JetHawks Give It a Bit Extra, but Lose in 12 Innings, 12-8

LANCASTER —  In the end, it was a matter of two many home runs and two many Tys against the JetHawks on Tuesday night.

Ty Bilderback’s bloop single and Bret Hemphill’s three-run home run in the 12th inning gave the Lake Elsinore Storm a 12-8 victory, spoiling comebacks by the JetHawks in the ninth and 10th.

Bilderback’s two-run double in the 10th and two two-run homers by Ty Van Burkleo did most of the damage to the JetHawks, who surrendered five home runs.

Van Burkleo, the Storm’s 32-year-old player-coach, gave the Storm a 6-4 lead on his second home run in the eighth.

Lancaster scored one in the eighth and tied the game with a run on Jason Cook’s infield single in the ninth and Shane Monahan’s two-run homer in the 10th.

The JetHawks ran out of comebacks in the 12th when Rafael Novoa, a former major leaguer, gave up only Monahan’s single.

Van Burkleo, a veteran of 14 professional seasons, insists he’s in Lake Elsinore more to coach than to play, but he’s among the league leaders with eight home runs, 30 runs batted in and a .354 average.

His two-run homer in the eighth, broke a 4-4 tie. He also started the scoring with a mammoth two-run homer Ken Cloude’s eighth pitch of the game.

Cloude, who was coming off a performance in which he gave up 10 runs in three innings, walked Joe Urso, the second hitter of the game, on four pitches, then gave up back-to-back home runs to Van Burkleo and Tony Moeder.

But Cloude gave up just three more hits, including a solo home run to Phillip Dauphin in the fifth. He was charged with four runs in six innings.

The JetHawks chipped back into the game with single runs in the first, fifth, sixth and seventh, tying the score, 4-4.

Sealy’s two-out single drove in a run in the first.

Shawn Buhner led off the fifth with his first home run and Buhner’s single and an error by Lake Elsinore right fielder Dauphin allowed Carlos Villalobos to score in the sixth.

Marcus Sturdivant drove in the tying run with a fielder’s choice after a Lake Elsinore error in the seventh.

After Van Burkleo’s second home run restored the Storm lead, the JetHawks came back in the bottom of the inning.

Sealy led off with a double to right-center field and he scored on Villalobos’ triple to the same spot.

But the JetHawks couldn’t drive in Villalobos to tie the game. Harris struck out Buhner and right-hander Anthony Chavez struck out pinch-hitter Shane Monahan and Augustine.

Lake Elsinore 12, JetHawks 8

Lake Elsinore 300 010 020 204 -- 12 15 3

JetHawks 100 011 111 200 -- 8 13 0

Perisho, Harris (7), Chavez (8), Novoa (10) and Hemphill; Cloude, Trawick (7), Niemeier (8), Gould (10), Szimanski (11), Daniels (12) and Augustine.

W--Novoa (2-2). L--Szimanski (1-2).

2B: J--Sealy, Sturdivant. 3B:J--Villalobos. HR:LE--Van Burkleo 2 (8), Moeder (1), Dauphin (1), Hemphill (4); J--Monahan (4).

Records: Lake Elsinore 18-13; JetHawks 19-14.