks made it interesting in the ninth against left-hander Denny Bonilla.
Pinch-hitter Keith Wilson slammed a two-run homer that cut the lead to three, 10-7, and Travis Lee, who had his first professional homer in his last at-bat, singled.
Bonilla got Stoner to ground into a fielder's choice to earn the save.