Run productions slows, but JetHawks still rolling

Brian Fitzgerald pitched out of a ninth-inning jam and earned his first save as Lancaster beat Bakersfield

The Bakersfield Blaze pushed the JetHawks on Tuesday night at Sam Lynn Ballpark - maybe a little more than Lancaster would have liked.

But the JetHawks still managed to escape with a 5-3 victory over the Blaze in front of a paid attendance of 469 fans. Lancaster won its fifth straight, but was officially eliminated from the Valley Division first-half race with San Jose's 8-2 victory over Modesto. Bakersfield lost its sixth in a row.

"I think we might have been a little flat tonight," Lancaster pitcher Cam Smith said. "We didn't look too sharp, but we still managed to win. That's the sign of a good team."

Bakersfield actually had the tying run at the plate in the ninth inning, but managed to score only one run.

Smith, who was outstanding in the seventh and eighth innings, striking out five, walked the first two batters he faced in the ninth.

"I told them my arm was a little stiff, but they needed some time to warm somebody up," Smith said. "I just tried to throw strikes, and I thought I had a couple to the second guy."

Brian Fitzgerald replaced Smith with runners on first and second and promptly saw his fourth pitch to Dan McKinley slapped into right-center field. The single scored William Otero from second base, but Jose Alguacil committed a cardinal sin of baseball on the play - he made the inning's first out at third base. A nice throw toward the center of the infield by right fielder Jayson Bass and a great relay by shortstop Joel Ramirez gunned down Alguacil.

"That was a great relay throw and we got a big out," JetHawks manager Rick Burleson said. "If the throw goes home, we're probably looking at runners on second and third with no outs. We made the play we were supposed to."

With only a runner on first base to worry about, Fitzgerald proceeded to retire Don Denbow and Tim Flaherty to pick up his first save of the season.

The win went to Julio Ayala, who scattered seven hits and two walks over six innings to improve his record to 5-1. Ayala, who allowed two earned runs, picked up his first decision since he was the winning pitcher in a 10-3 victory over the Blaze on May 28 at Lancaster.

It appeared early in the game that he wasn't going to get much offensive support.

Lancaster, which scored 50 runs in its four-game sweep of Modesto last weekend, including a record-setting 24 Saturday, managed only four walks and Adonis Harrison's leadoff double in the first inning and fell behind 1-0.

But in the fifth inning, the JetHawks began to look like themselves.

Francisco Santiestaban led off with a walk and stole second base. Marcus Sturdivant singled him to third, before Harrison sent a base hit back up the middle to tie the game at 1-1.

Joel Ramirez untied it with a sacrifice fly to left field, which was deep enough to score Sturdivant and move Harrison - who picked up the first of his three stolen bases one pitch earlier - to third.

Cirilo Cruz Jr. drove in the third Lancaster run of the inning with his single to the left-center field gap.

"We got a couple of clutch hits there in the fifth," Burleson said. "We scored three big runs."

Art Baeza trimmed Lancaster's lead to one run when he deposited a 3-1 offering from Ayala over the left-center field wall with two outs in the sixth.

Harrison answered in the top of the seventh after he was hit by a pitch. He stole both second and third, before Ramirez plated him with a single into left-center field.

Santiestaban added a two-out solo homer in the eighth, his first as a professional in the United States.