Hinchliffe Throttles Blaze for 7 Innings

Brett Hinchliffe stood outside the JetHawk clubhouse, in the same spot where he had stood five days earlier and tried to explain yet another start gone horribly wrong in the blink of an eye.

Same place, different story.

“I put a big smile on my face,” the JetHawk right-hander said after throwing seven shutout innings Thursday night in the JetHawks’ 5-2 victory over the Bakersfield Blaze at the Hangar.

Hinchliffe had the paid crowd of 4,810 on the edge of their seats at times, but he managed to weave around the potholes that had derailed so many of his other starts.

Hinchliffe (6-8) had lost eight of his previous 10 starts, posting a 6.05 earned-run average over that span. While he pitched well for many stretches of those games, he inevitably seemed to fall apart in one crucial inning.

“I knew I could pitch in this league,” said Hinchliffe, who allowed five hits and struck out six in seven innings. “I knew I had the stuff; it was just a matter of making my pitches.”

He escaped jams in the fourth, fifth and sixth.

In the fourth, the Blaze had runners at first and third with one out, but Hinchliffe struck out Andreus Lewis and induced a routine grounder from Craig Daedelow.

An inning later, pitcher Mark Lukasiewicz, who was forced into the lineup as the designated hitter because of injuries, doubled to center to lead off the inning. But Hinchliffe retired the next three batters, getting a key strikeout with Lukasiewicz at third and one out.

In the sixth, Bakersfield loaded the bases with one out, but Hinchliffe escaped by inducing a shallow flyout and a strikeout.

“That’s the difference between a good outing and a bad outing for him,” Manager Dave Brundage said. “He got over the hump and made a few good pitches when he needed. It always comes down to just two or three pitches per outing.

“For the last year and a half we’ve been talking about the big innings and it becomes mental. He says ‘Here we go again.’ Tonight he didn’t say ‘Here we go again.’ He made the big pitches when he needed.”

Brundage pulled Hinchliffe after seven innings, though he had thrown only 88 pitches, because he wanted him to leave the game on an emotional high, retiring three in a row on eight pitches.

JetHawks 5, Bakersfield 2

Bakersfield 000 000 011 -- 2 8 0

JetHawks 020 210 00x -- 5 11 1

Arffa, Bush (6) and Johnson; Hinchliffe, Gould (8), Thompson (9) and Wathan.

W--Hinchliffe (6-8).L--Arffa (0-2).

2B: B--Espinal, Paxton, Lewis, Lukasiewicz; J--Smith, Villalobos, Buhner.3B:B--Watts; J--Wathan.HR:J--Marquez (10).

Records: JetHawks 4-5; Bakersfield 2-7.

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* JETHAWKS REPORT: C13