Irvine Valley's baseball team bounced back from a tough, late-inning loss on Friday with a solid 13-3 victory over Grossmont on Saturday.
The Lasers gave up two runs in the top of the seventh inning and two more in the eighth and fell to Allan Hancock, 4-3, on Friday. It was the team's first loss since the second game of the season on Jan. 26.
But Irvine Valley responded with a total team effort on Saturday. The Lasers scored early and often to put the game out of reach and improve their record to 12-2-1 overall.
Irvine Valley scored a run in the bottom of the first, added four runs in the second, three in the third and put five runs on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning to take a 13-3 lead.
And except for Grossmont scoring three runs (two earned) in the top of the third inning, Irvine Valley pitchers were sharp throughout.
The Lasers used five different hurlers.
Sophomore Chad Burchit started on the mound and went five innings. He gave up three runs (two earned) on six hits with no walks and two strikeouts to improve his record to 2-0 on the year.
Freshmen Anthony Castillo, Dane Little, David Kotin and Adam Auriemma each pitched a scoreless inning of relief for IVC.
Freshman left fielder Kyle Dobson knocked in Irvine Valley's first three runs of the day, including plating two with an RBI single up the middle in the bottom of the second inning.
And sophomore center fielder Ben McConnell put Irvine Valley ahead, 8-3, in the third inning with a two-run home run over the left field fence.
A two-run single by sophomore second baseman Trent Whitaker gave IVC a 11-3 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Dobson capped IVC's scoring with a sacrifice fly that brought in Whitaker later in the fourth.
On the afternoon, Dobson went 2 for 3 with four RBI, McConnell was 2 for 4 with the home run, four runs scored and two RBI, sophomore catcher Ryan Santa Cruz finished 3 for 4 with a double, three runs and two RBI, Whitaker went 1 for 5 with two RBI and freshman first baseman Pu'ukani De Sa was 1 for 2 with a walk and one RBI.
Irvine Valley plays again on Monday at LA Valley at 2 p.m.
