Kingman's slam sends 'Hawks to win

After a mixup with his visa kept the native of Sydney, Australia, in limbo for the first eight games of the season, Kingman made up for lost time.

With the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the ninth inning of a tie game against Stockton, Kingman clubbed John O'Reilly's 3-1 fastball off the scoreboard in left-center field for a grand slam and a 9-5 JetHawks victory before 3,604 fans at The Hangar.

The home run was the first of the season for the Kingman, who led the Australian Winter League with 21 home runs last season. It was also the first grand slam of the season for the JetHawks.

"After all the trouble getting my visa, yeah, it was definitely special," Kingman said. "I would have preferred to get a hit like this earlier in the season, but I guess it's better late than never."

The Ports and JetHawks entered the ninth inning tied, 5-5. Lancaster reliever Aaron Scheffer forced Stockton to strand Josh Klimek at third base by inducing Jeff Alfano into an inning-ending ground out.

Adonis Harrison led off the JetHawks' half of the inning with a single over the head of Stockton second baseman Dee Jenkins. Harrison took second on Ramon Vazquez's sacrifice bunt. Vazquez also reached base when O'Reilly tried unsuccessfully to force out Harrison at second on the play.

That brought up Luis Tinoco, and JetHawks manager Rick Burleson asked him to try a sacrifice bunt as well.

"I usually don't like to bunt my three, four and five hitters," Burleson said of his decision. "But if he grounds into a double play, I'm kicking myself. I felt it was a time to have him bunt."

Tinoco put down an excellent bunt, moving Harrison and Vazquez up a base. Stockton intentionally walked Cirilo Cruz Jr. to set up the double play and bring up Kingman.

O'Reilly's first two pitches went for balls. Kingman swung at the third pitch and missed, but O'Reilly missed outside again to make the count 3-1.

"I knew he didn't want to walk me," Kingman said. "So he had to take his chances and throw me a fastball."

Kingman didn't let his chance at redemption slip away, though he didn't realize just how big his hit was when he made contact.

"I had no idea it was going to go that far," Kingman said. "I knew I hit it hard, but I didn't think I hit it that high. But I knew we only needed the one run to win."

Kingman finished the night 3for-5 with six RBI and two runs scored. Harrison also had a good night at the plate, going 3-for-4 with two runs scored.

Kevin Gryboski, who made his first start of the season because of Tuesday's doubleheader, pitched well enough to pick up his first win in Lancaster after going 0-7 last year. He pitched five innings, allowing four hits and one unearned run and left with a 2-1 lead.

That lead was stretched to 4-1 when Jason Regan hit a two-run blast to right-center field in the bottom of the sixth. But that advantage evaporated along with Gryboski's hopes for a win when Greg Schaub hit a three-run homer off Kyle Kennison in the seventh.

"It would have been nice to get the W," Gryboski said. "But as far as I'm concerned, all that is important is the team won."