Quakes' Prospect wins battle of young arms

Mike Bynum outdueled Chris Mears, pitching a two-hitter over six innings as Rancho Cucamonga defeated Lancaster

By JON MICHAELS
Valley Press Staff Writer

After all, Lancaster sent last year's Mariners' Minor League Pitcher of the Year Chris Mears to the mound against the Quakes' powerful left-hander Mike Bynum.

Bynum, a flame-throwing pitching prospect who landed in San Diego's lap with the 49th overall pick in this year's draft as compensation from Houston for third baseman Ken Caminiti, sported an impressive 0.82 ERA heading into the game.

And both prospects lived up to their billing, but it was Bynum who appeared just a bit sharper, pitching a two-hitter over six innings in the Quakes' 5-3 win in front of 3,494 fans.

Bynum (1-0) bailed himself out of trouble early. After allowing a runner who reached on an error in the first inning to come around and score, the 21-year-old struck out the side to control the damage.

"(Bynum) was good," JetHawks manager Darrin Garner said. "I couldn't wait for him to get out of the game. He threw some good pitches and we couldn't pick up his slider. We took some bad swings."

Rancho Cucamonga tied the game off Mears in the top of the second inning on Wilbert Nieves' seventh home run of the year, a solo shot that barely cleared the wall in left field.

Lancaster (19-30) regained the lead in its half of the second, cashing in Cirilo Cruz's first triple of the season. Rafael Lopez followed Cruz's triple with an RBI grounder to second.

The Quakes (25-24) tied the game again in the third as Nieves collected his second RBI of the night, singling in Kevin Eberwein to knot the game at 2-2. But, as he did in the second inning, Mears struck out a Rancho batter to end any further damage.

In fact, Mears (3-4) and his defense constantly came up with the big outs. The right-hander gave up eight hits in the first five innings, but stranded seven runners.

Mears' tightrope act finally wore thin in the sixth as the defense was unable to turn a routine 6-4-3 double play and Clay Snellgrove scored to put the Quakes ahead 3-2.

"Mears did an excellent job," Garner said. "But we didn't make the plays behind him. It was big when we couldn't turn that double play. It hurt, it should have been a routine play."

An error by center fielder Harvey Hargrove - who earlier made a spectacular catch while running into the wall - put runners on second and third before Mears walked the ensuing batter to load the bases.

Reliever Zach Stark came on and promptly coaxed Graham Koonce into an inning-ending popup. Unfortunately, the seventh inning didn't go as smoothly for the reliever, who gave up a mammoth two-run homer to Alex Palaez to make the score 5-2.

Stark settled down, retiring the next six batters, including striking out the side in the eighth inning.

Bynum also settled down and retired the side in order in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings. He struck out seven batters and did not issue a walk. Bynum was promoted from Idaho Falls (Pioneer League) on Aug. 1.

Lancaster loaded the bases with one out in the ninth inning, but Matt Sachse struck out and Joel Ramirez ended the game with a fly ball to right.

Uploaded August 16, 1999