On Singles Night, Oaks go home empty handed

Wednesday night doubled as Let's-Milk-Our-Starter-For-AsMany-Innings-As-We- Can Night and Singles Night at The Hangar. So Ayala obliged on all fronts.

Backed by 18 hits, the Lancaster JetHawks starter allowed only four singles in pitching the JetHawks to a 13-0 blanking of the Visalia Oaks in the second game of a three-game series.

Effectively mixing his pitches and never allowing the Oaks to get into a rhythm, Ayala didn't allow a hit to the first 14 batters he faced.

Naturally, that was - all together now - a single to Eddie Lara, the first of four singles Visalia could muster.

Ayala is a ground-ball pitcher, who needs all three of his pitches - fastball, curve and change-up - working to produce those grounders. Wednesday, he got 14 groundouts, with second baseman Chris Dean racking up seven assists and shortstop Ramon Vazquez six.

Throwing aside the three double plays, but equally as important, the JetHawks - who reached .500 at 10-10 for the second half - played error-free ball.

"When I was warming up in the pen, my fastball was OK, but my change and curveballs weren't working that well," said Ayala, who struck out seven and threw 107 pitches for his first professional shutout. "I thought it would be a quick night.

"But when I got out there in the first inning, it all came together."

As it did for the JetHawk hitters. Brendan Kingman, Matt Sachse and Luis Tinoco had three hits apiece. Vazquez, Karl Thompson and Cirilo Cruz Jr. added two apiece.

"When you put offense together with good pitching, that's how you get a shutout," was Lancaster manager Rick Burleson's quick summation of the proceedings.

Cruz drove in three runs with a pair of singles. Two of those came during the JetHawks' five-run second inning, an inning that featured. . . four singles.

It also featured what should've been Kingman's 10th home run of the season. The league's leading hitter slammed a howitzer off the midpoint of the batter's eye right post in deep center field.

While Cruz scored the inning's fifth run, a perplexed base umpire Matt Head ignored Lancaster manager Rick Burleson's pleadings to the contrary and called it a triple.

This accomplished nothing but getting Mike Goff, the Mariners' coordinator of minor league instruction, an early night off. . . and an entertaining diversion for the 3,065 fans in attendance.

After Goff was ejected by plate umpire Ryan Bleiberg for voicing his displeasure at the call, he emerged casually from the dugout. Then, he went off on Bleiberg for nearly two minutes before retreating to the clubhouse.

Too bad Goff wasn't around to see Head's handiwork in the seventh. Aside from seeing the JetHawks reel off six runs on hapless reliever Ara Petrosian to remove all suspense, Goff would've taken a perverse pleasure in what nearly happened to Tinoco.

What happened was Head nearly turned Tinoco's three-run homer off the top of the scoreboard into just another double. Before left fielder Dionys Cesar played the rebound off the left shuttle flanking the scoreboard, Burleson was walking out to pick up where he left off with Head.

He didn't need to. Bleiberg started twirling his finger to indicate a home run - Tinoco's fifth of the season.

Jayson Bass eliminated all doubts when he launched a titanic blast over the scoreboard and onto Avenue I in the fifth. Bass' eighth homer of the season gave the JetHawks a 7-0 lead.