"We're too good of a team to be shut down," Buhner said after he drove in the winning runs in a 7-3 win over the Visalia Oaks at The Hanger Thursday night.
The JetHawks quickly erased an early three-run deficit and Buhner's two-run single capped a five-run sixth to sweep the Oaks in front of a paid attendance of 3,162.
Lancaster, leading the California League's Southern Division entering the game, got four hits off Visalia starter John Kelly through the first five innings, but improved to 11-4 overall, 3-0 at home.
The Oaks (5-10) are heading in the opposite direction, losing their fifth-straight game.
Kelly, 28, is a knuckleball pitcher, but he kept the JetHawks off-stride with a surprising amount of fastballs.
"Maybe his stuff was a little better today," Buhner said, referring to the JetHawks' first meeting against Kelly in Visalia. "We got into sitting on a knuckleball. . . it was just like we were going through the motions for a while."
In the sixth, Kelly's pitches stopped fluttering and he was forced to use his fastball almost exclusively.
The floodgates opened.
The JetHawks collected six hits in the inning, including three-straight singles off Kelly to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 5-3 lead.
Carlos Villalobos drove in a run to tie the game at three, and he and James Clifford advanced to second and third on a bad throw to home plate by center fielder David Roberts.
Buhner followed with an RBI single through the middle to drive in both runners and make it 5-3.
Scot Sealy chased Kelly with a single to left. Reliever Javier Gomez was ineffective, as he gave up a single to Jason Cook to load the bases and walked Mike Lanza to drive in the JetHawks' sixth run.
Marcus Sturdivant followed with the JetHawks' fifth single of the inning, a sharp grounder to the left side to drive in Sealy and make it 7-3.
The rally made a winner out of Chris Beck (3-0), who came on in relief in the sixth and threw two shutout innings.
Kelly was charged with six earned runs; in two starts against Lancaster this season he has given up 12 runs in 9 1/3 innings.
"We're making adjustments and that's what it's all about," Lancaster manager Dave Brundage said. "It's going to be a nice season if we battle like that."
The Oaks' Chris Lemonis led off the second with a home run over the scoreboard in right field to make it 1-0 off Lancaster starter Brett Hinchliffe.
Visalia rallied for two runs in the third on RBI singles by Chris Facione and Lemonis.
Hinchliffe gave up lead-off hits in three of the five innings he worked. But he worked well with runners on base, as he stranding five and avoided further trouble in the third by striking out Keith Kimsey with runners on second and third and two outs.
The JetHawks had problems with Kelly's knuckleball early on. He retired the first six batters to face him until Sealy opened the third with a double off the wall in right-center field.
Sealy advanced to third on a balk and scored on Lanza's sacrifice fly to left which cut the lead to 3-1.
Shane Monahan doubled down the right-field line to start the fourth. After Kelly came back to retire Jose Cruz Jr. and Clifford, Villalobos stroked a single up the middle to make it 3-2.