Slump-Busted, Blaze Cream Jethawks, 10-0

The Bakersfield Blaze had scored a grand total of three runs over 44 innings coming into a Wednesday morning at the wind-blown Hangar in Lancaster, and after a chaotic fourth inning that featured two ejections, the Blaze finally tossed the monkey off their collective backs and ran away for an easy 10-0 win over the Lancaster Jethawks on the road.

The two teams traded zeroes through the first two innings, as Wandy Peralta (W, 4-3) and Brian Holmes (L, 0-2) each appeared to be on their games.

In the 3rd, the Blaze broke through. John Tolisano, the offensive hero of the week, doubled to begin the frame, and Yovan Gonzalez singled him home to give Bakersfield its first lead since the 4th inning on Thursday in Bakersfield.

The next inning, though, brought fireworks. Jesse Winker grounded out on a close play to begin the frame, and immediately got tossed by first base umpire Clayton Hamm. The next batter, Marquez Smith, was caught looking on what he felt was a pitch off the plate, and he carried his argument with Jake Wilburn, the home plate umpire, into the next half inning, whereupon Smith was booted, as well.

Pat Kelly had to employ a bit of a circus infield, moving Juan Perez to first base. Tolisano, the normal backup first baseman was already at designated hitter, so he was unavailable, and with the cards seemingly stacked against them, the Blaze broke free.

Bakersfield batted around in the 5th, a five-run inning puncutated by a Tolisano two-run blast, a Ryan Wright two-run triple, and recently inserted Beau Amaral's RBI single, and suddenly, the Blaze led 6-0, scoring more runs in one inning than the previous 46 combined.

With the pressure off, the offense came back to life. A run in the 6th, another in the 7th, and two in the 8th put the game out of reach.

Meanwhile, Peralta was dynamite. In his longest outing of the season, Wandy went 6.1 frames, inducing grounder after grounder to keep the Jethawks at bay, and the combination of Jacob Johnson and Ben Klimesh finished the deal.

The win is the first for Bakersfield since last Wednesday and snapped a five game losing streak while netting the team League-leading win number 27.

The series in Lancaster wraps up on Thursday at 6:30pm, as the Blaze try to win the rubber match behind the righthander James Allen. The Jethawks counter with Kyle Westwood, another solid arm in what should be a fun series finale before the Blaze head to Stockton for four games over the weekend and into Monday.