Baseball team improves record to 12-5 with comeback victory

Baseball team improves record to 12-5 with comeback victory

Irvine Valley capped a strong pre-Orange Empire Conference string of games with a come-from-behind 3-2 win at Mt. San Antonio in Walnut on Tuesday night.

 Irvine Valley, which is ranked No. 12 in Southern California, improved its record to 12-5 overall. After starting the season with a record of 1-3, the Lasers have won 11 of their last 13 contests. One of those defeats came in extra innings.

Irvine Valley scored all three of its runs in the top of the seventh inning.

Mt. SAC took a 1-0 lead in the second and it stayed that way until late.

In the seventh, freshman right fielder Zack Stack walked and later scored on a groundout by sophomore first baseman Tyler Wagner to get IVC on the board and tie the game.

Then, freshman Nash Hathaway came up to pinch hit and came through with an RBI single to score freshman catcher Ryan Gaynor and give IVC a 2-1 lead.

A RBI single by freshman center fielder Grant Rockefeller drove in Wagner and put the Lasers up by two runs.

Mt. SAC came back with a run in the bottom of the seventh inning on a sacrifice fly by Ryon Knowles to make it a 3-2 game.

But the Lasers held on thanks to solid relief pitching by sophomore Austin Reynolds.

Reynolds went three innings and gave up one run on two hits and one walk with two strikeouts.

Sophomore John Stevens earned the win for IVC. He pitched six solid innings and gave up one run one four hits and three walks with six strikeouts.

At the plate, IVC had just six hits, but they made the most of them.

Gaynor was 2 for 3, sophomore Andrew Nero went 1 for 2 off the bench and freshman third baseman Ryan Rafferty, Hathaway and Rockefeller each had a hit.

Irvine Valley doesn't play again until next Tuesday when it starts Orange Empire Conference play at Fullerton at 2 p.m.