JetHawks Take Lumps Again at Fiscalini

It’s safe to say the JetHawks won’t miss Fiscalini Field when the San Bernardino Stampede moves into a new ballpark across town next month.

The lumpy infield--oh, and Chad Townsend--combined to beat the JetHawks, 6-4, on Saturday night before 3,052 fans, sending them to their fourth straight defeat.

The game was tied in the bottom of the eighth when Adrian Beltre hit a hard grounder toward third baseman Carlos Villalobos. But instead of turning into an inning-ending double play, the ball took a bad hop over Villalobos’ glove and went for a single.

Townsend followed with a run-scoring single against John Daniels (2-4), giving San Bernardino a 5-4 lead. Townsend drove in four runs, also hitting two homers. The Stampede added an insurance run on a suicide squeeze.

“It doesn’t look too good,” JetHawk Manager Dave Brundage said of the infield. “It’s probably the hardest infield in the league. But that’s not why we lost the game.”

Said second baseman Jason Cook: “I don’t like [the infield]. We got some weird bounces off the lip where the grass meets the dirt. But both teams have to play on it. You can’t use that as an excuse. If we hit the balls in the same spots, they would probably miss them too.”

San Bernardino’s Rich Linares set down the JetHawks (13-10) in the ninth, recording his league-leading 25th save.

Townsend had his fingerprints all over the JetHawk defeat. He opened the scoring in the second with a solo homer off Ken Cloude. It was the first time the JetHawk ace had given up a homer in seven road starts. Two outs later, three consecutive singles scored another run.

Cloude retired the next 10 hitters on eight strikeouts and two soft ground balls. He finished with 10 strikeouts in seven innings, his first double-digit strikeout game since April 6.

The JetHawks scored a run in the third on Jason Cook’s single. Shawn Buhner’s second double of the game drove in two runs in the fourth. In the sixth, James Clifford dropped a two-out double into left field, driving in Scott Smith to give the JetHawks a 4-2 lead.

San Bernardino got even in the sixth when Townsend hit a two-run homer off Cloude.