Irvine Valley's baseball team earned its seventh win in eight games and its best of the season so far, beating Palomar, 2-1, in 12 innings on Friday at home.
Sophomore second baseman Trent Whitaker was the hero, hitting a hard grounder past a diving third baseman and down the line to bring in sophomore center fielder Ben McConnell with one out in the bottom of the 12th for the game-winning run.
It was Irvine Valley's sixth win in a row. The Lasers also handed Palomar (4-1) its first loss of the season.
With one out in the bottom of the 12th inning, McConnell worked a walk against Palomar pitcher Parker Askergreen. Sophomore third baseman David Roajas then singled through the right side, setting up Whitaker for the winning hit.
Palomar scored its lone run on a walk, a sacrifice and then an RBI single by Trevor Omahen In the top of the second inning.
The game stayed 1-0 until Irvine Valley tied things up in the bottom of the eighth.
Freshman designated hitter Joey Lapolla scored from third after an error.
Irvine Valley sophomore pitcher Noah Bradford earned the win in the game and pitched out of a jam in the top of the 12th to do it.
With two runners on and one out, Bradford got a groundout, which moved a runner to third.
But he struck out Matt Ornelia to end the inning. Bradford improved to 2-0 on the year.
IVC got a solid start on the mound from sophomore Nick Janowicz. He went seven innings and gave up just one run on six hits and four walks with four strikeouts.
And sophomore Chad Burchit threw a scoreless 4.1 innings, allowing only three hits.
Rojas, freshman left fielder Kyle Dobson and freshman first baseman Pu'ukani De Sa each recorded two hits in the game for IVC.
Irvine Valley, now 7-1 on the year, plays again Monday at San Diego City at 2 p.m. The game is a makeup from earlier this week that was rained out.
