rvine Valley picked up its second win in three days with a hard-fought 4-2 win in 10 innings against Golden West in an Orange Empire Conference game on the road on Thursday.
Irvine Valley lifted its record to 8-19 overall and 4-11 in conference. The Lasers also moved within a game of Golden West for seventh in the conference standings.
Irvine Valley struck first as freshman center fielder Brett Hamilton led off the game with a double, was moved to second on a sacrifice by freshman shortstop Zach Vittetow and scored on an RBI groundout by sophomore second baseman Dallas Porter.
Scoring would cease from there until the sixth inning thanks to brilliant performances by both starting pitchers. Golden West's (14-16, 5-10) starter Tanner Brown settled down after the first inning and went a full 9 innings.
He ended up allowing one earned run on six hits and struck out nine batters.
Lasers' starting pitcher Chris Lumanlan was stellar as well going 7 2/3 innings and giving up two runs (one earned) on six hits and had two strikeouts.
Golden West tied the game in the sixth inning. Califano stole home after IVC freshman catcher Ben DePerry tried to throw out Jordan Lucio stealing second base.
Irvine Valley regained the lead after sophomore left fielder Matt Harris scored on a wild pitch in the seventh inning, going up, 2-1.
But Califano scored again in the eighth inning to tie the game courtesy of a Lucio sacrifice fly.
Golden West's Brown was lifted after the ninth inning and Irvine Valley took advantage. The Lasers broke the 1-1 tie with an RBI single by Hamilton.
Porter gave the Lasers an insurance run with an RBI infield single to ultimately seal the extra inning victory for IVC.
Sophomore pitcher Jeremy Ibarra earned his second win of the season in relief. Ibarra relived Lumanlan and threw 2 1/3 scoreless innings. He gave up just one hit.
IVC finished with nine hits on the day. Hamilton went 3 for 5 with a run scored and one RBI. He lifted his average to .311
Porter was 2 for 5 with two RBI and is now at .295. Freshman third baseman Adam Vargas was 2 for 5 for IVC.
The Lasers play again on Saturday at Santa Ana at 12 p.m. IVC then hosts the Dons next Tuesday at 2 p.m.