OBSERVER Photo by Matt Spielman Gowanda’s John Ondus fanned 10 Red Raiders in five innings of work to pick up the 3-0 CCAA Division 1 win over Jamestown on Wednesday.

GOWANDA — John Ondus pitched like an ace Wednesday.

The Gowanda Panthers needed him to.

Ondus threw five innings of shutout ball and struck out 10 as Gowanda beat Jamestown 3-0 in Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 1 baseball action.

“I’ve seen him pitch some excellent games and that’s another one,” Gowanda head coach Tim Smith said of Ondus. “He’s been in big situations so that doesn’t faze him. It doesn’t matter who he’s playing, he’s seen plenty of good teams.”

The junior right-hander, who started and won the Section VI Class C championship game last spring, allowed just one hit while walking two and hitting a batter.

“He’s learned a lot over the last few years and knows that he has to attack the strike zone,” Smith added. “When he did, he overpowered those guys for the most part.”

The Panthers scored all three of their runs in the bottom of the second inning. No. 7 hitter Tyler Smith reached on a fielder’s choice for the first out and Alex Pachucinski walked before senior leadoff hitter Gavin Phillips hit a two-out, two-run double to left-center field.

“He’s a five-year varsity player. … He knew at that point ‘I’m going to do something for this team to spark everything,'” Smith said of Phillips. “He drove one to the fence and scored a couple of runs.”

Freshman Blake Herman followed with an RBI single to center field to plate Phillips before Jamestown starter Colin Melendez got out of the inning with a strikeout.

“We thought we could tack a couple of more on, but it didn’t happen,” Smith said. “Luckily our pitching and defense kept it where it was and those three runs held up.”

Melendez, who finished with five strikeouts while allowing just the two second-inning hits, ran into more trouble in the fourth inning after walking Smith to lead off the inning. With one out, Melendez then walked No. 9 hitter Drew Shull and after another walk to Phillips, Jamestown head coach turned to his bullpen.

“It’s his first time on the mound,” Jamestown head coach Dave Roehmholdt said. “I thought he was throwing effectively, missing his spots in a couple of places here and there, but overall in a three-run game, I think we need to score three runs.”

Brandon Lobb answered the call, inducing a pop-up and a grounder to escape the threat.

Gowanda stranded another runner in the fifth inning and left the bases loaded in the sixth. Pachucinski singled to open the inning before Shull reached on a fielder’s choice. Phillips was then hit by a pitch before Herman flew out to right field. With two outs, Ondus hit a hard grounder for an infield single, but Lobb induced another pop-up to get out of the inning.

“Great job getting out of the inning,” Roehmholdt said of Lobb. “He did a great job keeping us in the game.”

The Red Raiders had their best opportunities to score after Ondus left the game. In the sixth against Cole Herman, Juan Matos walked and went to second on a wild pitch before he was thrown out attempting to go to third on a Nick Miraglia groundball for the second out. Nate Torres then walked to put runners at first and second, but Herman induced a pop-up to the shortstop to keep the shutout intact.

“It’s not a warm day … and we have a small roster. We rely on Cole to play defense. The inning before when we would have him warm up the correct way, he was up to bat,” Smith said of Herman. “That’s some of the negative of a small school, small roster.”

In the seventh inning against John Smuda, Caleb Bane singled and Mason Chapman reached on a two-out infield single, but a flyout to left field ended the game.

“We got ourselves in a situation with our best hitter up as the tying run,” Roehmholdt said, “and just couldn’t get him through.”

Jamestown, which is playing in the CCAA this season instead of the Erie County Interscholastic Conference, is scheduled to continue league play Friday against Southwestern at Packard Field while Gowanda hosts Olean that same evening.

“For my first 10 years, we were always with this group of the CCAA. … I like it, it helps us because we are going to have a challenge day in and day out,” Smith said. ” … This whole team has enough experience that we know we can go and beat any team that we play. … We also know they are going to be good enough to beat us if we don’t come out and play our game.”