'Hawks go up in Blaze

Lancaster's pitching failed again as the JetHawks dropped their fifth straight game

By DAVE RASBACH
Valley Press Staff Writer

For the fourth consecutive night, the Lancaster JetHawks' pitching staff had a night worth forgetting. And for the fifth consecutive night, it appeared they would come away with a loss.

The Bakersfield Blaze were the beneficiary this time, touching the JetHawks for 17 hits through the first eight innings and grabbing a 13-12 lead at press time entering the ninth inning before 2,814 fans in the second-half home opener at Lancaster Municipal Stadium on Wednesday.

"We scored a lot of runs," JetHawks manager Darrin Garner said. "But our pitchers gave up a lot of runs. Frustrating, frustrating, frustrating. We score 12 runs and still lose the game."

Bakersfield closer Todd Ozias threw a perfect bottom of the ninth - the only perfect inning by either side in an ugly game - to nail down the win and snare his 17th save of the season.

Lancaster, which is currently on its second-longest losing streak of the season, fell a franchise-worst 27 games under .500 (25-52).

The JetHawks' chief fault recently has been ineffective pitching and an error-prone defense.

Lancaster has now allowed 45 runs on 53 hits in its last four games. That comes on the heels of a second-half opening series at Stockton, when the JetHawks held the Ports to a total of five runs and won two out of three games.

Wednesday, Lancaster allowed three walks and hit three batters to go along with three errors and the 19 base hits, seven of which went for extra bases.

Add that together and the Blaze (2-5, 38-39) had their most productive night of the second half offensively. In fact, Bakersfield scored more runs Wednesday than it had in the first six games of the half combined (11).

"Our pitchers stunk it up out there," Garner said. "They all struggled."

Lancaster also did its share of damage offensively, collecting 18 hits and pounding three solo homers.

One night earlier in Visalia, the JetHawks scored five runs in the top of the fifth inning to take a 5-0 lead, only to watch the Oaks come back to score five runs in the bottom half of the inning and eventually win the game 9-7.

Although it may have taken Lancaster a little longer Wednesday, they endured the same result. The Blaze scorched starter Brandon Parker and the JetHawks for five runs in the first inning.

Although only one of the runs was earned, Parker struggled in the frame, allowing four hits, including a three-run homer by Cody Ransom that capped the scoring.

But like the Oaks did a night earlier, Lancaster fought back.

Mike Marchiano got the rally going with his first-inning solo home run, which was not only his third blast of the season, but also the first of his four hits on the evening.

Three hits in the second inning netted Lancaster two runs and pulled the JetHawks within two runs.

That margin was made up on Jason Regan's third-inning double, which plated both Marchiano and Shawn McCorkle. Regan scored the go-ahead run on a double-steal attempt with Jermaine Clark, who also crossed the plate on an RBI double by Joel Ramirez.

Unfortunately for Lancaster, neither that two-run lead, nor the one they built in the fifth inning, held up.

"It was good to see us come back, but we need to start putting teams away," Marchiano said.

Bakersfield rallied for five runs in the top of sixth on five hits and a walk. The big hit of the inning came from the No. 9 hitter, Joel Fuentes, who singled in John Summers with the go-ahead run.

Even though the hit came off Jason Turman, the run was charged to reliever Zach Stark, who received a loss in his first decision of the year in 27 appearances.

Steve Hill followed with a tworun single that gave the Blaze a more comfortable 13-10 advantage.