By CHRIS BRANAM
Valley Press Staff Writer
LANCASTER - The kids rose to the occasion.
Facing an established major league pitcher in the heat of a Class A pennant race, the Lancaster JetHawks didn't wilt.
In fact, they got a well-pitched game from Ivan Montane and two home runs from Jason Regan to beat San Bernardino 5-1 Thursday night in front of a paid attendance of 6,097 at The Hangar.
The second-largest crowd of the season got to see the JetHawks sweep the Stampede and beat Ramon Martinez in the process. Martinez, who was making his last rehabilitation start before he rejoins the Dodgers, gave up one run in 4 1/3 innings.
Just as importantly, the JetHawks (34-20) won their seventh in a row and stayed atop the California League's Valley Division.
They scored in the first on a Shawn Buhner RBI single, added two more in the fifth on Regan's first homer and another in the seventh on Regan's second homer and 20th of the second half.
That was enough for Montane, who not only won his first game since joining the JetHawks on Aug. 2, but struck out 10 to win his first game of the year.
Montane, who went seven innings and gave up just one run, was 0-8 at Class AA Memphis before he was sent down.
From the second pitch Martinez threw, it appeared that he still had some kinks that he didn't work out in the bullpen before the game.
"I felt so excited, I was rushing my delivery," Martinez said.
Joe Mathis ripped a ball into right field that was caught on a line by Jason Weekley. After an out, Regan singled, James Clifford walked and then Buhner singled to drive home Regan and extend his hitting streak to 10 games.
Martinez walked Josh Watts to load the bases, but then he regrouped to strike out Jim Horner and end the inning.
The JetHawks didn't really do too much against Martinez after that. Mathis' double in the second was the only hit that he gave up after the first.
Martinez left after Mathis grounded out to lead off the fifth. He threw 89 pitches, 50 of which were strikes. Still, he picked up his first minor league loss since 1989, when he was with Albuquerque.
But he's not going to worry about the loss. To Martinez, this was the final step toward making a start for the Dodgers.
"I'm very satisfied with the way I pitched," he said. "Everything was fine. The way I threw tonight, if I'm not 100 percent, I'm 99 percent."
But like the last time Martinez faced the JetHawks, on July 30 at San Bernardino, he was upstaged by a JetHawks pitcher.
Montane threw exactly like the prospect that was put on the Mariners' 40-man roster last winter. He had good movement on his fastball and, with the exception of two walks in the third, had good command.
The Stampede only had two hits by the fifth, singles by Weekley and Owen in the second, and Montane had a streak of four straight strikeouts covering the third and fourth innings.
Montane retired eight in a row until the sixth, when he walked Rolando Avila. Cliff Anderson doubled to send Avila to third, and then Weekley hit a sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 3-1.
But any thoughts of a big inning by the Stampede were squelched when Montane struck out Glenn Davis and Tony Mota to end the half-inning.