JetHawks flying high after season finale

By DAVE RASBACH
Valley Press Staff Writer

But for the Lancaster JetHawks, 1999 has been something more of a torture test.

Despite finishing with the first losing record since the team moved to the Antelope Valley in 1996, the JetHawks did manage to put a positive spin on a depressing season by winning 11 of their final 14 games.

Lancaster put the finishing touches on that string with Sunday's 4-3 victory over the San Bernardino Stampede before 2,547 at The Ranch.

"We went out these last two weeks and played baseball," JetHawks manager Darrin Garner said. "We enjoyed it, and we won some games."

Lancaster wrapped up the season with a 55-85 record overall and a 32-38 mark in the second half.

The win completed the JetHawks' first three-game series sweep on the road this season. Their only other series sweep also came against the Stampede last week at The Hangar.

In fact, the JetHawks won their final seven games against the Stampede after losing 11 of the first 13 this season against the team led by former manager Rick Burleson.

"I have no problems with Rick," Garner said. "Rick used to work for this organization. But it is great to beat him seven times in a row."

That, more than anything, once again prevented the Stampede from clinching a division title outright. Despite having the best overall record (79-61) in the South Division, the Stampede finished tied for the second-half title with High Desert after the Mavericks lost 7-4 to Bakersfield.

One win against the JetHawks in the final weekend would have given the Stampede the secondhalf title and home-field advantage in the best-of-3 first-round playoff series against High Desert.

Instead, the two teams square off in a 1 p.m. game today in Adelanto to decide which team will win the second-half crown and host that first-round series.

"That was our plan today," Garner said. "We wanted to make life tough on them. If High Desert lost, we wanted to win. We wanted them to play that extra game and piss them off."

The Stampede nearly avoided that fate, though, as they held a 3-2 lead heading into the ninth inning.

Matt Sachse's leadoff single in the ninth up the middle looked like it would be wasted when Rafael Lopez and Shawn McCorkle struck out. But then the JetHawks got some luck they had been missing most of the season when Jermaine Clark bounced what appeared to be a sure out toward Eric Riggs at second base. The ball hit the lip of the grass and infield, redirecting away from Riggs and allowing Sachse to take third on the play.

Clark stole second and ended up scoring the winning run behind Sachse's tying run on Harvey Hargrove's single into center field.

"We played hard," Garner said. "There was no quit in these guys and no speeches."

Justin Kaye (3-5) earned the victory after working two scoreless innings. San Bernardino's Bill Everly (7-4), who was attempting to break the Cal League record with his 35th save this season, took the loss.

Burleson and the Stampede now turn their attention to the Mavericks, a team Burleson has not had much success against in the playoffs. While with Lancaster, he lost three straight to High Desert in the Valley Division championship series in 1997 before being swept in the first round by the Mavericks last year.

The winner of the three-game series between the Stampede and Mavericks, which begins Tuesday, moves on to face Rancho Cucamonga, which captured the first half-title.

In the North Division, Modesto won both the first- and second-half titles and awaits the winner of a firstround series between San Jose and Visalia.

Uploaded September 7, 1999