Buzzers Respond with Dominant 5-1 Win Over 66ers Behind Estrada, Bullpen
San Bernardino, Calif. – A night after suffering one of the worst losses of the season,17-3, the Ontario Tower Buzzers bounced back the way their manager, John Shoemaker, hoped they would. On Saturday, they leaned on some sharp pitching and clutch hitting to beat the Inland Empire 66ers, 5-1. That
San Bernardino, Calif. – A night after suffering one of the worst losses of the season,17-3, the Ontario Tower Buzzers bounced back the way their manager, John Shoemaker, hoped they would. On Saturday, they leaned on some sharp pitching and clutch hitting to beat the Inland Empire 66ers, 5-1. That clinched the series and brought the team back to 22-22 for the year.
Ontario’s pitchers came out firing. They held the 66ers to just two hits and racked up 16 strikeouts. Mason Estrada set the tone right away. He threw four scoreless innings, gave up just one hit, and struck out nine. He did have a few wild moments and walked three, but overall, his mix of fastballs and breaking balls overwhelmed Inland Empire.
That mattered, especially after Ontario’s pitching got torched for 17 runs the night before. Estrada steadied things and got his team back on track.
“I feel like the team now realizes what a season is about and how you’re supposed to go about your business,” Shoemaker said before the game.
The Buzzers backed up their pitching with a more aggressive offense against Inland Empire’s starter, Danny Macchiarola. It started slow, scoreless through the first two frames, but things broke open in the third when Ontario put up four runs. Mairo Martinus got things going with a double. Ching-Hsien Ko added a sacrifice fly to bring in the first run. Joendry Vargas drove in another with a sac fly of his own, and then Landyn Vidourek doubled in a run with two outs. Easton Shelton capped the inning with yet another RBI double.
Ontario took advantage of long at-bats and didn’t let Macchiarola off the hook. He lasted just 3.1 innings, gave up five runs (four earned) on seven hits, and dropped to 0-5 on the season.
The Buzzers finished with eight hits, but more importantly, they kept pressure on Inland Empire all night. Ontario only went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position, but they made chances count when it mattered.
After Estrada left the game, the bullpen picked up right where he left off. Jose Cabrera threw two perfect innings and struck out four, dropping his ERA to 2.25. Javier Bartolozzi and Jecsua Liborius closed things out, with Liborius finishing the final five outs without allowing a hit.
Inland Empire finally scratched a run across in the eighth, but by then, Ontario had the game locked up. The 66ers struck out 16 times and went hitless in seven tries with runners in scoring position. Their only hits came from Cesar Quintas and Korbyn Dickerson.
Shoemaker talked about the team’s recent meetings, which focused on paying attention to the little things. “We’ve had a couple of meetings where we’ve stressed the importance of playing together, pulling for each other, watching the game, understanding how things are supposed to be played,” he said.
After getting steamrolled the night before, Ontario cleaned everything up. The Buzzers are looking for the exclamation point Sunday, May 24th at 2:05 PM.