'Hawks finally do the streak

It's not that they're overly impressed with their 16-26 record after Friday night's 8-2 victory over Rancho Cucamonga before 3,324 fans at Lancaster Municipal Stadium. It's not that they're now only 5 1/2 games behind San Bernardino in the Southern Division standings.

No, this is something much more important to the team.

For the first time in nearly a month, the JetHawks have a "W" with a number greater than one next to it in the streak column.

That's right. The JetHawks are on a winning streak, following Thursday's 12-6 win over High Desert with Friday's victory.

"I think the kids are more excited than me," JetHawks manager Darrin Garner said. "I mean, I'm excited. But all they've been talking about is getting two in a row. Now they've done that."

Even if it's only a modest two games, it's the first time Lancaster has won back-to-back outings since it claimed victory April 20 at High Desert and followed it with a win in the first game of a doubleheader at Maverick Stadium April 22. Not coincidentally, that was the last time the team had a .500 record (7-7).

"It has been a long, long time," Garner said.

Since then, the JetHawks have had losing streaks of two games four times, three games twice, and four games once. But they never had won more than one at a time, as they went 8-19 during the streak.

In fact, this marks only the JetHawks' third winning streak of the season. Their longest streak came in the second, third and fourth games of the season.

Lancaster will try to match that three-game winning streak tonight against Bakersfield.

It's not difficult to figure out why the JetHawks are in a position to do that. For the first time in nearly a month, they put together back-to-back solid games in all three areas - pitching, defense and offense.

"We played quality baseball these last two games," Garner said. "If we perform like that dayin and day-out, we're going to win some games."

Neil Longo (2-0) took care of the pitching for the first seven innings, holding the Quakes to two runs on five hits and two walks in perhaps the best of his three solid outings since he joined the team out of Class A Wisconsin on May 7.

"I was hitting my spots really good today," Longo said. "I felt good out there."

Longo walked the first batter he faced in the game, Andy Wilson, and allowed him to reach second with a balk before ground balls by Brian McClure and Graham Koonce allowed Wilson to advance the final 180 feet. That gave Rancho Cucamonga the early lead.

But that was the only run Longo would allow until Scott Seal led off the seventh with a solo home run to right-center field.

"We have some good hitters on this team, so I knew all I had to do was keep us in the game," Longo said. "That's how you get wins."

Lancaster backed up Longo with its second error-free game in a row and an effective offense.

The JetHawks stormed back with three runs in the third inning off Quakes starter Wascar Serrano (3-4), who dropped his second decision to the JetHawks in as many tries.

Jose Moreno, who drew a oneout walk, tied the game 1-1 when he scored on Joel Ramirez's infield bouncer. Ramirez and Matt Sachse gave the JetHawks the lead on Greg Connors' triple to right-center field.

Lancaster added two runs in the sixth inning, the second of which scored thanks to two of the Quakes' three errors on the evening.

Alex Fernandez iced the game in the eighth with a three-run homer, his third of the season.