Stampede ruins opener

Defensive lapses cost Fitzgerald, Lancaster

Too bad the excitement didn't carry over to the field.

Playing in front of a home crowd for the first time this season, the JetHawks (4-3) struggled at the plate and in the field as San Bernardino won 9-4 before an announced crowd of 3,538.

With five errors, Lancaster's defensive problems gave the Stampede a huge edge. The five miscues led to four unearned runs for San Bernardino.

"It was frustrating for us to play defensively like that," JetHawks manager Darrin Garner said. "It happens though. . . It was one of those days that we didn't play like we are capable of playing. We are not going to play perfect every game."

One thing that pleased Garner, was managing in front of a big crowd. Before Wednesday's opener, the largest crowd to watch the JetHawks was 925 last Saturday at Bakersfield.

"I was excited that we had a crowd," Garner said. "When we were in Bakersfield and Visalia we got nobody. It's a nice place to play."

Starting pitcher Brian Fitzgerald (1-1) was hurt right away by the poor defense as the Stampede took advantage of two errors in the first inning to build a 2-0 lead.

Jimy Gonzalez opened the game with a double down the right-field line, then continued to third when Lancaster right fielder Gerald Eady misplayed the ball. Gonzalez scored on Eric Riggs' groundout to short.

After Bubba Crosby hit a weak roller to first, Karl Chatman collected his first of four hits. Chatman, who missed hitting for the cycle by a home run, stole second and moved to third when catcher Greg Connors' pickoff attempt sailed into center field.

Chin-Feng Chen, who became just the second Taiwanese-born player to join a major league organization when he signed with the Dodgers in the offseason, doubled to center to score Chatman.

The inning finally ended for Fitzgerald when Robert Gorr flew out to center.

San Bernardino added four more runs in the fourth by putting together four hits and taking advantage of another JetHawks mistake. A throwing error by Craig Kuzmic led to an unearned run.

Fitzgerald allowed seven runs (four earned) in five innings.

"I felt pretty good out there and I thought that I threw some quality pitches," Fitzgerald said. "I think games like this are going to happen. You've just got to keep them to a mininum, that's all you can do."

While Fitzgerald was hurt by his defense, San Bernardino's Lance Carraccioli gave up just one run and four hits in four innings of work. Carraccioli was pulled after four because of an 80-pitch limit.

The JetHawks managed single runs in the fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth innings.

Mike Marchiano was one of three JetHawks to collect more than two hits, going 4-for-5 with an RBI. Harvey Hargrove added two hits, two runs and an RBI.