Familiar foe delivers fourth loss to 'Hawks

Lake Elsinore's Brian Tokarse beat Lancaster for the fourth time this season

On top of that, Lancaster had to face it's No. 1 nemesis, at least from the first half - Brian Tokarse.

The Lake Elsinore starter won his first three starts against Lancaster, before the JetHawks finally broke through with a win against the right-hander June 23.

But Tokarse again proved why Lancaster is his favorite team to pitch against Tuesday, as he led the Storm to a 7-4 win before 2,252 fans at The Diamond.

"I actually think we hit pretty good against him tonight," JetHawks first baseman Cirilo Cruz Jr. said. "We just didn't get the hits when we had men on base."

Lake Elsinore (13-13) moved back to .500 with the win, while Lancaster (11-15) fell four games under the break-even mark for the first time in the second half.

The JetHawks also saw their record on the 13-game road trip, which will take them to four cities in 14 days, drop to 1-4 after they won the first game on Friday at San Jose.

"We're in a little bit of a funk right now," JetHawks manager Rick Burleson said. "All teams go through these periods. Everything's been a struggle for us."

Lancaster scored a total of 13 runs in its last four losses, including two each Sunday against San Jose and Monday in the series opener with the Storm.

Tokarse did his part to make sure the JetHawks continued to struggle offensively.

That's something the 6-foot-3, 200-pounder from Whittier has done a lot this season. In his first three starts against Lancaster in the first half, Tokarse allowed only five earned runs and 19 hits in 22 1/3 innings of work, as he was the winning pitcher all three times.

Lancaster bit back at The Diamond early in the second half, when it touched Tokarse for eight earned runs on seven hits and four walks in 3 1/3 innings and saddled him with the loss.

"He pitched pretty good against us the first few times we faced him," Burleson said. "But we got to him a little in the last game."

But on Tuesday, Tokarse (8-8) made sure to remind the JetHawks who has owned the series so far.

He held Lancaster to seven hits and three walks in the first seven innings. Lancaster did manage four runs off Tokarse, but only one of them was earned.

"I think we might have had him on the ropes a couple of times," Burleson said. "But we had a couple of guys that are struggling at the plate up at crucial times, and we couldn't get the big hit."

The JetHawks actually jumped on top by using a bunt single in each of the first and second innings to take a 2-0 lead. Ramon Vazquez and Anton French both reached base on bunt singles in the first and second innings respectively, before eventually scoring the first two runs of the game.

But the Storm scored five runs on seven hits in the bottom of the fifth to take control of the game and put Tokarse in line for his eighth win of the season, half of which have come over Lancaster.

"We haven't been scoring enough runs where we can overcome a five-run inning like that recently," Burleson said.

Jeff Guiel started the inning by sacrificing in David Davalillo, tying the game, 3-3. Even though that was the second out of the inning, Lake Elsinore picked up five consecutive base hits, two of which came off Lancaster starter John Kelly (2-3).

Kelly was charged with six earned runs on eight hits and one walk in his 4 2/3 innings of work.