After Sierra’s Troy Morrow led off the game with a home run Wednesday, Manteca hurler Colton Murillo bore down and blanked the Timberwolves the rest of the way to lead the host Buffaloes to a 5-1 Valley Oak League baseball win, evening the best-of-three series at one apiece.

Murillo struck out three and allowed just one hit outside of that home run, trusting his defense to make plays behind him.

“I just had to erase that home run from my head,” Murillo said. “I hung the curveball a little bit, and the wind started kicking up and it went out. Once it went over, I had to erase it.

“After that I felt great. I was in the zone, hitting all my spots and letting my fielders make plays.”

Alex Murrietta had the big hit for Manteca (4-3 VOL, 13-6 overall) in a three-run fifth inning. Rex Watson (2 for 3, double, run) led off the frame with a double with Jayson Ingraca reaching after he was hit by a pitch. Landon Chamberlain doubled in Watson, and Murrietta singled to plate Ingraca and Chamberlain.

“They were throwing me a lot of off-speed,” Murrietta said. “I was just trying to connect as much as I could to score the runners or move them over at least.

“I got a hanging curve but I was able to get under it and get some runners in.”

Chris Chavez knocked in Preston Smith for the first Buffaloes run in the second inning and he later scored on a Derrick Day single. He also patrolled center field with a vengeance, covering a lot of ground to chase down five fly balls.

“The wind on this field blows from left field to right,” Chavez said. “We know the wind is blowing that way so we set up so we can track the ball.

“On that single I was just trying to look for something to poke, and I did. I got an RBI out of it. Anything to help my team.”

Timely hitting has been evading Manteca in recent games, but Buffaloes coach Mark Ruiz was glad to see the bats come through on Monday.

“Murrietta had a big hit for us,” Ruiz said. “And Landon Chamberlain had a timely hit as well. We executed when we got guys on base. We hit the ball hard, we stuck to our approach a little bit better than we did on Monday and hopefully we can carry that into Friday.

“Murillo is one of the most mentally strong kids we have on this team. He has given up an early home run before and he did the same exact thing. He just kept pounding the zone and then we win the ball game. We kind of thrive off of what he does on the mound.”

Other than Morrow’s home run, the only other hit for Sierra (5-3, 8-9) was a two-out grounder between first and second in the sixth inning by Jorge Guevara.

“That (Morrow’s home run) was kind of the end of our offensive effort,” Timberwolves coach Travis Thomson said. “Credit Murillo, he pitched a good game. We just had too many non-competitive at-bats. Fly balls are easy to catch, and we had 11 or 12 of them today.

“We just have to do a little better job of getting the ball out of the air, and we will be back ready to play on Friday.”

The two teams will decide the series on Friday at 4 p.m. at Sierra, with a special Meet and Greet for the Sierra alumni baseball players beginning at 3:15.