JetHawks Back Up Talk With 4-2 Victory

LANCASTER — The JetHawks have been talking as if they are guaranteed to make the playoffs. But only recently have they played that way.

The JetHawks won their fourth straight game and seventh of nine, inching closer to the playoffs with a 4-2 victory over the San Bernardino Stampede on Friday night before 5,169 at the Hangar.

The JetHawks (31-30, 67-64 overall) pulled to within two games of Lake Elsinore, which lost, 7-6, to Stockton, in the battle for the California League wild-card spot. The JetHawks have nine games remaining.

“We’re pumped up,” said JetHawk right-hander Brett Hinchliffe, who gave up one unearned run in eight innings. “We’re ready to go. We want to make the playoffs more than anyone.”

While Hinchliffe (10-10) scattered six hits and two walks, the JetHawks took advantage San Bernardino mistakes. Three of the four runs were scored by batters who reached base without getting a hit. The other was Chris Dean’s solo homer, his third in five games.

“We feel confident,” JetHawk first baseman James Clifford said. “I just hope we can keep playing like we’re playing. We are getting great pitching every night, and the offense hasn’t been great, but we’re doing the little things to score just enough runs.”

John Thompson pitched the ninth to pick up his 12th save.

The game’s only negative was that catcher Dusty Wathan was hit in the left elbow by a pitch and had to come out of the game. The initial diagnosis was just a bruise, with Wathan listed as day-to-day. That leaves Andy Augustine as the only healthy catcher, and he is recovering from getting hit by a pitch on Wednesday.

“If everybody keeps dropping like flies we’re going to have to go out and rent [a catcher],” JetHawk Manager Dave Brundage said.

One thing Brundage hasn’t had to worry about lately is starting pitching.

Hinchliffe lowered the starting pitchers’ earned-run average to 1.71 in the past nine games.

The JetHawks took a lead in the bottom of the second, when Dean reached second on an error by left fielder Scott Richardson and scored on Wathan’s single.

Dean gave the JetHawks a 2-0 lead when he hit a solo home run in the fourth.

Later in the inning, Mike Lanza and Shane Monahan drove in runs with singles, giving the JetHawks a 4-0 lead.