Mavericks put a Stark end to night

Jack Crust's two-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth brought High Desert back from a one-run deficit and further crimped Lancaster's fading playoff hopes

By DAVE RASBACH
Valley Press Staff Writer

Through most of the season the 6-foot-6, 205-pounder has come through.

But Wednesday may have been just a little too much.

High Desert's Jack Cust belted a two-run home run over the rightfield fence off Stark with one out in the bottom of the ninth to erase a one-run Lancaster lead and give the Mavericks a 8-7 victory before 1,419 delighted fans at Maverick Stadium.

"Z's human, too," Lancaster manager Darrin Garner said. "He's pitched well for us, but he didn't put the ball where he needed to tonight."

Lancaster fell to 44-79 overall and 21-32 in the second half and watched their already dim playoff hopes fade a little more.

Stark (0-2), who pitched a scoreless eighth inning, was left in the game in the ninth to turn around the switch-hitting Alex Cintron and Abraham Nunez so they'd bat right-handed and also to face the dangerous left-handed Cust. The High Desert outfielder entered the game one home run behind San Bernardino's Chin-Feng Chen for the league lead.

"He's a good hitter, that's for sure," Garner said of Cust. "But we had to pitch to him. We couldn't walk him in that situation."

Cintron started the ninth by singling off Stark, but the Lancaster reliever rebounded to strike out Nunez, bringing up Cust. The Diamondbacks' 1997 first-round selection worked the count to 2-1 before belting his 26th homer, and sixth in the last six nights.

"We left Zach in there because we wanted the favorable matchups against the left-handers," Garner said. "It just didn't happen for us."

Cust's homer erased the eighthinning heroics by Lancaster's Harvey Hargrove, who broke a 6-6 tie with his one-out RBI single. Backto-back singles by Joel Ramirez and Jermaine Clark set the table for Hargrove.

After working the count full, the Lancaster outfielder fouled off three consecutive pitches from High Desert reliever Steve Immel (3-1), waiting for his pitch. He finally got it and laced the ball into shallow left-center field to score Ramirez from second base.

"Harvey's been swinging the bat pretty well recently," Garner said. "That was a big hit for us."

High Desert looked to take control early, scoring four runs in the bottom of the second. Three consecutive one-out RBI singles by Robby Hammock, Mark Osborne and James Rinne got things going, before Alex Cintron doubled in Osborne with two outs.

Cust got the inning started, reaching base when his fly ball squirted out of Alex Fernandez's glove in right field.

But in the top of the third, it was the JetHawks who took advantage of a costly miscue.

Lancaster already had scored two runs on Clark's RBI double and another when Greg Connors drew a bases-loaded walk.

It looked like High Desert would escape further damage when Jason Regan bounced what should have been the third out of the inning toward Jared Martin at third base. But the ball went under Martin's glove and through his legs into left field, allowing Clark and Hargrove to score the gametying runs.

The JetHawks' rally continued in the fourth when Hargrove singled in Ramirez and Clark to give Lancaster a 6-4 lead.

But, again, that lead didn't last long as High Desert rallied with back-to-back solo homers from Osborne and Rinne.

Lancaster starter Greg Wooten left with the score tied 6-6 with one out in the fifth after allowing six runs, four of which were earned, on seven hits and a walk. He struck out two.

Uploaded August 19, 1999