Quakes Smash Buzzers 11-2, Wrap Up First Half on a High Note

ONTARIO, Calif. — The Rancho Cucamonga Quakes didn’t waste any time Thursday night. They jumped all over the Tower Buzzers early, grabbed a quick lead, and never looked back, cruising to an 11-2 win. With the victory, the Quakes go up 2-1 in the six-game series.

Now, Rancho sits at 36-30, while Ontario slides right back to .500 with a 33-33 record.

Rancho did their damage right away. Kevyn Castillo led things off with a walk. Jonny McGill followed him with a single, setting up Gabriel Davalillo for the big swing of the night. He crushed the very first pitch he saw over the left field wall for a three-run homer. Just like that, Rancho was up 3-0 before Ontario could even catch its breath.

That early home run was really all Quakes starter Dylan Jordan needed. He was absolutely locked in. Jordan mowed down hitters for five scoreless innings, gave up only one hit, and struck out 10. He stayed in control all night, keeping one of the league’s best offenses completely off balance.

The Buzzers tried to get something going in the second. Landyn Vidourek walked, moved up on Jordan’s throwing error, and then Conner O’Neal also walked, but Ontario just couldn’t find a clutch hit. Their best chance came in the fourth, when they put runners on the corners with one out, but Jordan struck out Vidourek and got Oswaldo Osorio to bounce into a double play. Rally over.

Meanwhile, the Quakes kept adding on. In the fifth, McGill walked, swiped two bases, then scored when Jonathan Linares drew a bases-loaded walk. The lead stretched to 4-0.

Ontario’s pitchers kept things from totally getting out of hand for a while. Luis Carias dodged trouble through 2.2 innings and struck out three, but walked nine. Rancho broke things wide open late. In the seventh, a couple of walks and an error brought in two more runs. Then the eighth just turned into a mess for Ontario. Davalillo hit an RBI double, two more errors let runners score, and Castillo capped it off with a monster three-run homer to right field. Suddenly, it was 11-0.

Ontario finally showed a spark in the bottom of the eighth. Javier Herrera and Mairo Martinus reached base, and Easton Shelton finally got the Buzzers on the board with a two-run single. That was it for the Buzzers’ offense. Shelton had two hits and both Ontario RBIs. Ching-Hsien Ko chipped in one of their three hits. For Rancho, Davalillo led the way with four RBIs, and McGill reached base four times and scored twice.

The Quakes only managed eight hits, but they drew 13 walks and took advantage of five Ontario errors. That’s how you win a game, even if you don’t knock the cover off the ball.

The series picks right back up on Friday night. The Tower Buzzers will try to regroup and pull even as the second half of the season gets moving. First pitch is at 6:35 PM.