New Hawk struggles in debut

Lancaster's newest addition, Chris Mears, allowed eight earned runs on eight hits, a hit batter and two balks in his California League debut.

By DAVE RASBACH
Valley Press Staff Writer

Whatever you want to term his performance Sunday at Visalia's Recreation Park, Chris Mears certainly would prefer to put his California League debut behind him as quickly as possible.

Mears, who joined the Lancaster JetHawks Thursday after an impressive first half at Class A Wisconsin, struggled early and often, as the Oaks pulled ahead to stay in a 10-7 victory over Lancaster.

"He struggled a bit," JetHawks manager Darrin Garner said. "I don't know if he was a little nervous or what. I've seen him pitch a lot better than that - with better control."

The JetHawks (25-49) dropped their second straight after winning five of six and evened their secondhalf record at 2-2.

Despite being spotted a two-run advantage by his new teammates in the top of the first inning, the 20-year-old Mears found it extremely difficult to hold on to.

"I told him to go out and show me exactly what he had been doing (in the Midwest League)," JetHawks pitching coach Greg Harris said. "He really didn't get to do that."

After Nathan Haynes greeted him to the Cal League with a leadoff single in the first inning and stole second base, Mears gave him a free pass to third base with a balk.

In his his 13 Midwest League starts earlier this year, in which he went 10-1 with a 2.43 ERA, the 6-foot-4, 180-pound Canada native was not charged with a single balk. He was charged with two Sunday.

The first balk seemed to throw him off his rhythm, as Mears allowed two consecutive two-out walks to load the bases. He then hit Tim Jones with a pitch to force in Haynes with the Oaks' first run of the game.

Mears escaped the first without further damage and a 2-1 lead, but things got worse for him in the second inning.

The Oaks tied the game, when Haynes scored from third on what appeared to be an attempted steal of home. The throw would have beat Haynes home, but Mears was once again called for a balk, allowing the run to score.

An infield single by Dionys Cesar and a walk to Rusty Keith ended up giving the Oaks the lead, when Todd Mensik doubled both in with a sun-aided shot to left-center field.

The Oaks blew the game open in the third with a leadoff homer by Jones and a three-run blast by Cesar.

While with Wisconsin, Mears surrendered only one home run in 89 innings pitched.

The main problem for the righthander was a sudden lack of control. Mears needed 83 pitches to get through the first three innings, only 46 of which were strikes. After walking only 16 during his stay with the Timber Rattlers, he allowed three in four innings Sunday.

"You can't pitch behind guys on this level," Harris said. "I assume he didn't do much of that in Midwest League... I'm not real sure why he struggled. I imagine it was a number of reasons, including a little nerves."

All told, Mears allowed eight earned runs on eight hits, three walks, a hit batter and two balks while striking out four in four innings.

He did pitch a perfect fourth inning on only 11 pitches.

"That's what he's capable of pitching like," Harris said. "That's the inning we're going to try to build off of."

Lancaster rallied for three runs in the top half of that inning to pull within two runs, 8-6, but Eddie Lara's two-run inside-the-park homer in the seventh inning put the game away for the Oaks.