Gagnon Dominates as Tower Buzzers Take Series Opener in San Jose, 6-2
SAN JOSE, Calif. – Will Gagnon was locked in from the first pitch Tuesday night, and the Ontario Tower Buzzers rode his best start yet to a 6-2 win over the San Jose Giants in the series opener at Excite Ballpark. Gagnon, now 4-1, just overwhelmed the Giants. He threw
SAN JOSE, Calif. – Will Gagnon was locked in from the first pitch Tuesday night, and the Ontario Tower Buzzers rode his best start yet to a 6-2 win over the San Jose Giants in the series opener at Excite Ballpark.
Gagnon, now 4-1, just overwhelmed the Giants. He threw six shutout innings, scattering three hits, and punched out a career-high 10 batters. Not a single walk. He kept San Jose in check, throwing 56 of his 70 pitches for strikes, and Ontario moved to 49-42 on the year.
He retired the first 10 San Jose hitters, struck out the side in the third, and the Giants never really got anything going. Their only real hope came in the sixth after Lorenzo Meola doubled and reached third on a balk with two outs, but Gagnon just calmly set down Rod Barajas Jr. on a fly ball to end it, keeping Ontario up 2-0 before the bullpen took over.
The Buzzers’ offense didn’t exactly explode, but when they hit the ball, it counted. They managed just six hits, but three of them left the yard. Javier Herrera broke a scoreless game with a two-out solo shot in the third for his second homer this season. Kellon Lindsey added another solo homer in the sixth, and then Easton Shelton launched his California League-leading 29th bomb on a 3-0 pitch in the seventh. Shelton went 1-for-4 and also picked up his 88th RBI, leading the league. Lindsey scored twice and notched his third homer of the year.
Ontario went just 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position all night, but they kept pressure on San Jose with smart baserunning and patient at-bats. Jaron Elkins swiped his 30th base, Brendan Tunink stole his 11th, and the team drew five walks. The Giants' defense helped out, committing three errors and uncorking five wild pitches.
San Jose didn’t get on the board until the seventh, when Gagnon had exited. Jholbran Herder gave up back-to-back walks, and Andy Polanco lined a two-out, two-run single to tighten the game at 3-2. But just as the Giants looked to rally, Tower Buzzers catcher Conner O’Neal fired a bullet to second to catch Polanco stealing, ending the threat.
The Buzzers came right back in the top of the eighth. Lindsey walked, advanced to third on a throwing error and a wild pitch, and scored on Mairo Martinus’ RBI single. Ontario tacked on two more in the ninth after a fielding error in left by Oliver Tejada let both O’Neal and Herrera score, pushing the lead to 6-2.
Out of the bullpen, Accimias Morales tossed a clean eighth, and Jecsua Liborius finished it off with a scoreless ninth, striking out two. In total, Ontario pitchers rang up 16 strikeouts and allowed only five hits. They didn’t make an error all game, a clean, sharp effort to start the series.
The series keeps rolling Wednesday at 1 PM in San Jose.
Follow the Ontario Tower Buzzers on:
● Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/towerbuzzers/
● Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Towerbuzzers
● LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/towerbuzzers/
● TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@towerbuzzers
● X: https://x.com/towerbuzzers
Media Contacts:
Adam Serrano
Regional Marketing Director
Diamond Baseball Holdings
Jeff Woolson
Play-by-Play Broadcaster