Mavericks' bats tear up Mears' night

High Desert hit Lancaster starter Chris Mears hard before the right-hander had to leave the game with a skin tear on his right index finger

By JON MICHAELS
Valley Press Staff Writer

In his previous start on Saturday, Mears pitched effectively, but fell to Quakes' left-handed powerpitcher Mike Bynum, who only allowed two Lancaster hits.

Thursday night, Mears faced the California League's hottest team, the High Desert Mavericks and winners of eight straight games. The Mavs had scored 73 runs in that span, including 20 against Rancho Cucamonga on Tuesday.

Mears was in trouble early, giving up four first-inning runs and left after 2 innings due to an injury en route to a 14-4 setback in front of 1,256 fans at Maverick Stadium.

The loss sent Lancaster to a minor-league baseball worst 44-80 record and left the JetHawks 21-33 in the second half. It also was Lancaster's seventh straight loss at High Desert.

"This place sucks," JetHawks manager Darrin Garner said. "We come out here to play but it doesn't seem to work out for us here.

"(The Mavericks) are a goodhitting team, you have to keep them off-balance and we haven't been doing that and they're scoring a lot of runs."

Belvani Martinez, the first batter Mears faced, sent an early message, smashing a solo homer halfway up the scoreboard in left-center.

The inning didn't get any easier for the right-hander, who made his third start since returning from the Pan American Games, where he represented Canada. The next three batters reached base, culminated by Jack Cust's two-run double that somehow found its way past second baseman Jermaine Clark.

Cust, who ended Wednesday night's game with a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning, scored one batter later on a single by Mark Osborne.

Cust added a homer in the third inning, his Cal League-leading 27th of the season, and a two-run double in the seventh. It was Cust's seventh homer in as many nights and his five RBI give the 6foot-1, 220-pound outfielder a legitimate shot at the league's triple crown.

Cust tops the league with a .348 average to go with his 27 homers. His 101 RBI are fifth in the league.

"I'm seeing the ball well and not trying to do too much up at the plate," he said. "Everybody in the lineup has been getting hits and it takes a lot of the pressure off. It's great to have personal success, but the win streak is much more important to me."

Meanwhile, Mavericks starter Bart Miadich looked untouchable. Miadich struck out the first four Lancaster batters of the game, but fell into trouble when Alex Fernandez singled with one out in the second.

Cirilo Cruz followed with a single and Matt Sachse knocked in Lancaster's first run with a sacrifice fly to center. Joel Ramirez followed a walk to Rafael Lopez with a single down the left-field line, scoring Cruz and Lopez to cut the deficit to 4-3.

Cust's homer padded the lead to 5-3 and Mears (3-5) worked a full count to Osborne before leaving the game with a skin tear on the index finger of his pitching hand.

Harvey Hargrove chipped into the lead in the fifth, plating Ramirez, who had reached on an error, to make it 6-4. The RBI was Hargrove's 22nd in the last 10 games.

The Mavs increased their lead in the fifth on a three-run homer by Alex Cintron and a home run by the ensuing batter, Casey Cuntz, stretching the lead to 10-4.

Martinez added an RBI single in the seventh as Lancaster fell for the seventh straight time at Maverick Stadium. High Desert then loaded the bases for Cust, who promptly added a two-run double.

Uploaded August 20, 1999