Cardiac Kids rally for win

For the second straight night, Lancaster rallied in its final at-bat to defeat High Desert and maintain its lead in the wild-card race

Just when all hope appears to be lost, the Lancaster JetHawks are at their best.

For the second consecutive night, the JetHawks rallied against the High Desert Mavericks. And for the second consecutive night, they won in their final at-bat in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Jason Regan scored the gamewinning run in the bottom of the ninth inning, when Karl Thompson's ground ball bounced off the glove of High Desert third baseman Jarrod Patterson. That run completed a seven-run rally in the final two innings of the game for the JetHawks and gave them an 8-7 victory over the Mavericks before 4,508 thrilled Lancaster fans at The Hangar.

"It's a win," said Joel Ramirez, who hit a game-tying home run in the bottom of the eighth inning. "It doesn't matter how we get there, we need wins."

The victory came one night after Cirilo Cruz Jr. drove in the game-tying and game-winning runs in the final at-bat of a 3-2 Lancaster victory.

It also kept the JetHawks one game ahead of Modesto in the Valley Division wild-card race with seven games to play. The A's beat San Jose 3-1 at Municipal Stadium to stay even with the JetHawks in terms of overall record.

Until the bottom of the eighth inning, it looked like the JetHawks were headed for a tie in that race.

The Mavericks took a 7-0 lead into the bottom half of the inning when Jared Martin doubled and scored on a Justin Kaye wild pitch in the top of the eighth.

The Mavericks committed four errors in the final two innings to help the JetHawks' comeback cause.

"I don't think that we won this game, but they lost their concentration in the late innings," JetHawks manager Rick Burleson said. "I don't expect them to do that again. But we'll take the win however we can get it."

Lancaster needed only three hits in its seven-run eighth inning.

Brendan Kingman got the first of those, when he led off with a single. He scored when Cruz's ground ball went between the legs of Martin at second base.

Matt Sachse followed with a ground-rule double to score Regan from second base to make the score 7-2. Cruz scored on Thompson's ground out. Sachse also scored on the Mavericks' second error of the inning, which was charged to first baseman Kevin Clark.

Ramirez then strolled to the plate and promptly belted a threerun homer over the left-field fence with two outs to tie the game.

"I've been a little down recently," Ramirez said. "I was just thinking I wanted to get a double and be the tying run standing at second. I never thought I'd hit a home run."

But once he did, the JetHawks felt that they had to come away with the victory.

"When that game was tied, we knew it was our game to win," Burleson said.

The JetHawks did exactly that in the ninth, after Kaye and Kevin Gryboski (5-5) combined to shutout the Mavericks in the top half of inning.

The JetHawks loaded the bases with one out on two infield singles, an intentional walk to Matt Sachse and a throwing error charged to Patterson.

Thompson followed and chopped a 2-1 pitch from Don Peters (0-1) toward Patterson. Patterson was trying to come home for a force play on Regan at home, but appeared to take his eye of the ball and had it glance off his glove.

"We had the bases loaded and one out," Burleson said. "As long as we didn't hit into the double play, you had to like our chances."

The JetHawks spoiled a strong outing by High Desert starter Brad Penny, who was looking for his 11th consecutive victory. He held the JetHawks to three hits and three walks during the first six innings.