Quakes continue to rock Lancaster

By MIKE STREET
Valley Press Staff Writer

Unfortunately for them, they'll have to make one more appearance in Rancho Cucamonga in August.

The Quakes scored two runs in the bottom of the fourth and added two more as an aftershock in the fifth to sweep the three-game series against Lancaster with an 8-1 victory in front of 4,763 fans Thursday night at The Epicenter.

The loss dropped the JetHawks' (11-17, 34-64) record in Rancho Cucamonga to 1-8. They'll return to the Epicenter to play a onegame series on Aug. 7.

"We had another bad series here," Lancaster manager Darrin Garner said. "I don't know, maybe this place is a little too close to San Bernardino because we have had trouble there too."

Despite taking the loss, Lancaster starter Greg Wooten (4-3) matched Quakes starter Rick Guttormson pitch for pitch through the first three innings.

Guttormson (11-4) showed why he's tied for the league lead in wins, facing only one batter over the minimum through the first four innings. In the first, the righthander struck out the side in order.

Wooten, who had a 3-1 record in the month of July, came close to matching Guttormson's feat in the bottom half, striking out the first two batters before Graham Koonce flew out to center to end the inning. The 6-foot-7 right-hander faced only one batter over the minimum through three innings.

But the Quakes finally got to Wooten in the bottom of the fourth.

After Koonce laced a single to right-center, Kevin Eberwein stepped to the plate and smashed the ninth pitch of his at-bat deep over the left-field wall to give Rancho Cucamonga a 2-0 lead.

"One bad pitch is all it was," Wooten said. "He kept fouling the ball off and fouling it off and finally I just decided I wanted to get one over on him so I threw him a get-me-over slider.

"I should have given him my hard slider instead of trying to lay it in there."

Lancaster, however, fought back in the top of the fifth against Guttormson.

Back-to-back singles by Alex Fernandez and Jason Regan preceded Rafael Lopez's sacrifice bunt to put runners on second and third with one out. Jerry Amador followed with an RBI groundout to second, scoring Fernandez to cut the Quakes' lead to 2-1.

Some loose fielding by the JetHawks in the bottom half of the fifth allowed Rancho Cucamonga to post two more runs.

Regan booted a grounder by Clay Snellgrove to start the inning. Scott Seal followed with a hard shot to first baseman Patrick Williams, who had the double-play ball go off his glove to Joel Ramirez. The second baseman did recover in time to get Seal at first.

A one-out walk to No. 9 hitter Matt Halloran by Wooten spelled trouble as Andy Wilson, who was hitting .340 against Lancaster coming into the game, rifled a tworun double to left-center to make it 4-1.

More fielding problems helped the Quakes pad their lead in the bottom of the eighth against reliever Juan Ramos. A potential double play with runners on first and second with no outs was thrown away into left field by Regan.

That allowed Wilson to score and Eberwein quickly followed with a two-run single to right. Ramos, who didn't record an out in the inning, was relieved by Justin Kaye after walking the bases loaded. After recording an out, Kaye walked Seal to score Eberwein with the final run of the game.

Uploaded July 23, 1999