Irvine Valley's baseball team earned its best win of the season so far at the Buttles Tournament at College of the Desert on Friday afternoon.The Lasers, behind an impressive start on the mound from sophomore right-hander Austin Reynolds, defeated Palomar, 5-1.
Palomar was ranked No. 5 in Southern California in the preseason rankings. The Comets had already beat Golden West and Riverside in the early season.
Irvine Valley earned its second win of the season and improved to 2-3 overall. Palomar, which had been undefeated, fell to 3-1.
Palomar finished with a record of 25-14 last season.
"It was a good win," IVC coach Kent Madole said. "I thought we played solid defense and Reynolds was on. Great for the team to bounce back."
IVC lost to host Desert late on Thursday, 7-6.
Reynolds went 5 2/3 and scattered six singles. He struck out four and left with a 2-1 lead.
Freshman Matt Montoya came on in relief in the sixth inning and freshman Dominic Dipaolo entered in the eighth inning to close the game out for the Lasers. He pitched scoreless innings in the eighth and ninth.
Irvine Valley put the game away on offense in the top of the ninth inning.
Up, 2-1, IVC scored three more runs.
Sophomore Cole Joy led off with a double to left center. Sophomore Tyler Wagner moved Joy over to third with a groundout.
With the Palomar infield in, freshman catcher Ryan Gaynor hit a two-strike double down the left-field line to score Joy.
And then with two outs, freshman Colin Conroy singled and then freshman center fielder Nick Jacobson walked to load the bases.
Still with two outs, sophomore shortstop Tyler Odekirk was hit by a pitch to bring in a run.
Freshman Ryan Rafferty worked an eight-pitch at-bat and drew a bases loaded walk to score IVC's third-run of the inning and give the team a 5-1 lead.