Coming off a ridiculous 30-0 loss to Lake Elsinore on Friday, Lancaster’s offense was looking for some way—any way, really—to rebound.

Enter Aaron Bates, who hit his way into history with four home runs in the JetHawks’ 14-12 win against the Storm on Saturday.

‘It was definitely embarrassing the night before,” the 2006 third-round pick out of N.C. State said. “You never want to be on the losing end of anything like that. We were all just looking to expand our at-bats, make them better and get good swings on balls.”

No player had hit four homers in a game in the 66-year history of the California League—a list of players that includes Reggie Jackson (Modesto, 1966), George Brett (San Jose, 1972), Kirby Puckett (Visalia, 1983) and Ken Griffey, Jr. (San Bernadino, 1988).

“The whole history aspect of it definitely didn’t hit me until afterwards,” Bates said. “It’s such a huge honor and certainly something that I’ll always remember. But I wasn’t trying to hit home runs. I was just trying to have good at-bats and drive balls into the gaps. After losing like we lost (Friday), we needed to do something as an offense just to get us going again.”

Bates’ first three homers came against Lake Elsinore lefthander Brenton Carter, the first of which came with Lancaster already down, 9-0.

“I was leading off the second inning and was really just trying to work the count, get on base and make something happen,” Bates said. “Then I got a second pitch fastball I was fortunate enough to be able to drive.”

Bates’ second homer came on a changeup from Carter, and the third one on another fastball. It was the fourth one that Bates will remember most, however.
With righthanded reliever Steve Delabar on the mound, a runner on second base and the JetHawks down a run in the eighth inning, Bates went to work again.

After working the count to 3-2, the 23-year-old first baseman hit a slider over the wall in right-center to put Lancaster up one.

“That one was by far the most special because it gave us the lead more than anything else,” Bates said. “(Delabar) kept throwing me slider after slider and I just kept hanging in there. I didn’t care about a fourth home run—I had never even hit three in a game before. I was more concerned with driving the runner in from second base.

“I put a good swing on it and it happened to go out. Four home runs is no doubt special, but if we’d have lost I wouldn’t care. The only thing that really mattered to me was winning that game.”

With those four bombs, Bates put himself squarely in the minor league home run race along with teammate Bubba Bell. Bates now has 13, and is hitting .294/.436/.634 in 153 at-bats.