By CHRIS BRANAM
Valley Press Staff Writer
SAN BERNARDINO - Joe Victery was in a situation in which he needed to get a ground ball or strikeout.
He got neither. But he's not complaining.
What Victery got was a pop-out, the most important out of the game as far as the Lancaster JetHawks were concerned, as they won 7-4 Wednesday night in front of a paid attendance of 3,549 at The Ranch.
Victery isn't solely responsible for the JetHawks' fourth win in five games; he only got two outs.
But they were huge, coming in the seventh with the bases loaded and one out.
After taking over for Jason Bond, Victery got the dangerous Angel Pena (nine homers) to pop out on a 2-0 pitch. Then the bigright-hander struck out Jason Weekley looking to end the threat.
"I really wanted to get a ground ball in that situation," Victery said.
He got a much-needed confidence boost after an uneven performance last week at Visalia in which he gave up five hits and three runs in 1 1/3 innings.
He couldn't finish that game, which the JetHawks won 8-6. After undergoing surgery in November to repair a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder, Victery hasn't made the most successful adjustment to relieving.
Wednesday night's outing was a step in the right direction.
"I approach it differently: Keep the ball down and throw good quality pitches," Victery said.
Sean Spencer shut down the Stampede in the eighth and ninth innings to pick up his third save. He preserved the win for Jeff Farnsworth, who gave up four early runs but finished strongly in five innings.
Farnsworth (1-1) almost couldn't hold a 5-0 lead the JetHawks gave him in the first, but he struck out six of the last 10 hitters he faced.
The JetHawks (17-16) moved over .500 for the first time since April 15 with their sixth win over the Stampede in eight games. San Bernardino (17-16) lost its second straight after winning five in a row.
The big first inning for Lancaster - which turned out to be the difference - featured three Stampede errors.
The first two mistakes were made by shortstop Jack Jones, who threw wildly to first on Joe Mathis' infield single to leadoff the game, then let Chris Dean's grounder go under his glove.
Before the crowd stopped buzzing about the two miscues, third baseman Cliff Anderson let Miguel Correa's grounder go underneath his glove, allowing Mathis to score.
James Clifford picked up a single on a half-swing ground ball that dribbled into right field. That scored Dean.
Shawn Buhner's sacrifice fly scored another run and three batters later, Yuni Kim picked up just his fourth RBI in the last two weeks with a single.
Only one of the runs was charged to Stampede starter Jeff Williams, who entered the game with a 2.33 ERA.
His bad luck continued in the fourth, when the JetHawks added another unearned run. Dusty Wathan struck out to open the inning, but he went to first on a passed ball by catcher Angel Pena.
Kim doubled Wathan home with a drive off the wall in left field. With the two hits, he broke a 3-for-20 slump that had dropped his average to .287.
Lancaster forced Williams from the game with another run in the sixth.
Clifford singled to lead off the inning, and after an out, Carlos Villalobos hit an opposite field double that made it 7-4.
Farnsworth's shaky start allowed the Stampede to cut quickly into the JetHawks' early lead.
San Bernardino scored twice in the first and twice in the second, taking advantage of Farnsworth's inability to get ahead of hitters.
He walked two in the first, hit Tony Mota on the foot in the second and threw a wild pitch in the third.
Farnsworth also threw a lot of pitches, 105 in all, which didn't allow him to go further into the game despite his strong finish.