'Hawks' house of horrors

Municipal once again a rude host

Since winning two of three games the first time the franchise traveled to San Jose on April 10-12, 1996, Municipal Stadium has been the Lancaster JetHawks' personal house of horrors.

Since that first series in 1996, the JetHawks have been swept twice by the Giants in San Jose and had failed to win a series in their last five attempts in the Bay Area entering this season.

Make that six series in a row after Thursday's 6-2 loss at the hands of the Giants. With the win, San Jose improved its record at home against the JetHawks to 15-6 over 3 1/2 years and handed Lancaster (9-12) its first road series loss of the season by taking two of three.

"We didn't play up to our ability as much as we should have in this series," Lancaster outfielder Mike Marchiano said.

Until the most recent trip to San Jose, Lancaster had shown the ability to play well away from The Hangar this year, grabbing two out of three in early-season showdowns with Bakersfield, Visalia and High Desert.

"We try to play hard whether we're at home or we're on the road," outfielder Harvey Hargrove said. "We bust our butts to win every night out, but we're not doing all those little things we need to do right now to win games."

After losing the opener Tuesday night, the JetHawks came back to grab a 9-5 victory Wednesday to set up Thursday's rubber game.

Lancaster looked like it would continue its winning ways on the road Thursday when Joel Ramirez doubled in Shawn McCorkle from first base with his laser off the leftcenter field wall in the top of the third, giving the JetHawks a 1-0 lead.

Little did they know that would be their last run until Ramirez picked up his second double of the night and scored on Marchiano's single in the sixth inning.

But by then, Lancaster was in a five-run hole.

"We had our opportunities," JetHawks manager Darrin Garner said. "We just didn't take advantage of them."

The biggest missed opportunity came in the seventh when the JetHawks loaded the bases with two outs but couldn't push a run across the plate when Marchiano grounded out to second base for the final out of the inning. In all, Lancaster stranded eight runners.

"We got our share of runners on, but we didn't get the situational hits we needed to move runners up or bring them home," Garner said. "We need to be able to move runners into scoring position with less than one out and bring them home with two outs."

The JetHawks really needed that situational hitting after starter Jeff Farnsworth, who retired the side in the second inning on only three pitches, suddenly seemed to lose his control in the third. He walked leadoff batter Brett Casper, who later scored on a wild pitch to tie the game 1-1 after three innings.

Things got worse in the fourth inning for Farnsworth.

After striking out Tim Flaherty to lead off the frame, the Lancaster right-hander walked Kevin Tommasini and allowed a single to Angel Melendez. That brought up Casper, who rocketed Farnsworth's 1-0 offering over the center-field wall for his first home run of the season and a 4-1 San Jose lead.

One more walk and two more singles netted the Giants two more runs in the inning and a five-run cushion.

Farnsworth (1-3) left after the fourth, having allowed six earned runs on seven hits, four walks and a wild pitch. He struck out four.

San Jose starter Josh Santos (1-0) also allowed his share of hits (eight) during his 6 1/3 innings of work, but managed to scatter them well enough to pick up the victory. He also did not walk a batter until McCorkle drew a base on balls in the seventh inning.