66ers Smash Three Homers, Drop Tower Buzzers 12-4
ONTARIO, Calif. - The Inland Empire 66ers flexed their power on Friday night, pounding out three home runs and patiently working Ontario’s pitchers in a 12-4 win at ONT Field. With that, the six-game set sits tied at two games each. Ontario came in riding high after dramatic wins in
ONTARIO, Calif. - The Inland Empire 66ers flexed their power on Friday night, pounding out three home runs and patiently working Ontario’s pitchers in a 12-4 win at ONT Field. With that, the six-game set sits tied at two games each.
Ontario came in riding high after dramatic wins in the previous two games, including Thursday’s walk-off, but they looked flat this time. The 66ers’ bats showed up early, and Ontario couldn’t match their firepower.
Inland Empire got the scoring started in the third. An errant throw set the table, and then Ricardo Cova made the Tower Buzzers pay with a two-run blast to left-center, and suddenly the 66ers were up 2-0. Ontario never really got back into it from there.
Marlon Nieves, making his first start since coming off the injured list, went 2.1 innings. He gave up a pair of hits, one earned run, and a walk. He picked up the loss, but the real goal here was just to knock off some rust after missing more than two months.
The 66ers didn’t let up. Estevan Moreno added a solo shot in the fourth. Then Aiden Taurek launched a two-run homer in the sixth to stretch the lead even further.
Ontario’s bats, on the other hand, just couldn’t string anything together. Jackson Steensma, also coming off the injured list, opened with two shutout innings for Inland Empire. Will Armbruester followed him with four strong frames, picking up the win while allowing only one run.
The Buzzers finally got on the board in the sixth, when Mairoshendrick Martinus led off with his 12th homer of the year. That cut the gap to 5-1. But any hint of a rally fizzled fast.
Inland Empire immediately responded, tacking on two more runs in the seventh. Ontario’s pitchers walked four men that inning, handing the 66ers all the help they needed.
The Tower Buzzers made one last push in the eighth. Kellon Lindsey and Ching-Hsien Ko drew back-to-back walks, and then Easton Shelton, the California League’s home run leader, smashed a three-run homer for his 24th this season. That sliced the deficit to 8-4 and got the home crowd buzzing again.
Shelton went 2-for-4 with three RBIs, while Martinus added a pair of hits and an RBI. Lindsey reached twice, and Brendan Tunink chipped in with a single and a walk.
But Inland Empire slammed the door in the ninth. They piled on four more runs with three hits, two walks, a hit batter, and a bases-loaded double from Starlin Aguilar. That put things out of reach for good.
The 66ers racked up 11 hits and drew seven walks, pouring in 12 runs despite just four hits with runners in scoring position. Taurek led the way with two hits and three RBIs. Cova and Aguilar also drove in three each.
The Tower Buzzers managed just six hits and never really threatened the way they had earlier in the week. Still, despite this rough night, Ontario holds on to first place in the California League South as the series marches on, with Saturday's game at ONT Field.
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Play-by-Play Broadcaster