With little yard work, Lancaster beats Stockton

With a recent power surge, it took them only 25 games in the second half to surpass that mark.

The JetHawks used six long balls, including two each from Patrick Williams and Cirilo Cruz, to grab a 9-4 victory over the Stockton Ports before 3,905 delighted fans Monday evening at Lancaster Municipal Stadium.

"Tonight we just hit the ball good," JetHawks manager Darrin Garner said. "The guys got the pitches to hit, and they didn't foul them off, they hit them hard."

With the win, the JetHawks wrapped up their third consecutive series victory, claiming two of three from the Ports. Lancaster (11-15, 34-61) has now won six of its last nine games.

The main reason for the recent improvement has been the JetHawks' high-powered offense to go along with a more-productive pitching staff.

After hovering near the bottom of the Cal League power-hitting stats for most of the first half, Lancaster entered Monday's game fifth in the league with 74 home runs.

The JetHawks' six homers Monday certainly won't hurt in that race. Lancaster fell just one home run short of tying a Cal League record for home runs hit by a team in a game. The record is held by four teams and was last set by Lake Elsinore at High Desert on July 24, 1994.

"They say hitting is contagious," Garner said. "It certainly seemed to be tonight. . . We swung the bats real good tonight."

All six blasts came off Paul Stewart (8-7), who tied a Cal League record for home runs allowed in a game by one pitcher, matching the six Reno's R. Norman Housely allowed to Salinas on Aug. 11, 1964.

The most unlikely of all JetHawks got things started for Lancaster, though. Joel Ramirez, who had not hit a home run in 235 at-bats entering Monday, blasted the first pitch he saw from Stewart to the deepest part of the park for a one-out solo home run. It was the ninth of his six-year career.

"Ramirez got one up in the jetstream," Garner said.

Williams, whose power is a bit less of a surprise, gave Lancaster a 2-0 lead one inning later with his one-out solo home run, which he drove the opposite way over the right-center field wall. The 21year-old, who is quickly becoming a crowd favorite at The Hangar, also led off the seventh inning with a rocket over the left-center field wall.

"I've just been getting lucky," Williams said with a grin. "The ball has been running into the bat."

Luck or not, the second home run gave Williams, who joined the team at the all-star break, the team lead with 11. It has taken the Texas native only 90 at-bats to hit that many, meaning he is averaging a home run every 8.18 at-bats.

For a comparison, Jason Regan averaged a home run every 11.82 at-bats when he hit 22 blasts during the second half of the 1997 season. The Chicago Cubs' Sammy Sosa averaged one every 9.74 atbats (66 home runs in 643 at-bats) last year, while Mark McGwire averaged one every 7.27 at-bats (70 in 509) during his record-setting season.

"I just try to hit the ball hard and not worry about numbers," Williams said.

Cruz added a leadoff dinger in the sixth and a two-run shot in the seventh to give him five on the season.

Wilfredo Quintana also hit a two-run homer, his first in two games as a JetHawk, in the sixth and crossed home plate in the fifth with the lone run not to score via a homer.

That run broke a 2-2 tie, after the Ports got two solo home runs of their own off Lancaster starter Chris Mears (2-3) in the top of the fifth.

In the bottom half of the frame, Quintana turned a one-out single into the go-ahead run with a stolen base and two Stockton errors.

Mears left after six innings, having held the Ports to two runs on six hits and two walks.

Uploaded July 20, 1999