Best in the West

Tournament's reputation building

To be successful at pitching, you have to throw strikes.

Lancaster left-hander Brian Fitzgerald followed that rule to near perfection Friday night in his first start since 1996, when he was with Class A Everett.

Fitzgerald, who made only his second start in 106 professional appearances, frustrated Bakersfield for six scoreless innings and helped the JetHawks grab their first victory of the season with an 8-0 win before 789 fans on a chilly evening at Sam Lynn Ballpark.

"I think starting is a little easier for me," said Fitzgerald, who primarily was used as a starter at Virginia Tech before the Mariners selected him in the 20th-round of the 1996 June draft. "You get a chance to stay a little more focused on everything."

Fitzgerald (1-0) appeared to be perfectly focused, allowing only two hits and no walks. The Blaze didn't get a runner past first base against the 24-year-old native of Woodbridge, Va., and managed only three hits in the game.

The main reason for Fitzgerald's success was simple - he threw strikes. Of his 75 pitches, 57 were strikes.

"I had him in '96," JetHawks manager Darrin Garner said. "He threw strikes then, and he throws strikes now. . . He's a strike thrower. He's a machine out there."

Only four of the 21 batters Fitzgerald faced worked the count to more than one ball. Xavier Burns was the only Bakersfield batter to put Fitzgerald in a hole (3-1) during his fifth-inning at-bat, but he ended up grounding out to shortstop Joel Ramirez.

The result of all the strikes were eight strikeouts notched by Fitzgerald. That number was a sixth of the 48 he posted in 70 2/3 innings of relief last year with Lancaster.

"It was a combination of things," Fitzgerald said of his strikeout total. "(Catcher Greg Connors) knew the hitters, and we set them up perfectly. . . I just tried to throw first-pitch strikes and get ahead."

Brian Sweeney, Zach Stark and Justin Kaye combined to strike out six Blaze batters in the final three innings to give the JetHawks 14 for the game.

With that sort of pitching, Lancaster needed only minimal production from its offense, which was shutout by three Bakersfield pitchers in the season opener Thursday.

Much like Thursday, when the JetHawks struggled to string together hits in the same inning and grounded into three double plays, Lancaster struggled to get anything going offensively early.

The first three Lancaster baserunners Friday were erased either by pickoff or on one of two double plays.

But Mike Marchiano finally broke the JetHawks' season-opening 12-inning scoreless string in the top of the fourth when his single back up the middle plated Jermaine Clark, who opened the frame with a double off the centerfield wall.

"Basically we needed somebody to come up with that one big hit to get us going," Garner said. "Marchiano came up with the big hit, and everything just worked after that."

That first run seemed to spark the JetHawks, as Ramirez scored on Connors' sacrifice fly and Shawn McCorkle doubled in Marchiano to give Lancaster a 3-0 lead after four.

Craig Kuzmic made it 4-0 in the fifth on the first pitch from Bakersfield reliever Nathan Rice. The Lancaster third baseman hammered a leadoff homer six feet from the top of the 50-foot sun screen behind the center-field wall.

McCorkle, who went 4-for-5, picked up his second RBI of the game when he singled in Marchiano later in the inning. Marchiano also added two RBI with a two-out single in the sixth to finish the night 2-for-3 with two runs scored and three RBI.

Lancaster had 11 hits in the game.