Fuentes finds rhythm again in shutout win

Brian Fuentes pitched 5 scoreless innings against San Bernardino and struck out eight batters en route to Lancaster's sixth shutout.

When he's been on, he's made opponents look like Hekyll and Jekyll. But when he's been off. . .

"It seems like I've been a little erratic," Fuentes said. "It's something I need to work on."

Fortunately for the JetHawks, Dr. Jekyll showed up Wednesday. Fuentes got the Lancaster pitching staff off to an outstanding start, as the JetHawks picked up a 4-0 victory over San Bernardino.

An announced Country Night crowd of 2,922 fans watched the JetHawks (29-24) move five games over .500 for the first time this season.

Much of the credit for the victory has to go to Fuentes and the rest of the JetHawks pitching staff, which recorded its sixth shutout of the season.

Fuentes (2-1) was coming off his worst outing of the season Thursday at Lake Elsinore, in which he lasted only one-third of an inning and allowed five runs on three hits and two walks.

The left-hander's previous performance, May 16 against High Desert, was by far his best. He struck out 12 in seven innings and allowed only one run in his first victory of the season.

Although Fuentes' performance Wednesday fell somewhere between those two outings, it was definitely closer to his victory over High Desert.

"He gave us some good innings," JetHawks manager Rick Burleson said. "He battled real well. He went up to 100 pitches. . . I would have liked to see him go a few more innings."

Fuentes pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings against the Stampede and struck out eight. He retired five straight on strikes between the second and third innings.

"I jumped ahead of a lot of hitters," Fuentes said. "I got them to swing at a lot of first pitches and foul some off."

Fuentes left after allowing only three hits and two walks. Unfortunately both of those walks came against the last two batters he faced and loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth inning.

But Brian Fitzgerald came on to strike out Jeff Bramlett to end the threat, preserving what was a 1-0 Lancaster lead at the time.

"I knew I had to come in and just throw strikes," Fitzgerald said. "That was definitely a big out for us."

That lead came courtesy of Michael Moore's towering solo home run to left-center field in the third. Moore, who blasted his second home run of the season, was the first batter to face San Bernardino's Adrian Burnside (0-5). Burnside came on to start the third in relief of Tim Scott, who started a rehabilitation stint with the Stampede on Wednesday.

"It was a fastball with a 3-1 count," Moore said. "He got it over the plate, and I just tried to get a good swing on it."

Fuentes and Fitzgerald made that precious one-run lead stand until the bottom of the seventh, when Joel Ramirez doubled in Jason Regan and Moore plated Luis Tinoco with a sacrifice fly.

Adonis Harrison added an insurance run when Cirilo Cruz drove him in with an eighth-inning sacrifice fly.

Aaron Scheffer picked up the final four outs of the game to snare his fifth save of the season.