By CHRIS BRANAM
Valley Press Staff Writer
LAKE ELSINORE - It was an easy call.
Or so it seemed.
Lake Elsinore's Justin Baughman, the runner at first, was leaning toward second when Lancaster pitcher Chris Beck fired a throw to first baseman James Clifford.
The pickoff move and throw were about as good as you can get. But not good enough for base umpire Billy Haze.
Haze called Baughman safe, and the Lake Elsinore Storm seemed to feed off that call in a 7-6 win over the Lancaster JetHawks Saturday night in front of 4,402 at The Diamond.
Lancaster's three-game winning streak was snapped.
It was JetHawks manager Rick Burleson who snapped out of his dugout seat on Haze's safe call on the pickoff attempt in the fifth.
The JetHawks were leading 3-1 at the time, and Beck couldn't afford to let the tying run get into scoring position.
"When (the runner)'s caught leaning, and the throw is there," Burleson said, "the guy is usually out."
Usually.
Beck had one of the best views in the stadium.
"I don't know what (Haze) saw, but (Clifford) hit him across the forearm," Beck said, referring to the tag. "If I get him out, I'm out of the inning."
Instead, Baughman scored on a two-out double by Larry Barnes, and the roof fell in on Beck in the sixth.
He gave up a leadoff home run to Jon Vandergriend that tied the game and four batters later, a tworun single by Baughman through a drawn-in infield gave the Storm a lead they didn't relinquish.
"(Baughman) broke his bat and hit a ground ball up the middle for two runs," Burleson said. "If Beck pitches like he did tonight, he's going to win a lot of games."
Beck gave up 10 hits, but the one pitch he lamented was on Vandergriend's homer.
"I left a slider up," he said, "and he hit it hard."
Norm Hutchins also homered in the sixth, a two-run shot to right off Beck's replacement, Allan Westfall, that capped the Storm's five-run inning.
The JetHawks, who have shown a penchant for coming from behind early in the season, made it close.
Lancaster (6-4) scored twice in the seventh and cut the lead to one, 7-6, on Luis Tinoco's RBI double on a hard grounder that went off third baseman David Davalillo's shin and into the leftfield stands.
Pinch-runner Carlos Villalobos was stranded as Jason Hill got the next two batters to earn his California League-leading fifth save.
Beck was staked to a 3-0 lead in the third.
Shawn Buhner led off with a home run over the 36-foot wall in right field against Lake Elsinore starter Jose Cintron. It was his second homer in as many at-bats; Buhner hit a homer in his last atbat in the JetHawks' win over San Bernardino Friday night.
After Cintron hit Mike Martin with a pitch, Luis Molina had an RBI triple and Joe Mathis a runscoring single to cap the rally.
The JetHawks came back with two runs in the seventh.
Dusty Wathan extended his batting streak to seven games with an RBI single after a Tarrik Brock triple to make it 7-4.
Molina singled home a run to cut the lead to 7-5. The JetHawks' shortstop went 2-for-4 with two RBI.
Wathan doubled to lead off the ninth against Hill, setting up Tinoco's hard shot that bounced off Davalillo's shin, bounced once and went into the stands. Wathan was awarded one base and scored.
But Hill recovered to retire Molina and Mathis on ground outs to third to end the game.