Manteca broke a tie in the third inning Tuesday and held that one-run lead the rest of the way in a 3-2 win over visiting Weston Ranch in non-league baseball action.

Cameron Jiminez walked to start the fourth inning for the Buffaloes (7-2-1). He got to third on Nate Slikker’s double and scored the go-ahead run on George Mendoza’s infield single.

Slikker (2 for 3, double, run) singled to open up the Manteca third and scored when Preston Smith singled and the Cougars (5-6) booted Smith’s hit, allowing Slikker to come all the way around from first to put the Buffaloes ahead, 2-1.

“I was seeing the ball pretty well,” Slikker said. “I was able to get some hits in clutch situations.

“And then when I got on my teammates did a good job of moving me over.”

Manteca’s Edward Anthony reached on a fielder’s choice in the first inning, stole second and came home on a pair of wild pitches to tie the score at 1-1.

“I was feeling good throwing strikes,” Cross said. “I was trying to get outs and keep my pitch count low and not get a lot of people on base.

“My defense was working really well.”

Good pitching by Ayden Tinsley and Jordan Paris kept the Cougars in the game.

“It was definitely a grind,” Buffaloes coach Mark Ruiz said. “Weston Ranch played and pitched very well.”

Weston Ranch coach David Hager was pleased with his young team’s effort.

“It was a good game,” Hager said. “We gave them an early run that kind of ended up biting us. We had some base-running mistakes from our young guys who may have been overly aggressive.

“I was really happy with our pitching. Ayden (Tinsley) was great and then Jordan (Paris) came in and pitched himself into and then out of trouble. We came in and we battled and competed and we just keep looking through the windshield for positive things.”

The same two teams will meet again Thursday afternoon at Weston Ranch at 4.