**UPDATED**
The Lancaster Jethawks, High Desert Mavericks and Bakersfield Blaze all posted road wins on Friday night to improve their records to 7-2. At the end of the long night, The Jethawks stayed tied with the Mavericks in the South while the Blaze stayed two games ahead of Stockton in the North.
Lancaster got five shutout innings from RHP Vincent Velasquez and the potent Jethawk offense staked him to a 5-0 lead over the Storm at Lake Elsinore. RHP Kyle Westwood went the final four innings and earned the “classic” save as the Jethawks defeated the Storm by a score of 5-1.
2B Anthony Kemp continued to be a force at the top of the Lancaster batting order, getting on base twice with a single and a walk and scoring two runs. LF Justin Gominsky added three hits and CF Teoscar Hernandez had a pair of hits while scoring two runs.
Bakersfield looked to bounce back after a Thursday night loss in San Jose and they knew with RHP Ben Lively on the hill, it might not take much offense to get it done. The Blaze bats struck for two first-inning runs and Lively went five shutout innings, leaving with a 4-0 lead that held up in a 5-2 Bakersfield win.
A Seth Mejias-Brean homer in the sixth inning stretched the Blaze lead to 5-0 and the Giants could only muster a two-RBI single from 1B Brian Ragira in the eighth, despite some good scoring chances.
And, true to form in the early California League season, High Desert went 13 innings with Inland Empire to earn a 6-5 win and stay tied with Lancaster atop the South. It was an attrition war in San Bernardino that saw the Mavericks score the winning run on a wild pitch by OF Andrew Ray. The 66ers got runners to second and third in the bottom of the 13th, but a line drive double-play ball ended the game.
All three series, Bakersfield vs. San Jose, Lancaster vs. Lake Elsinore and High Desert vs. Inland Empire, continue over the weekend. Meanwhile, Stockton (5-4) has the Visalia Rawhide in town until Sunday, looking to cut into Bakersfield’s two-game lead.
