'Hawks glad to exit Maverick Stadium's unfriendly confines

High Desert scored five runs off Brandon Parker in the fifth inning to defeat Lancaster.

Yep, the Lancaster JetHawks have seen pretty much enough of anything-but-"Friendly Maverick Stadium" for one season.

Cust proved just as unfriendly to the JetHawks Friday night as he had Wednesday and Thursday nights, blasting his third homer of the series as the High Desert Mavericks rolled out a 6-1 victory over the JetHawks.

Cust's two-run homer in the fifth capped a five-run bomb the Mavs detonated under JetHawks' starter Brandon Parker (8-6).

Because of a promotion, one lucky fan in the announced crowd of 3,021 will get Cust's jersey at the end of the season. Given the way he's hit in it - eight homers in his last eight games and nine in his last 10 - don't blame Cust if he sneaks in a ringer.

"Jack who," quipped Lancaster manager Darrin Garner. "He's swinging the bat pretty good. Give the kid credit, he's swinging the bat good. Throw some good pitches and hope he don't hit them."

This worked on Cust's first two trips to the plate for Parker, who blew away the Cal League's home run leader in the first and the fourth.

He wouldn't be as fortunate in the fifth.

After surviving various minithreats through the first four innings - Mark Osborne's leadoff triple in the second, a walk to Belvani Martinez and single by Cintron in the third - Parker's penchant for high pitches finally caught up to him.

Along with a troublesome trend.

Parker hadn't escaped the sixth inning in his last seven starts, dating to July 5. And he didn't survive the fifth Friday.

Dan Meier began the barrage, rocketing a leadoff homer over the second wall in right-center. Singles by Casey Cuntz and Martinez sandwiched around an error by Parker followed, as did a sacrifice by Cintron and a sacrifice fly by Adam Neubart.

That brought up Cust, who ended Parker's night five runs and six hits later with a towering blast over the bull in right field.

You could almost hear the bus warming up, such was Lancaster's eagerness at getting an early start to San Jose as much as escaping Maverick Stadium, where the JetHawks have lost their last eight games.

Lancaster's third straight loss not only gave high-flying High Desert its 10th straight win - one off the franchise record set in 1992 and tied in 1997 - but translated into the JetHawks getting swept in a series for the 15th time this season.

Their previous low watermark for series sweeps came three years ago. It was six.

Six. A number that matches Lancaster's hit total Friday night, five of which came off Mavs starter Jason Jensen. The soft-tossing lefthander struck out four, walked one and allowed only Cirilo Cruz Jr.'s ninth homer of the year, a solo blast in the second that gave the JetHawks an early 1-0 lead.

"He didn't have anything special. We just didn't hit tonight," Garner said. "I think we were a little overanxious tonight."

The five hits Jensen allowed equaled the five JetHawks' runners left in scoring position. Four of those came in the last two innings - Shawn McCorkle (double) and Harvey Hargrove (walk) in the eighth and Cruz (walk) and Alex Fernandez (single) in the ninth.

The JetHawks loaded the bases with one out in the ninth off reliever Jason Martines, who distinguished himself by throwing 10 straight balls upon his eighth-inning entrance.

But Martines struck out McCorkle and got Joel Ramirez to ground out for the game-ending out.