On Junk Food Night, JetHawks play like it

Lancaster committed a season-high five errors in another disappointing loss to High Desert

By BRIAN ROBIN
Valley Press Staff Writer

Free hamburgers? Your designated "double-double" batter - the Mavs' Abraham Nunez - took care of that with his two-run double in the sixth inning.

Want dessert with that? High Desert's Dan Meier provided the ice cream with his third hit of the night - an RBI single two batters later.

Not that the Lancaster JetHawks have any appetite left for today's off-day. Not after the Mavs dropped a not-so-DQ smoothie 13-3 loss on the JetHawks in front of an announced 1,098 fans at Maverick Stadium on Tuesday night.

Any more food-based promotions centering around the Mavs' offensive pyrotechnics - like the ice cream for a 10-run game - and the Adelanto crowd would be heading to the vomitorium.

And after watching the JetHawks commit a season-high five errors, any Lancaster fans migrating 45 minutes east Tuesday wouldn't be far behind.

Two of the miscues went to shortstop Joel Ramirez, whose twoout errant throw to first in the third inning provided a hideous foreshadowing of what awaited the JetHawks.

It opened the gates for a fiverun inning that removed all shadow of a doubt - except for the free grub - whether the Mavs would finish the sweep of their desert rivals.

Right on its heels came Jack Cust's double, helped along by left fielder Gerald Eady's misplay of the rolling ball. Following that was center fielder Harvey Hargrove losing Meier's fly ball in the sky for another error.

That ended the gaffes in the third. It didn't end starting pitcher Jason Turman's miseries. The next three batters touched Turman for three-fourths of the cycle - James Rinne's single, Mark Osborne's double and Jared Martin's triple into the right-field corner.

The five errors: two by Ramirez and one each for the JetHawks outfield of Eady, Hargrove and a questionable one on right fielder Alex Fernandez on Martin's seventh-inning double into the corner, led to six unearned runs.

More freebies continued in the sixth, where Ramirez's second error - this one on Ronald Callaway's grounder - led to four more runs. Two came on Nunez's hamburger-grilling double off the hitter's backdrop in center.

"You can't play for them," JetHawks manager Darrin Garner said. "Joel makes an error, routine play, and the floodgates open.

"It's a part of the game. What am I thinking? I can't play for them. I wish I could, but I can only put the guys out there. They have to play. They have to perform."

They have to mimic High Desert starter Vincente Padilla, who struck out 10 and allowed only four hits in his 6 2/3-inning dissection of the JetHawks.

Somehow, the JetHawks got to Padilla for their sole offensive outburst. They pushed three runs across in the seventh, highlighted by Pee Wee Lopez's two-run single - one of five hits by five different JetHawks.

That was equaled by Meier (3for-4, two RBI, two runs) and Martin (2-for-4, three RBI). Not to mention this seasons' designated JetHawks assassin Alex Cintron, whose 3-for-4 night gave him nine hits in the three-game series.

At 9-24, the Mavericks entered last week with the worst 33-game record in franchise history. Since then, they've won six of their last seven, the three-game sweep of the JetHawks included.

"Games like this happen," said outfielder Matt Sachse, who joined the team from Class AA New Haven 20 minutes before game time. "You'd be kidding yourself to say it doesn't happen in double A, triple A. It happens. But today, we had a rough day. We need to battle through it better than we did."