Road trip ends with same story

By DAVE RASBACH
Valley Press Staff Writer

The fuel for the fire?

How about the team's purple road jerseys? Perhaps that's the only way the JetHawks can rid themselves of the demons that have plagued them from one end of the state to the other.

Just like it has throughout the nine-game road trip, Lancaster lost leads twice in the finale at Bakersfield. At press time, it still hadn't cost them their eighth loss on the trip, though, as the Blaze and JetHawks entered extra innings tied 5-5.

Lancaster, which lost the first seven games of the road swing, was attempting to put a positive spin on the frustration they have experienced during the last week and a half by winning two straight.

But Bakersfield's Jeff Allen hit a leadoff home run off Jeff Farnsworth in the bottom of the ninth on a 1-1 pitch to tie the game up.

That blast erased a similar home run from Jason Regan in the top half of the inning, which the JetHawks had hoped would be enough for the victory.

But has been the case throughout the road trip, no lead was safe.

The JetHawks actually dodged a bullet in the ninth, when Arturo McDowell was stranded at third base in the ninth after Steve Hill lifted a harmless fly ball to center field to end the inning.

Like they have in seven of the nine games on the trip, Lancaster grabbed the lead in the second inning thanks to two successful hitand-run singles.

After Regan drew a leadoff walk, Alex Fernandez singled through the hole vacated by Bakersfield shortstop Cody Ransom when Regan broke for second base. The JetHawks ended up with runners on the corners after the play.

Cirilo Cruz duplicated the feat to the right side of the Blaze infield and drove home Regan with the first run of the game one batter later.

After Harvey Hargrove's single scored Fernandez from third, Wilfredo Quintana doubled in both Cruz and Hargrove with his shot to the right-center field gap to give the JetHawks a 4-0 lead.

But Russ Koehler, who had not only his best outing in his three starts since returning from an elbow injury, but by far his longest, slowly saw that lead slip away.

The Blaze cut it in half in the third inning, when Jake Messner deceptively sent a bloop home run over the center-field wall. Arturo McDowell followed with a double down the left-field line and scored on Steve Hill's ground out to make the score 4-2.

The lead shrank to 4-3 in the seventh when Koehler once again had his first pitch of an inning hammered over the outfield wall, this time by Doug Clark. The right-hander then walked Allen on four pitches to bring his night to an end.

Allen ended up scoring the game-tying run on McDowell's sacrifice fly to center field.

Uploaded July 29, 1999