JETHAWKS GIRD FOR NEW CHALLENGE IN LAKE ELSINORE : SERIES WILL PUT LANCASTER TO TEST.

Byline: Bryan Winchell Special to the Daily News

The festivities are over.

After Sunday's heart-wrenching 4-3 loss to High Desert ended its opening homestand in front of an eager, sports-crazed sellout crowd at ``The Hangar,'' the JetHawks must put all the first-week hoopla behind them.

The task at hand: Beating the powerful Lake Elsinore Storm in front of its sports-crazed fans at its state-of-the-art diamond.

Lancaster will open a three-game series with the Storm tonight at 7 with Robert Worley (2-0, 0.47) going against Nick Skose.

The series is an important one for both teams, as the Storm (13-5) swept Visalia this weekend to move ahead of the JetHawks (12-6) by one game in the California League's Southern Division. San Bernardino (12-5) won Sunday as well, making the battle for the division's top spot a tight one.

But while the division race is important, the series also will give JetHawks manager Dave Brundage a measurement of how far his team has come.

``I'm curious more than anything to see how we size up,'' Brundage said.

Through their first 18 games, the JetHawks have faced teams with a combined record of 23-45 entering Sunday's games. Only one of those teams, San Jose, has a winning record (10-7).

To the JetHawks' credit, many of those teams' losses came from Lancaster.

But over its next 17 games, Lancaster will face Southern Division teams Lake Elsinore six times, San Bernardino four times and Rancho Cucamonga (7-9) seven times.

Still, Brundage says as long as the team can minimize the fielding and mental mistakes it made in its losses this weekend, the team should do just fine.

``It's a nice building block to start the season like this,'' Brundage said. ``Probably our biggest asset right now is that we are coming together as a team. It seems like it's somebody different every night.''

That's not to say the JetHawks haven't had any standouts, though. One such player is Worley, whose 0.47 ERA is third in the Cal League.

Worley threw seven shutout innings in his last start (against Visalia), walking two and striking out six. He has thrown 14 straight shutout innings and has surrendered just one run in 19-1/3 innings.

But doing that against the Storm won't be easy. Entering Sunday's games, Lake Elsinore was second in the Cal League in runs behind the JetHawks and third in batting average.

Eddie Christian (.459, 17 hits in 10 games), Joe Urso (.417, 16 runs in 13 games), Ty Van Burkleo (.370, league-leading five home runs and 19 RBI) and Jason Herrick (.356) lead the Storm.

While Lake Elsinore is all over the leader boards offensively, its pitching staff has only one player, Brian Cooper, in the top 10, and the JetHawks will miss him in the rotation. The Storm's team ERA is almost a full point higher than the JetHawks.

Lancaster has the notable edge on the mound, allowing only six home runs - the fewest in the league - for the year, including only three in the high winds at home.

``With the wind blowing out all the time to right, I think they are doing an outstanding job,'' Brundage said of his pitching staff. ``Our team ERA is just over three. If we can keep that up, I guarantee we'll win the first half.''

In the other games, Brett Hinchliffe (2-0, 4.15) will start Wednesday, and Ivan Montane (2-0, 4.19) will start Thursday.