JetHawks Break Fast Before Breaking Down

The JetHawks had a winning record squarely in their sights.

After winning four in a row to get to .500, the JetHawks began Friday night’s game in promising fashion--with four hits, a walk and a hit batsman in the first inning.

But they managed only two runs in the inning and two hits the rest of the game, losing, 4-3, to the San Bernardino Stampede before a Fiscalini Field crowd of 2,205. The JetHawks wasted an excellent outing by pitcher Brett Hinchliffe.

In the spandex-tight Southern Division of the California League, the JetHawks (27-28) went from second place to fourth, 2 1/2 games behind the front-running Rancho Cucamonga Quakes with 15 games to play in the first half.

It looked like another JetHawk rout was forming in the first.

Shane Monahan singled, went to second as Marcus Sturdivant was thrown out attempting to steal third, took third on a balk and scored on a wild pitch.

After an out, Jesus Marquez hit a solo home run, his seventh. It was his third in four at-bats and fourth in three games.

The JetHawks then loaded the bases with two out, but Adonis Harrison flew out to center field.

“We let that guy off the hook early when we didn’t push across the runs he was willing to give us,” Manager Dave Brundage said.

The JetHawks didn’t do much after that. They were facing the two types of pitchers who gave them the most trouble: junk-balling starter Kevin Pincavitch and left-hander Jake Kenady.

Kenady relieved Pincavitch after he came out because of a groin injury in the fourth, but Kenady held the JetHawks at two runs through the sixth inning.

San Bernardino trailed, 2-1, in the fifth, when the Stampede took advantage of two JetHawk mistakes to score three runs.

Manny Gonzalez led off with a bunt back to Hinchliffe, whose throw sailed over first baseman James Clifford and allowed Gonzalez to take second base.

Gonzalez scored on Kyle Cooney’s single, and Cooney scored on a triple by No. 9 hitter Matt McCarty. Ken Morimoto drove in McCarty with a suicide squeeze, giving the Stampede a 4-2 lead.

Hinchliffe pitched an otherwise solid game. In seven innings, he gave up two earned runs and six hits and he struck out 10.

It was the first double-digit strikeout game for a JetHawk pitcher since Ken Cloude struck out 11 on April 6.

“I thought Hinch threw the ball very well,” Brundage said. “He was his own worst enemy by not fielding a bunt and making a routine play.”

Still holding a two-run lead in the seventh, the Stampede brought in hard-throwing right-hander Kris Foster, who was more to the JetHawks’ liking.

They scored a run on two hits and a walk. Jason Cook drove in the run with a single.