By CHRIS BRANAM
Valley Press Staff Writer
LANCASTER - Two steps forward and two steps back.
That's been the story of the month for the Lancaster JetHawks. Every time they seemed bent on ripping off more than two wins in a row, a loss was sure to follow.
Now it's two losses. The Visalia Oaks unloaded on the JetHawks 11-5 Wednesday night in front of a paid attendance of 3,541 at The Hangar.
"Every time we get to .500," JetHawks manager Rick Burleson said, "we fall two or three below .500. As far as the team `thing,' it hasn't come together yet."
The JetHawks (26-28) haven't really been bad this season, but they haven't been really good, either. The team's longest winning streak in May is two games, which they've done four times.
Lancaster's longest losing streak since May 1? Two games.
A blowout loss might have been the furthest thing from the JetHawks' minds when they treated Visalia starter Jake O'Dell like a batting practice pitcher in the first.
O'Dell's first pitch of the game was driven into center field for a single by Joe Mathis. His second pitch was a single by Chris Dean.
By O'Dell's sixth pitch, he was down 3-1. Carlos Villalobos ripped a three-run homer, his fourth of the season and second in three days, over the center-field wall.
But O'Dell struck out the next two hitters and was able to settle down and stay in the game. He was happy he did.
An Oaks onslaught over the next two innings turned the game around. Visalia scored seven in the third against JetHawks starter Chris Beck and four in the fourth off Beck and reliever Brian Sweeney.
The Oaks had three homers in the process - a solo homer by Ryan Christenson and three-run shots by David Slemmer and Eric Chavez.
"I can think of four or five plays that should have been made that led to runs," Burleson said.
Chavez's homer came on Sweeney's first pitch after he relieved Beck with one out in the fourth. It was the ninth homer for Chavez, Oakland's first-round pick in last year's draft, and it gave the Oaks an 11-4 lead.
Beck was charged with nine of those runs. He gave up nine hits in only 3 1/3 innings just five days after he gave up just one run in six innings in a win over Modesto.
O'Dell, on the other hand, ended up going six innings after the rough start. He only allowed four hits after the first and struck out nine.
Lancaster reliever Sean Spencer, who was activated from the disabled list on Tuesday, worked a scoreless ninth in his first appearance since May 7. He struck out Ramon Hernandez, the California League's leading hitter, and Chavez.