Another one-run loss for JetHawks

This time, however, the defense and bullpen didn't hold up their end of the bargain.

Eight hits. Two comebacks. Another one-run loss.

Friday night's 6-5 setback to the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes in front of 5,172 fans at the Epicenter came in frustrating fashion.

A half-inning after the JetHawks knotted the game at 5-5, Wiklenman Gonzalez tagged reliever Brian Fitzgerald for an RBI double with two out in the bottom of the ninth. The hit scored Brian McClure, who opened the inning with a broken-bat single to right. McClure scored three of Rancho's six runs.

Trailing 5-4, the JetHawks used Jayson Bass' pinch-hit RBI single in the top of the ninth to tie it. The hit scored Luis Tinoco, who opened the inning by reaching on third baseman Nathan Dunn's throwing error - the third Quakes error of the night.

Second baseman Adonis Harrison, one of two JetHawks hitting north of .250, brought the JetHawks back from a 4-1 deficit with a two-out RBI single in the top of the eighth.

Harrison's second RBI single of the night came when catcher Marcos Sanchez heaved the ball into center field trying to get Joel Ramirez stealing second. Ramirez cruised home on Harrison's single.

Gus Kennedy, one of five Quakes starters hitting below .250, put the Quakes ahead 5-4 in the bottom of the eighth. With Dunn aboard on a
leadoff single, the .214-hitting Kennedy showed bunt, then slashed a triple into the right-field corner.

The last time Rancho lefthander Stevenson Agosto and Lancaster right-hander Julio Ayala got together, last Sunday at The Hangar, the defenses didn't come along for the ride. The teams combined for 10 errors in a hideous 13-8 Quakes victory.

Friday night, the teams kept up their ends of the devil's bargain. They both committed three errors.

Ayala got tagged for two. He dodged the first one, an errant pickoff toss in the second.

He wouldn't be so lucky the second time. One inning later, he fielded Brian McClure's comebacker, then threw the ball into center field trying to start the double play.

That scored Sanchez, who reached on a double. McClure scored on A.J. Johnson's triple to the gap in right-center.

Two innings later, the Quakes made it 4-1 on a walk to McClure, Gonzalez's first double, and a single by Dunn.

Here's where error No. 3 came in. Gonzalez not only scored on Dunn's single, but kicked the ball out of catcher Karl Thompson's glove and into the JetHawks' dugout. That sent Dunn to third and the Quakes to a 4-1 lead.

In the sixth, the JetHawks finally discovered some sequential offense. Greg Connors, who was called "some guy" by PA announcer David Achord, announced his identity with a double down the left-field line off reliever Luis Torres.

Thompson moved Connors to third with a long fly to right-center. Joel Ramirez brought him home with a double to left.

Enter Harrison, who fought off several pitches before lining an RBI single to right. Ramirez came home with the JetHawks' third run.

They had chances for much more.

There was Agosto, who allowed only Tinoco's RBI double with one out in the third. The San Diego Padres' player development department won't concentrate on that as it will his six walks in his four innings.