Visalia's red-hot offense sweeps past JetHawks

Lancaster dropped its fourth straight game and dipped 26 games under .500

By DAVE RASBACH
Valley Press Staff Writer

After stumbling out of the gate in the second half, the Visalia Oaks offense suddenly has caught fire. The Oaks found the pitching staff of the Lancaster JetHawks much to their liking for the third consecutive night.

The Oaks needed all the offense they could muster Tuesday, as they twice came back to complete a three-game sweep of the JetHawks at Recreation Park with a 9-7 victory.

"They hit the ball good against us," JetHawks manager Darrin Garner said. "We didn't pitch real well in these three games."

Hipolito Martinez's solo home run off Lancaster reliever Tim McClaskey (3-2) broke a 7-7 tie in the bottom of the seventh and proved to be the winning run, even though Javier Flores added an RBI double later in frame.

Lancaster fell to a franchiseworst 26 games under .500 (25-51) and lost its fourth straight after winning its first two games of the second half.

"We just haven't been putting everything together," Lancaster outfielder Alex Fernandez said. "That's what we need to start doing."

The Oaks (4-2, 36-40) completed their second consecutive series sweep of Lancaster, following an April 17-19 sweep at Lancaster Municipal Stadium. It marked the ninth time the JetHawks have been swept this season.

The JetHawks certainly took their share of lumps on their most recent and final visit to Visalia this season.

In the three games, the Oaks tallied 32 runs on 37 hits, including six homers and 17 extra-base hits. They also made the most of nine Lancaster errors and 21 walks in the series.

"They were hot," Garner said. "And we didn't get the job done."

But it was the Lancaster offense that got things started Tuesday.

After Visalia starter Marcus Jones held the JetHawks to one hit in the first four innings, Lancaster reeled off a five-run outburst to take a 5-0 lead.

The big inning was spurred by consecutive one-out singles by Harvey Hargrove, Rafael Lopez, Joel Ramirez and Jermaine Clark. Clark's bases-loaded single turned out to be even bigger when Martinez misplayed the ball in right field, allowing both Lopez and Ramirez to score and Clark to stop on third base.

Clark later scored on Jason Regan's sacrifice fly to give Lancaster a seemingly comfortable 5-0 lead.

But as it turned out, that lead wasn't comfortable at all. It didn't even take the Oaks an inning to come back and tie the game.

Three consecutive hits to open the inning got the Oaks on the board and on their way to a fiverun frame against Lancaster starter Neil Longo.

"If it's five runs or any lead, you've got to make it stand," Garner said. "We didn't do that."

The big play in the inning was an RBI single by Todd Mensik to center field. Hargrove was charged with a two-base error on the play, when he tried to cut down Rusty Keith, who was advancing to third base on the play. Hargrove's throw hit Keith in the back and caromed into the third-base dugout, allowing the Visalia left fielder to trot home and Mensik, who represented the tying run, to reach third base.

Mensik tied the game one batter later on Rodney Clifton's infield single.

Lancaster once again grabbed the lead on Fernandez's oppositefield solo home run in the sixth, but Visalia once again came back to tie the game and took the lead, 7-6, on Nathan Haynes' RBI single off JetHawks reliever Jeff Farnsworth.

But Lancaster showed its own resiliency, tying the game in the seventh with Mike Marchiano's RBI double.