Figueroa's surprising power leads JetHawks

You may ask yourself, why did the Lancaster JetHawks' manager have Luis Figueroa - .217-hitting with no extra bases Luis Figueroa - batting cleanup.

And Garner would point to the box score and Figueroa's two home runs, which supplemented Greg Connors' four RBI as the JetHawks beat the Stockton Ports 10-7 Saturday night.

At Class A Wisconsin last year, Figueroa hit one home run in 306 at-bats. Saturday night, he treated the 3,606 fans at The Hangar to two in four innings, sandwiched around a fifth-inning double.

On a night that seemed perfect for a high-scoring game with the power of the gusts blowing straight out to left field, Lancaster scored in the first five innings. The JetHawks stole three bases, socked two home runs and feasted on three Stockton errors.

And on a night that promised death to struggling pitchers, Lancaster starter Jeff Farnsworth turned in his longest outing of the year.

In six innings, Farnsworth allowed five runs (four earned) six hits and five walks while striking out two for his first victory since May 7, 1997.

The teams wasted little time foreshadowing where this one was going.

After spotting the Ports two runs in the first - on a walk, single, walk and consecutive sacrifice flies by Mark Cridland and Greg Schaub - Lancaster's response was swift.

Literally.

Leadoff hitter Ramon Valera walked, stole second and moved to third on Joel Ramirez's sacrifice bunt that he nearly beat out. Mike Marchiano drove home Valera with a one-hop double off the leftcenter field wall. Figueroa walked and Connors hit James Johnson's third pitch over the left-field wall.

Valera started it again in the second, doubling, stealing third and scoring on catcher Brian Moon's worm-burner throw that not only got away from third baseman Jeff Deardorff, but bounced up and hit him in the face on its way past him.