Ontario Erupts for 15 Runs in Rout of Visalia

ONTARIO, Calif. – After three straight losses and 35 runs allowed in that rough stretch, the Ontario Tower Buzzers needed to snap out of it. Saturday night, they finally did.

Things looked shaky at first. Ontario fell behind by three runs early, but then the bats woke up in a big way. The Buzzers poured on 15 runs in the middle innings, smashing the Visalia Rawhide 15-4.

The game started anything but smoothly. Cam Leiter got hit early. Visalia’s Kayson Cunningham drew a walk, took off for second, and scored on a single from Jakey Josepha. Enyervert Perez followed with a hit, and Ivan Luciano's sacrifice fly made it 2-0 Rawhide before fans could settle in.

Visalia tacked on another in the third. Pedro Blanco doubled home Pedro Catuy, and suddenly Ontario was down 3-0, staring at the possibility of another long night.

Then Jaron Elkins stepped in to lead off Ontario’s half of the third. He crushed a solo homer to left-center, slicing into the deficit and lighting a fire under the Buzzers.

The fourth inning is when it totally turned. Nine Buzzers came to the plate, all while manager John Shoemaker was ejected after the umpire crew missed a call that would have had Chase Harlan circling the bases. But instead, Harlan doubled, Ching-Hsien Ko knocked him in, and then Easton Shelton drove a two-run homer to right, giving Ontario their first lead. Anson Aroz singled, Javier Herrera roped an RBI double, and AJ Soldra followed with a two-run shot to center. By the time the dust settled, Ontario had flipped that 3-1 hole into a 7-3 lead, and the Rawhide never caught up.

Ontario just kept adding on. In the fifth, Aroz smoked a three-run homer. That gave him another big night behind the plate and put the Buzzers up 10-3.

By the sixth, Visalia looked spent. Elkins singled, stole second, and Joendry Vargas brought him home with a two-run blast. Ontario tacked on three more runs thanks to patient at-bats, drawing walks, and a handful of clutch hits. Suddenly, it was 15-4, and the game was out of reach.

Eight players had hits. Elkins, Shelton, Aroz, and Vargas all homered, and those four alone drove in eight runs. Herrera doubled and tripled, Ko kept getting on and scoring, and Harlan’s double kicked off their biggest inning.

The lineup got the spotlight, but you’ve got to give credit to the pitching staff, too. Leiter only lasted 2.2 innings, but Ricardo Montero took over and came up huge. He shut down Visalia’s lineup and steadied things long enough for the offense to open the floodgates.

After that, Ontario’s bullpen locked it up. Will Gagnon, Jholbran Herder, and Angel Cruz combined to give up just one run over the final six innings. Every time Visalia looked like they might spark a rally, the bullpen dodged the fire with grounders, getting three double plays.

It was a huge turnaround from the earlier games in this series. The Buzzers went from sloppy mistakes and runaway innings to clutch defense and non-stop offense. For one night, everything clicked, and Ontario’s team reminded everyone just how good they can be when it all comes together. Buzzers pulled back to .500, and loom for the series split on Sunday.