JetHawks draw the best hand vs. Black Jack

The Anaheim Angels' Jack McDowell is tentatively slated to start tonight's game at the Lake Elsinore Diamond as he attempts to come back from an elbow injury that has kept him out of action all season with the exception of two starts at Class AAA Edmonton.

The right-hander, who originally injured his elbow in 1997 while with Cleveland, will face a Lancaster lineup that has managed only eight hits and three runs in its last two games.

Four Storm pitchers, meanwhile, held the JetHawks to only six hits Wednesday to help Lake Elsinore to a 5-2 victory before an announced crowd of 5,095 fans.

"Hopefully this is just a mini
slump," JetHawks manager Darrin Garner said. "We're just not getting the hits, especially the big ones, right now."

With the loss, Lancaster fell to 7-13 in the second half and dipped 30 games under .500 (30-60 overall) for the second time in franchise history.

The JetHawks actually had more strikeouts (10) than hits. That came one game after High Desert held Lancaster to only two hits in the second game of a doubleheader Monday at Lancaster Municipal Stadium.

"We just haven't been getting the hits," Garner said. "We didn't produce many opportunities for ourselves to score tonight."

The JetHawks' only run in the first eight innings came on a leadoff home run from Patrick Williams in the fourth inning off reliever Jeremy Callier (2-3).

The home run was his seventh in 18 games since he was promoted from Class A Wisconsin. He is averaging a home run in every 9.57 at-bats since joining the team at the all-star break.

But that's all the JetHawks would manage offensively, until Williams again scored in the top of the ninth with the help of the game's only error, which was charged to Storm third baseman Chris Walther.

Lake Elsinore starter Jason Stephens, who only pitched two innings after coming back from an elbow injury, struck out four and allowed three hits. He managed to work his way out of a first-inning jam when the JetHawks attempted a double-steal with runners on the corners and one out. Harvey Hargrove was caught sliding home on the play.

In his 5 innings of work, Callier struck out five JetHawk batters and allowed only two hits, one of which was Williams' home run.

"We've got to get more offensive production in the second half," Garner said. "Especially when we get a good start from our pitchers, like we did tonight."

Lancaster's offensive ineptitude ruined a fairly solid outing by starter Chris Mears (1-3), who was coming off his first Cal League victory and a scoreless inning pitched in Sunday's Futures All-Star Game at Boston's Fenway Park.

After a shaky first inning, in which the Storm got to him for two runs on four hits - including a triple by Nelson Castro and a double from Jason Dewey - Mears settled down to retire the next 12 batters he faced.

Jay Hood finally broke the string with a one-out infield single in the fifth and ended up scoring on a Darren Blakely's RBI double to give the Storm a 3-1 lead.

The advantage swelled to four runs in the bottom of the eighth, when Lake Elsinore chased Mears with two more runs on two hits and a hit batter.

"Mears pitched an outstanding ball game," Garner said. "He struggled just a little in that first inning, but he came back strong."

Mears allowed the five earned runs on eight hits and no walks, while striking out five in 7 innings of work.

The JetHawks did receive some good news Wednesday, when righthander Russ Koehler rejoined the team from the Mariners' rookie-level team in Peoria, Ariz., where he had been rehabilitating a shoulder injury. Koehler takes the place of Donnie Schmidt, who was released by the organization.