Dunham Cruz hit their spots in victory

Patrick Dunham delivered another strong performance as Lancaster beat Rancho Cucamonga.

The demons lost Monday night. So did the clock. And so, for that matter, did the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes.

Not that Dunham needed it, but Cruz propped him up with a threerun homer in the second inning. More than enough runs for the Lancaster JetHawks in their 5-0 victory over the host Quakes Monday.

Not just any homer. No, the 4,806 wanna-beachniks on Maui Monday at The Epicenter watched Cruz bid aloha to his first longball in nine months. Cruz's last homer? July 28, 1997.

He may remember this one, if for no reason than the no-doubtabout-it nature of the shot. Cruz's two-out rocket to center field cleared a 20-foot high row of billboards on its way to the parking lot.

"I got it good. I didn't feel my bat in my hand," Cruz said about his second career homer.

After starting the season 0-3. . . despite an ERA under three, Dunham has now won his last two starts.

From the first pitch, Dunham was in complete command, allowing only three hits in his eight innings. He struck out the side in the third, faced only two batters over the minimum and allowed only one runner as far as second base.

"When I went out to the mound, I looked back and I saw on the hitter's screen in the back of the center-field fence there are little squares in the holes," Dunham said. "And I was trying to concentrate on those squares. I would turn around and look at those spots.

"It's a trick our coach Charlie Lee from Korea taught me. He said if you look at a spot long enough, you can dial in on that spot, then you can turn around and look at the glove and pick out a small spot on the glove and hit that spot."

Talk about hitting your spots. The focus carried over to the defense, which backed Dunham with three double plays. Even when the Quakes found a chink in Dunham's armor - on Scott Seal's fly ball that fell in between Luis Tinoco and Mike Burrows in leftcenter field - the defense didn't rest.

Burrows picked up the ball and threw Seal out at second.

"They made all the plays," Lancaster manager Rick Burleson said. ". . . Other than that (Seal's fly ball), they had two legitimate hits. That's how well Dunham pitched. He got the ball put in play quickly. He didn't throw that many pitches (88) for a guy who went eight innings. And when he got the ball hit, we made the plays.

"That's what you like to see. You like to see plays made and a guy have a nice tempo like Dunham had tonight."

Contrast this to the Quakes. Suddenly, the league's worst-hitting team, Rancho entered the game hitting .225. The Quakes finished it as losers of 10 of their last 12 games.

In eight of those games, Rancho scored two or fewer runs. In four, the Quakes were shut out. And Monday's game marked the fourth time this season the JetHawks have shut out Rancho.

Not the kind of resume that can sustain a three-error outing by Nathan Dunn. The Quakes' third baseman threw away Tinoco's grounder in the first, allowing Adonis Harrison (four walks, two runs) and Ramon Vazquez to score the JetHawks' first two runs.

Rancho starter Widd Workman had only himself to blame. Walks to Harrison and Vazquez put them on, two of five Workman allowed in four innings.