Buzzers Show Plenty of Fight, But Costly Mistakes Sink Comeback Bid

ONTARIO, Calif. – All night Thursday, it really felt like the Ontario Tower Buzzers were on the verge of something big. They trailed by six runs at one point, but somehow clawed all the way back, taking a late lead. But Visalia just wouldn’t go away. The Rawhide came up clutch in the end, putting up five runs over the last two innings and handing Ontario a 14-11 loss in 10 innings.

Ontario came out hot in the first inning: Kellon Lindsey worked a leadoff walk, stole second, and later scored on a groundout by Ching-Hsien Ko. Then Landyn Vidourek smashed an RBI double to left, scoring Jaron Elkins and putting the Buzzers up 2-0.

That lead lasted all of an inning. Visalia answered with two in the second and just kept chipping away. They grabbed a run in both the third and fourth. Jose Alpuria blasted a solo homer to take a 4-2 lead.

Then, in the fifth, things just unraveled for Ontario. Mason Estrada left the game, and Visalia pounced on every mistake. A wild pitch, a throwing error, two passed balls, and by the end of it, the Rawhide had plated four runs, and the Buzzers suddenly found themselves down 8-2.

The Buzzers came right back in the bottom of the fifth like they have been all series. They only managed two hits in the inning, but scratched across four runs anyway, thanks to a bases-loaded walk and a bunch of Visalia mistakes. Suddenly, it was just 8-6. That spark carried into the sixth: Ko singled and scored, another run came home on a balk, and just like that, the Buzzers were within one, 9-8.

The turning point came in the seventh. With two outs, Joendry Vargas singled. Then Elkins got up and launched a two-run shot to left field. Ontario turned the game around and took a 10-9 lead, the first time they’d led since the start of the game.

But that lead wasn’t safe. In the ninth, Visalia tied it without notching a hit. a hit batter, a sac bunt, a groundout, and a wild pitch did the trick. On to extras.

The tenth is where it slipped away for good. With the free runner on second, JD Dix gave Visalia the lead for good with a two-run homer to right-center. After a couple more Buzzers errors, the Rawhide added two more, and all of a sudden, Ontario was staring at a four-run hole.

They scraped one run across in the bottom of the tenth, but that was it. The Buzzers went down 14-11, and never even got the tying run to the plate.

The Buzzers' lineup did their job. They put up 11 runs, erased a six-run deficit, and got a massive two-run homer from Elkins. Vidourek drove in a run, Ko got on base and scored a couple times, and Vargas kept finding hits after replacing Kellon Lindsey.

But the little mistakes just piled up, and it cost them. Four errors, a handful of balks and wild pitches, all those free runs for Visalia. Every one of them stung in a game where every run made a difference.

The Buzzers showed some fight, battling back. Still, after dropping three straight, they hope to salvage the series with wins on Saturday and Sunday.