'Hawks surprise themselves with win

Joel Ramirez made an impressive play at shortstop for the final out as Lancaster upended San Jose

By DAVE RASBACH
Valley Press Staff Writer

Games that were already being chalked up in the win column suddenly appear as losses in the next day's papers.

And Lancaster JetHawks manager Darrin Garner feels helpless to stop the bleeding.

The JetHawks were headed in that direction once again Sunday before 1,895 fans in attendance at San Jose Municipal Stadium. What once seemed like a relatively easy win, suddenly started teetering on the edge of the cliff of success and failure.

But just when all seemed to be lost, Joel Ramirez, who made a costly error one night earlier, came through with a spectacular stop of a ground ball hit back up the middle by Yorvit Torrealba and flipped to Jermaine Clark to end the game and secure a 6-5 victory for the JetHawks.

"That was a big pick-me-up, not only for the team, but for Joel," Garner said. "It was good to see him make that play."

Lancaster improved its minor league-worst record to 45-82 overall and halted a four-game losing skid with the win. The JetHawks also improved their second half record to 22-35 and stayed 11 games behind San Bernardino in the second-half South Division title race with 13 to play.

With its 7-4 win over Rancho Cucamonga Sunday, the Stampede now need a combination of three wins or three Lancaster losses to officially eliminate the JetHawks from the 1999 playoff picture.

It looked like that number might shrink even smaller, even though Lancaster carried a 6-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning.

Justin Kaye, who recorded the last out of the eighth inning, started the final frame by striking out Ismael Reynoso. But the Giants stayed alive when William Otero singled back up the middle.

Things really started to unravel when center fielder Harvey Hargrove completely lost a playable fly ball off the bat of John Tsoukalas. The high fly ball landed innocently untouched, resulting in an RBI double.

Pitching coach Greg Harris took a trip to the mound to attempt to settle down his closer.

"He was our man," Garner said of Kaye, who appears to be emerging from a midseason slump of late. "We were going to stick with him until the end - win or lose."

Kaye rebounded to get Brett Casper to pop out in foul territory for the second out of the inning, then jumped ahead of Tim Flaherty 1-2. But the right-hander hit Flaherty with a 2-2 pitch, starting a string of 10 consecutive pitches that were called balls.

Tony Zuniga drew a walk to load the bases, before Kevin Tommasini forced home Tsoukalas to pull the Giants within one run.

"You hate to think it, but it's definitely in the back of your mind," Garner said. "You start thinking, `Here we go again.' We were definitely sweating it."

But just as Garner's perspiration level went up, Ramirez bailed him and Kaye out. With the bases still loaded, Torrealba sent a shot that appeared to be ticketed through the Lancaster infield and most likely would have scored the tying and winning runs.

But Ramirez, who botched a sure double-play ball to start a clinching four-run sixth inning for the Giants on Saturday, dived to his right to snare the ball.

He then rolled on his back side and flipped to Clark, who was covering second base for the forceout.

"I breathed a deep sigh of relief with that one," Garner said. "We haven't been getting those all year."

Kaye picked up his 14th save of the season and preserved the win for Daron Kirkreit, who improved to 2-4. Kirkreit pitched well, scattering eight hits and two walks over seven innings while holding the Giants to two earned runs.

The Lancaster offense took advantage of numerous San Jose errors to build a 6-2 lead. Hargrove led the way for the Lancaster offense, going 3-for-5 with a run scored and two RBI.

Uploaded August 23, 1999