Another streak starts
as Storm is blown out

Lancaster rallied for the second straight night in the late innings to win its second consecutive game.

One night after the JetHawks ended the longest losing slide in minor league baseball this year, they started a little bit of a winning streak with a 10-9 victory over the Lake Elsinore Storm before a Fireworks Night crowd of 4,453 at Lancaster Municipal Stadium on Friday.

Lancaster had to come back from five runs down to claim the victory.

"That shows what you can do if you keep battling," JetHawks manager Darrin Garner said. "Last night was good. This one was even better."

The JetHawks (22-46), who entered the game with the worst record in minor league baseball, won their second straight after halting a franchise-record 12-game losing streak. Lancaster won consecutive games for only the sixth time this season.

Just like they did Thursday, the JetHawks used a seventh- and eighth-inning rally to come away with the victory.

"That was lovely," Garner said. "Wins like that can help you turn things around."

Lake Elsinore (29-39) carried an 8-3 lead into the seventh-inning stretch, only to see the JetHawks cut it to one run by the end of the frame with two hits, two walks and two Lake Elsinore errors.

It marked the second consecutive night the JetHawks had rallied for four runs in the seventh inning.

The comeback continued in the eighth on five Lancaster hits and two more Storm errors. Lake Elsinore was charged with five miscues on the night.

After Jermaine Clark's bunt single and an errant pickoff attempt from Jeremy Callier (0-2), Cirilo Cruz's single back up the middle plated Clark with the game-tying run. After a wild pitch, Cruz scored the go-ahead run on Mike Marchiano's two-out opposite-field single.

"As a hitter, you always want to be up in that situation," Marchiano said. "You want nobody but you up. I got lucky. . . That bunt single by Clark was huge, because it set Cirilo and I up and gave us a chance to win."

Marchaino also came home with what proved to be the winning run on Shawn McCorkle's single.

Donnie Schmidt, who pitched scoreless seventh and eighth innings, notched the win to improve to 1-2.

Although he allowed Chris Walther to score and the potential game-tying run to reach third base on a wild pitch, Justin Kaye picked up his eighth save of the season.

"These last two wins have been huge for us," Marchiano said. "Hopefully we can keep it going and get some momentum into the second half."

The Storm took advantage of Lancaster starter Brandon Parker early.

Parker, who started the season 4-0 but has dropped his last three decisions, has not won a game since the last time he faced the Storm on May 12 at The Diamond. In that game, Parker showed pinpoint control, retiring the first 16 batters he faced.

But Friday was a completely different story for the 23-year-old right-hander. Parker, who lasted only 2 innings, needed 87 pitches to make it that far. Only 46 of those pitches were for strikes.

He allowed two walks and two singles on 33 pitches in the first inning, but managed to hold the Storm to only one run on Walther's RBI single. Parker ended up striking out Jay Hood to leave the bases loaded.

He wasn't nearly as lucky in the second inning.

After loading the bases on two walks and a single to Jeb Dougherty, Parker watched Matt Curtis hit the first pitch he saw onto the roof of the utility shed behind the right-field wall to give the Storm a 5-0 lead.

Curtis' eighth homer of the year was Lake Elsinore's first grand slam of 1999.

Parker, who needed 34 pitches to get through the second inning, left with two outs in the third, having allowed the five earned runs on six hits and six walks. He struck out four.