JetHawks hustle, take advantage of Modesto miscues in wild win
April 24, 2015
ALONSO TACANGA/Valley Press
LANCASTER — JetHawks center fielder Brett Phillips hit an inside-the-park home run in the second inning against Modesto to put his team up 5-1 on Friday night.
By the eighth inning, Nuts second baseman Michael Benjamin had found a way to top the speedy Phillips, blasting a three-run shot, his second of the night and fourth of the series, beyond the left-field wall to give his team a 10-6 lead.
But oddly enough, the biggest play of the night during the JetHawks’ wild 11-10 win came on a simple grounder from Jobduan Morales.
“I saw (the third baseman) caught it, but I just tried to run hard,” Morales said.
Trailing 10-9 with the bases loaded and one out, Morales hit a ball near third base that was caught and sent to second base for what looked like the start of a routine double play.
But Benjamin, who before the ninth had made his two-day stay in Lancaster very unpleasant for the home team, delivered a poor throw to first and Correlle Prime was unable to corral it as Morales hustled past the bag.
The error allowed teammates James Ramsay and Ronnie Mitchell to score and sent the JetHawks into bedlam near their dugout. The fans, who were partly thrilled due to the 10th run meaning free tacos, joined in the celebration.
“Errors are part of the game,” JetHawks manager Omar Lopez said. “We didn’t quit until the last out. We fight, we battle, and this is development and I’m happy.
“If we ended up losing, I would have been happy. Because we fought, we battled.”
By the end of the frantic back-and-forth battle, the postgame fireworks seemed fitting for a team that improved its home record to 4-5.
It all started with Phillips’ rare hit, which bounced off the center field wall.
As the center fielder raced around the bases and finally slid home just ahead of Nuts catcher Wilfredo Rodriguez’s tag, he would have liked to celebrate his feat, but he needed to catch his breath first.
“It would have felt better if it would have gone over the fence so I could have jogged,” said Phillips, whose only hit drove in three. “But it felt great.”
After Mitchell, who went 4-for-5 with two RBIs, delivered a solo shot past the right center-field wall in the third, Lancaster led 6-1 and it seemed like the offensive party was just getting started for the JetHawks.
Benjamin, however, would prove to be an uninvited guest who’d take over the shindig.
After his team added a pair of runs in the fourth to cut the JetHawks’ lead to 6-3, the second baseman blasted a two-run shot in the seventh off reliever Gonzalo Sanudo to complete his team’s rally from five runs down and tie the game at 6-6.
In the eighth, he took reliever Chris Cotton deep for a three-run homer to left field, giving his team a 10-6 lead.
“He’s a pretty good player, good swing,” Lopez said.
The JetHawks, who had starting pitcher Adrian Houser give up three runs (one earned) on four hits to go with seven strikeouts in five innings, added a run in the bottom of the eighth on a Marc Wik RBI single. In the ninth, Chan-Jong Moon led off with a double before J.D. Davis struck out.
A.J. Reed reached on an error by the shortstop and McDonald singled to extend his hitting streak to 13 games. Ramsay pinch-ran for McDonald.
Mitchell singled to bring the JetHawks within one and after Jose Fernandez was intentionally walked, it was up to Morales to play hero.
Yet the would-be-hero Benjamin, who picked up five RBIs, threw the ball away when it mattered most. And a hustling Morales would make sure he’d pay for it.
“That’s part of my rules,” Lopez said. “You got to play hard no matter what. If you don’t play hard, you can’t play for me or the Astros. I don’t care how slow you are as a runner, you got to hustle.”
ALONSO TACANGA/Valley Press
LANCASTER — JetHawks center fielder Brett Phillips hit an inside-the-park home run in the second inning against Modesto to put his team up 5-1 on Friday night.
By the eighth inning, Nuts second baseman Michael Benjamin had found a way to top the speedy Phillips, blasting a three-run shot, his second of the night and fourth of the series, beyond the left-field wall to give his team a 10-6 lead.
But oddly enough, the biggest play of the night during the JetHawks’ wild 11-10 win came on a simple grounder from Jobduan Morales.
“I saw (the third baseman) caught it, but I just tried to run hard,” Morales said.
Trailing 10-9 with the bases loaded and one out, Morales hit a ball near third base that was caught and sent to second base for what looked like the start of a routine double play.
But Benjamin, who before the ninth had made his two-day stay in Lancaster very unpleasant for the home team, delivered a poor throw to first and Correlle Prime was unable to corral it as Morales hustled past the bag.
The error allowed teammates James Ramsay and Ronnie Mitchell to score and sent the JetHawks into bedlam near their dugout. The fans, who were partly thrilled due to the 10th run meaning free tacos, joined in the celebration.
“Errors are part of the game,” JetHawks manager Omar Lopez said. “We didn’t quit until the last out. We fight, we battle, and this is development and I’m happy.
“If we ended up losing, I would have been happy. Because we fought, we battled.”
By the end of the frantic back-and-forth battle, the postgame fireworks seemed fitting for a team that improved its home record to 4-5.
It all started with Phillips’ rare hit, which bounced off the center field wall.
As the center fielder raced around the bases and finally slid home just ahead of Nuts catcher Wilfredo Rodriguez’s tag, he would have liked to celebrate his feat, but he needed to catch his breath first.
“It would have felt better if it would have gone over the fence so I could have jogged,” said Phillips, whose only hit drove in three. “But it felt great.”
After Mitchell, who went 4-for-5 with two RBIs, delivered a solo shot past the right center-field wall in the third, Lancaster led 6-1 and it seemed like the offensive party was just getting started for the JetHawks.
Benjamin, however, would prove to be an uninvited guest who’d take over the shindig.
After his team added a pair of runs in the fourth to cut the JetHawks’ lead to 6-3, the second baseman blasted a two-run shot in the seventh off reliever Gonzalo Sanudo to complete his team’s rally from five runs down and tie the game at 6-6.
In the eighth, he took reliever Chris Cotton deep for a three-run homer to left field, giving his team a 10-6 lead.
“He’s a pretty good player, good swing,” Lopez said.
The JetHawks, who had starting pitcher Adrian Houser give up three runs (one earned) on four hits to go with seven strikeouts in five innings, added a run in the bottom of the eighth on a Marc Wik RBI single. In the ninth, Chan-Jong Moon led off with a double before J.D. Davis struck out.
A.J. Reed reached on an error by the shortstop and McDonald singled to extend his hitting streak to 13 games. Ramsay pinch-ran for McDonald.
Mitchell singled to bring the JetHawks within one and after Jose Fernandez was intentionally walked, it was up to Morales to play hero.
Yet the would-be-hero Benjamin, who picked up five RBIs, threw the ball away when it mattered most. And a hustling Morales would make sure he’d pay for it.
“That’s part of my rules,” Lopez said. “You got to play hard no matter what. If you don’t play hard, you can’t play for me or the Astros. I don’t care how slow you are as a runner, you got to hustle.”