By BRIAN ROBIN
Valley Press Staff Writer
BAKERSFIELD - Sean Spencer turned and walked. . . destination unknown.
Joe Mathis turned and ran, destination: the center-field wall at Sam Lynn Ballpark.
Mathis, the Lancaster JetHawks' center fielder, arrived at the wall at the same time as Art Baeza's towering blast.
Mathis hauled in the blast, slammed into the wall, then bounced off and doubled off Damon Minor at first. The highlight-reel catch preserved the JetHawks' 9-8 victory over the Bakersfield Blaze in front of 2,002 Saturday night.
It preserved Lancaster's twogame lead over Modesto for the Valley Division's wild-card spot. It brought the JetHawks one game closer to High Desert, which lost at San Bernardino.
"I put my arm up and as it so happens, I didn't crash too hard," said Mathis, who also went 3-for-5, stole two bases and scored three times. "At The Hangar, that may have been a bomb."
Instead, it was a white streak of paint on Mathis' elbow. And it allowed Spencer the luxury of walking to the dugout with his 16th save, preserving Aaron Scheffer's 11th win in 14 decisions.
"I was either going to get my jacket or back up third or home," deadpanned Spencer. "He hit it close. It was a great play by Joe coming up with it."
Indeed it was, especially since earlier in the game, Baeza clouted his fifth grand slam of the season and fourth in the second half.
"I didn't think the ball was going to go that far," Lancaster manager Rick Burleson said about Baeza's two-run home run bid.
Nor did the JetHawks expect Bakersfield to stick around for so long. Not when Lancaster strafed three Blaze pitchers for 17 hits. Led by Mathis, Cirilo Cruz (3-for4) and Jim Horner (3-for-5), six JetHawks collected two or more hits.
Lost in all that was Bakersfield's exit from playoff contention. The Blaze were in the unenviable position of having to win their last nine games and have Rancho Cucamonga lose its last nine.
Yet Bakersfield almost kept its feeble hopes alive. The JetHawks broke a 7-7 tie in the eighth with RBI singles from Cruz and Jason Regan.
In the ninth, pinch-hitter Yorvit Torrealba opened with a single. He turned a baserunning blunder into Lancaster's second throwing error of the game.
After straying into no-man's land when catcher David Skeels blocked and bobbled Spencer's pitch, Torrealba wound up on third when shortstop Joel Ramirez caught Skeels' throw and threw it into the Bakersfield dugout.
Damon Minor (2-for-2, three walks, two RBI), singled Torrealba home. Spencer then struck out the dangerous Mike Glendenning, bringing up Baeza.
Somehow, you wondered how it came to that.
The JetHawks bombed Bakersfield starter Robert Crabtree for 11 hits and six runs in 5 2/3 innings. Yet when they sent Crabtree and his soft breaking balls to an early night off, the game was tied 6-6.
For this, Lancaster starter Joe Victery can only blame himself and a couple of pitches that allowed the Blaze to wriggle out of a trap Victery thought he'd set in the fifth.
With Chris Van Rossom on second after a leadoff walk and sacrifice, Victery opted to play the percentages, walking the left-handed Minor and his .282 average and 30 homers.
Awaiting him was the .266-hitting league leader in homers with 33 - the right-handed Glendenning.
Glendenning is one of the league's hottest hitters in the second half. Of his 33 homers, 23 came in the second half, with 61 of his 97 RBI going along for the ride.
He wouldn't add to either total on this at-bat. The next two pitches dug the JetHawks a 6-3 hole. Victery hit Glendenning on the arm to load the bases.
Baeza promptly unloaded them when his grand slam sailed to the left of the scoreboard in right field.