Baseball team ends 2017 season in regionals at Grossmont

Baseball team ends 2017 season in regionals at Grossmont

Irvine Valley's baseball team ended its season with a pair of losses at Grossmont in the CCCAA Regional Playoffs last week.

The Lasers, seeded 18th, fell to No. 2 Grossmont, 9-2, on last Friday, and then, 13-3, on Saturday.

Grossmont (31-7-1) moved on to the Super Regionals and will host Cypress this weekend.

Irvine Valley ended the year with a record of 19-24 overall.

The Lasers got into the playoffs with a big win over No. 1 Orange Coast on the final day of the regular season and then defeated No. 15 Chaffey, 11-2, on the road in a playoff elimination game on May 2.

Last Friday at Grossmont, the Griffins scored five runs in the bottom of the second and never looked back.

The Lasers pulled within 5-2 with two runs in the top of the fourth on a RBI single by sophomore right fielder Cole Joy and a fielder's choice by sophomore designated hitter Robbie Espinosa.

But Grossmont answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning to go up, 8-2.

IVC had five hits in the game. Sophomore shortstop Tyler Odekirk was 1 for 4 with a triple and a run scored and Joey went 1 for 4 with one RBI. Freshman second baseman Colin Conroy, sophomore first baseman Tyler Wagner and freshman left fielder Zack Stack also had hits in the game for IVC.

On Saturday, Grossmont put up three runs in the top of the third and then eight runs in the top of the fourth and never looked back on its way to the win.

Irvine Valley scored all three of its runs in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Wagner had an RBI single, freshman catcher Ryan Gaynor brought in a run with a fielder's choice and Joy scored on a wild pitch.

For the game, Odekirk and Stack each went 2 for 4 with a run scored for the Lasers.

Joy ended up leading the team on the season in batting average at .368 with Odekirk at .350. Odekirk was tops on the team in RBI with 28 and hits with 57.

Sophomores right-handers Tyler Venturelli, Austin Reynolds and John Stevens each had a team-best five wins on the mound.

Venturelli topped the team with a 2.11 ERA. Stevens also pitched a team-best 97.0 innings and had two complete games and four saves.