By CHRIS BRANAM
Valley Press Staff Writer
LANCASTER - After his first couple starts following a promotion from the Midwest League, Joe Mays said it would take him a little while to learn California League hitters.
School was in for San Bernardino Wednesday night.
Mays supplied the dominating pitching performance and Jason Regan supplied the offense - again - as the Lancaster JetHawks blew out the Stampede 8-0 at The Hangar.
With their first shutout of the season, the JetHawks improved to 16-10 in the second half and gained a game in the Valley Division standings. The second-place JetHawks are four games behind the Modesto A's, who lost 5-3 to Rancho Cucamonga.
Regan drove in four of the JetHawks' runs with a homer in the fifth and a three-run double in the seventh.
The JetHawks didn't need much offense, however, with the way Mays pitched.
After struggling a little bit early in the game, he settled into a groove and shut out the Stampede over seven innings.
"Getting a better idea," Mays said afterward. "The hitters in the Midwest League would hack at anything close. Here, they see a breaking ball and they just sit on it."
Starting with a strikeout of Glenn Davis to end the third, Mays retired eight straight Stampede hitters until Murph Proctor singled with one out in the sixth.
Mays (3-1) was nearly unhittable after he was struck in the leg by a sharp grounder hit by Conan Horton in the second.
Mays struck out Rolando Avila looking with two men on in the seventh, his last inning. He gave up five hits, walked four and struck out seven.
"I didn't really start thinking about (a shutout) until the sixth and seventh," he said. "I looked up at the scoreboard and saw all those goose-eggs. It was a pretty sight."
Tarrik Brock, who has hit in 11 of his last 13 games, ripped a fullcount offering from Stampede starter J.J. Pearsall (11-5) over the right-field fence for his fifth homer.
Pearsall, who became the California League's first 11-game winner last week, wasn't the same after that. He gave up solo homers to Luis Molina and Regan in the fifth.
Regan's homer not only made it 4-0, but it was his 12th homer in the second half. Lancaster's second baseman has homered in four of his last six games.
Molina's homer also brought the weeknight crowd of 3,981 to its feet earlier in the fifth when he blasted his sixth homer over the left-field wall.
Prior to this year, Molina had only three home runs in four minor league seasons.
Molina drove Pearsall from the game in the seventh with a single.
Pearsall, a 23-year-old lefthander who was the Dodgers' 15th round draft choice four years ago, gave up seven hits, walked four and struck out only two.