LAKE ELSINORE — Matt Dennis was solid on the mound, and Vince Fernandez hit a late home run to help the Lancaster JetHawks to a 3-1 win over the Lake Elsinore Storm on Friday night at The Diamond.

The JetHawks (32-36), who were eliminated in the race for the First Half title after Thursday’s loss, played spoiler in the game, knocking the Storm (33-35) out of a first-place tie with two games to play.

Dennis (4-7) pitched around trouble over 5.2 innings. He allowed one unearned run on five hits with two strikeouts and two walks.

Lancaster jumped on the board in the first inning against left-hander Adrian Morejon (4-4). Manny Melendez led off the game with a walk, and Alan Trejo followed with a double. Melendez scored on a wild pitch to give the JetHawks a 1-0 lead.

Morejon would retire final two batters in the first inning and went on to set down 14 in-a-row. He struck out a career-high 12 batters in the start but ran into trouble in his final inning when the JetHawks loaded the bases with two hits and a hit batter. Joel Diaz extended Lancaster’s lead to 2-0 with a sac-fly.

Lake Elsinore responded with their only run in the bottom of the sixth. Hudson Potts reached on a two-base error to start the frame and scored on Luis Torrens’ double. Dennis would get to two outs in the inning and reliever Alexander Guillen came on to strand two runners and keep the JetHawks ahead by a run.

Ben Bowden pitched a scoreless eighth, and Justin Lawrence delivered a perfect ninth inning to finish the game and notch his sixth save.

Fernandez blasted his home run to lead off the ninth inning and give the JetHawks insurance. It was his ninth home run of the season.

The Storm finished the game 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position and left 11 on base.

Here’s the box score.

The series continued Saturday night in Lake Elsinore.