JETHAWKS NOTEBOOK: JETHAWKS WALKED INTO SOME TROUBLE IN DOUBLEHEADER.

Byline: Chris Cocoles Daily News Staff Writer

At 11:29 p.m. Monday, the Beatles tune ``Hard Day's Night,'' which played over the Recreation Park P.A. system, was a fitting way to conclude 4 hours, 50 minutes of baseball.

Nothing came easy for the JetHawks during a doubleheader split with the Visalia Oaks. The JetHawks came from behind to win game one 5-4 but dropped a 5-1 decision in the nightcap.

Perhaps Aerosmith's ``Walk This Way'' would have been a more appropriate song to typify the JetHawks' plight.

Eighteen walks issued by six pitchers wasn't what manager Darrin Garner had in mind, not after the staff threw strikes with regularity during the Bakersfield series.

``I thought it was 19 walks,'' Garner asked as the team boarded the bus shortly before midnight.

After each of the 12 JetHawks pitchers combined to walk just three batters in three full games at Bakersfield over the weekend, just half that number continually fell behind in the count in the two seven-inning games on Monday.

Outfielder Harvey Hargrove (2 for 2, homer, three RBI) made the 10 bases-on-balls in the first game moot. The JetHawks collected just three hits in the second, however, while starting pitcher Derek Bieniasz and reliever Brian Carmody walked eight.

Just two of those baserunners scored in the second game as the Oaks stranded 20 in the doubleheader, but Nick Sosa's three RBI and a strong pitching performance by starter Jared Jensen was enough for Visalia to salvage the split.

``Both (first game starter Russ Koehler) and Bieniasz had trouble throwing strikes,'' Garner said.

When the Oaks were forced to swing at good pitches, the JetHawks played solid defense. Hargrove made a dazzling catch crashing into the center field fence to save three runs in the first game.

And shortstop Ramon Valera, who missed the first three games serving a 1998 Midwest League suspension, flashed superior range and a strong arm.

``If our staff throws strikes, we're going to catch it behind them,'' Garner said. ``I saw these pitchers do it in spring training.''

Razor Ramon: Valera spent the Bakersfield series pacing around the field and the clubhouse like a caged tiger waiting for someone to release him.

Valera made an immediate impact when his suspension, handed down as a member of the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, was over.

``He was as relaxed as I'd ever seen him,'' Garner said of Valera. ``He knew he'd be playing but he stayed pretty relaxed about it.''

Starting the first game, Valera got his first defensive chance in the bottom of the first and then reached base on his first at-bat of the season in the third inning.

The 23-year-old Dominican hit a slow roller toward first baseman Sosa, whose toss to pitcher Marcus Jones was late, giving the hustling Valera an infield single that prompted first base coach Dana Williams to slap hands with Valera.

``He put the ball in play and made something happen,'' said Williams, also the JetHawks' pitching coach. ``He did some nice things tonight.''

That included another single in the seventh inning, when the JetHawks scored the go-ahead runs.

In the second game, Valera successfully pushed a ground ball to the right side that advanced Craig Kuzmic to third. Kuzmic then scored on a balk to pull the JetHawks within a run.

Garner was slightly miffed that Valera didn't lay down a bunt on the two previous pitches. But both Garner and Williams agree Valera, who stole 52 bases in the Midwest League last season, gives the JetHawks a new dimension at the No. 9 spot in the batting order.

``Now we really have two leadoff hitters,'' said Williams, referring also to Jermaine Clark, a 40-steal performer with the Timber Rattlers as Valera's 1998 teammate.

Valera had a breakout 1998 effort, batting .298 with 40 RBI and 26 extra-base hits. He calls further progress this season crucial if the Seattle Mariners are to include him in the club's future plans.

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1) VALERA

(2) HARGROVE