Williams' mammoth blast sparks 'Hawks

Patrick Williams' 12th homer of the season rallied Lancaster past Lake Elsinore

By DAVE RASBACH
Valley Press Staff Writer

But with their performance Wednesday and in the first five innings Thursday, it appeared the Lancaster JetHawks were ready to pack in the season a month early.

That was until a mighty blast off the bat of Patrick Williams seemed to awaken the team from its midseason slumber.

Williams' gargantuan sixth-inning home run spurred the JetHawks to a 9-4 comeback victory over the Lake Elsinore Storm before an announced crowd of 4,032 at The Diamond.

"I think everybody was amazed by how far it went," Williams said. "It might have lifted our spirits a little bit. . . I'm not going to say I'm that kind of guy, but I'll do what it takes to help this team win."

With one out in the sixth and Lancaster trailing 3-1, Williams smashed a one-out solo home run well beyond the left-field wall that literally left the ballpark. The rocket came off a 1-0 pitch from Steve Fish (8-10).

"If I can kiss one good, that's usually how far they go," Williams said.

The ball appeared to clear a secondary fence that is at least 100 feet behind the 380-foot sign on the left-field wall, meaning the shot neared the 500-foot mark.

"That one was way way way way gone," Garner said. "That's the furthest I've ever seen him hit one. He got his arms extended and got a good swing on it."

The homer was the first since July 19 for Williams, whose resume already included an impressive blast that cleared the left-field scoreboard the last time the JetHawks traveled to Lake Elsinore. By ending his 15-game homer drought, Williams also broke a three-way tie with Greg Connors and Jason Regan for the team homer lead with his 12th of the season.

"It's about time," Williams said. "It took long enough."

More importantly, the home run inspired the JetHawks, who broke a two-game losing streak and improved to 15-26 in the second half and 38-73 overall.

"It got me going," Garner said. "In that situation, when he hit it that hard, it had to spark us."

Lancaster completed the comeback in the eighth inning when four base hits off Fish and reliever Jake Brooks netted three runs and a 5-3 lead.

Back-to-back one-out singles by Harvey Hargrove and Williams set up Alex Fernandez, who singled both in with his two-out, oppositefield shot to give Lancaster its first lead of the game.

Fernandez also scored on Regan's RBI single, but the Storm cut the JetHawks' lead to one run in the bottom half of the inning with a run off reliever Jason Turman (2-9), who earned his first win since April 28.

Lancaster extended its lead in the ninth, scoring four runs without hitting the ball out of the infield.

In all, Lancaster, which has given up its share of runs late in games, scored seven runs in the final two innings.

"We had some guys come up big for us," Garner said. "We got a break here or there. Those were things that haven't been happening for us recently."

Justin Kaye held the Storm without a run the final 1 innings to pick up his 12th save of the season and the second of the month after not recording one in July.

Uploaded August 6, 1999