This Blaze rages with increasing high wind

After a rare dust-storm delay, Bakersfield jumped out to a big lead before cruising past Lancaster

They've had six games rained out this season and two others delayed by rain.

But wind delays for a team that calls The Hangar home?

Tuesday's game between the JetHawks and Bakersfield Blaze had to be stopped in the bottom of the first inning when a sudden gust of wind whipped a brown cloud of dust across Sam Lynn Ballpark.

The game resumed after a 28-minute delay, but the JetHawks' chances for victory seemed to blow away in a hurry. Bakersfield scored five runs in the first and six more in the third to cruise to a 13-6 win.

"It all happened pretty fast," said JetHawks manager Rick Burleson.

Lancaster managed to stay even with Modesto in the Valley Division wild-card chase, though, as the A's fell 9-7 to Visalia.

Other than that, the winds of fortune certainly weren't on the JetHawks' side.

"I haven't even seen wind like that in Lancaster," JetHawks outfielder Jayson Bass said.

The winds, which were produced by a severe weather cell that dumped rain on Mojave and Tehachapi earlier in the evening, waited until Dan McKinley's at-bat in the bottom of the first to start causing trouble.

With a 2-0 count to McKinley, a small dust devil whipped behind Anton French in center field. By the time Lancaster starter Pete Janicki delivered his next pitch, a thick cloud had already engulfed the entire park and forced the umpires to pull the teams from the field.

"This is like a sand storm," base umpire Scott Letenere said during the delay. "We were worried about the safety of the players."

The game-time temperature of 105 degrees also dipped to 95 in the 25 minutes leading up to the delay as the weather front approached, and ominous looking clouds appeared ready to shower the Bakersfield area with rain and lightning.

Fortunately, those rains never came. Even though the amount of dust in the air subsided after the delay, the wind continued to gust.

Considering it was blowing almost directly from the east, it made the already small dimensions at Sam Lynn Ballpark, which faces west, extremely short.

Surprisingly, only the Blaze was able to take advantage of the favorable hitting conditions.

"They had a couple of balls that were helped by the monsoon and a couple of balls they could have hit through the monsoon," Burleson said.

The JetHawks, who should be used to getting help from the wind after playing half their games at Lancaster Municipal Stadium, were effectively shut down by Bakersfield starter Ryan Jensen (9-11).

Janicki, on the other hand, wasn't as effective at trying to tame the Blaze or the wind. His first pitch after the delay was sent into right field by McKinley for an RBI double.

Two batters later, Tim Flaherty got a little help from the wind on a bloop foul ball down the left-field line. The wind pushed the ball back fair and out of the reach of three Lancaster fielders.

William Otero followed by lofting a fly ball into right-center field. But the wind got hold of the ball and blew it over the wall for a three-run home run.

Two pitches later, Matt Priess followed with a hard-hit ball to center field. Although the ball might have been out anyway, the wind put an extra charge into it. The home run, which made the score 5-0 after the first inning, ended up bouncing three-quarters of the way up the 50-feet sun screen, which sits 10 feet behind the center-field wall.

As if that weren't enough, in his next at-bat, Priess blasted a shot over the sun screen. The two-run homer highlighted a four-hit, six-run inning that gave the Blaze an 11-1 lead.

All 11 runs were earned and went to Janicki (1-3), who entered the game with an 8.14 ERA.

The JetHawks' hopes of using the wind to stage a comeback also died the fifth, when the flag in center field hung almost motionless.