Irvine Valley's baseball team started the 2019 season with a solid win over a ranked team on Friday afternoon on the road.
The Lasers earned a 5-3 victory over Long Beach City, which was ranked No. 18 in Southern California in the preseason coaches' poll.
IVC did it behind some strong pitching performances.
Sophomore Nick Janowicz went 4.2 innings and picked up the win . The Towson University signee gave up just one unearned run on two hits and three walks with six strikeouts.
Freshman Brennen Farber relieved Janowicz and pitched two innings. He also gave up an unearned run on two hits and two walks.
Sophomore Justin Dunham went 1.1 innings and gave up one run on two hits with four strikeouts and then sophomore standout closer Noah Bradford finished the game off with a scoreless ninth inning.
Irvine Valley broke the game open in the top of the seventh.
Tied, 1-1, IVC scored three runs in the seventh to take the lead for good. Sophomore centerfielder Ben McConnell doubled to right field to drive in sophomore third baseman David Roajs.
And then freshman leftfielder Kyle Dobson drove in two runs with a double to center to put IVC ahead, 4-1.
Long Beach City answered with a run in the bottom of the seventh when Travis Aversa scored on a passed ball to make it a two-run game.
But the Lasers got the run back in the top of the eighth when sophomore catcher Ryan Santa Cruz knocked in a run with a sacrifice fly.
Dunham and Bradford did the rest.
Irvine Valley finished with 10 hits in the game.
Dobson went 3 for 5 with two RBI and freshman rightfielder Dane Nakatsuka was 2 for 3 with a walk and one RBI to lead the Lasers at the plate. And Rojas had a hit and a walk and scored two runs.
Long Beach City got two hits from both David Balboa and Carter White in the defeat.
Reliever Julio Lopez took the loss for the Vikings, going 2/3 of an inning and giving up three runs on two hits and one walk.
The two teams play the second game of the series on Saturday at IVC at 12 p.m.
