Kelly impressive in near-perfect night on mound

John Kelly allowed one unearned run on four hits and struck out eight, leading Lancaster to a win

Kelly retired the first 15 Visalia batters he faced, and that was enough to boost the JetHawks to a 3-1 victory in front of 3,606 fans at The Hangar. The two-hour, 16minute game was the fastest nine-inning contest the JetHawks have played this season.

"That was a well-pitched game on both sides," JetHawks manager Rick Burleson said. "That was the way baseball was back when I grew up. It was fast and it was exciting."

The JetHawks have won 11 of their last 14 games, but have yet to make up ground on Valley Division-leading San Jose, which was a 6-4 winner over San Bernardino in 10 innings Saturday at The Ranch.

Even that couldn't take much away from Kelly's performance.

"He did an outstanding job," Burleson said. "He moved the ball in and out, and (catcher Karl Thompson) called a great game."

The fact that Kelly would have been perfect through five innings of a game would have been hard to imagine only 11 days ago. In his first three starts after he was sent down from Class AA Orlando on May 4, the hurler allowed 15 earned runs in 15 1/3 innings of work.

"I think I might have been a little upset at being sent down," Kelly said.

Because of that, Kelly said he tried too hard to prove that he still belonged in Orlando by attempting to blow the ball by everyone.

"I'm a location pitcher," Kelly said. "In my first couple of games here, I didn't have that same mentality I have now. . . I didn't stay within myself."

But in his fourth start May 24 against Bakersfield, Kelly started to show the right mentality. Although he used a lot of pitches, he allowed only two solo home runs in five innings of work and grabbed his first Cal League victory of the year.

On Saturday, he took it a step further - actually about three or four steps further.

Of Kelly's 100 pitches during his eight innings of work, 74 were for strikes. Kelly allowed only one unearned run on four hits and a hit batter. He struck out eight while walking none and improved his record to 2-2.

Kelly's bid for the perfect game was broken up by the Oaks' Eddie Lara, who led off the top of the sixth by sending a slow roller toward Jason Regan at third base. Regan fired to first, but the throw was a step too late, and Lara picked up the infield single.

"I started to realize that they didn't have any hits in the third," said Kelly, who had never carried a no-hitter that late in a game as a professional. "It was just a shame it had to end on an infield single. It was close."

As it turned out, Lara also ended Kelly's hopes for a shutout when Dionys Cesar doubled to right field. Jayson Bass' throw to second base got away from shortstop Joel Ramirez, allowing Lara to score from third.

Fortunately, Kelly's teammates spotted him a two-run lead in the bottom of the fifth, when Karl Thompson doubled in Regan and Ramirez.

Regan made the score 3-1 in the seventh, when he led off the inning with his 10th home run of the season. The blast was his ninth in the month of May and fifth in the last 10 games.

"That was a nicely pitched game," Burleson said. "We got two big hits from Thompson and Regan when we needed them."

Aaron Scheffer pitched a scoreless ninth to pick up his sixth save of the season.