Freshman right-hander Brennen Farber pitched a complete game to help lead the Irvine Valley baseball team to a 5-2 win at Cypress on Tuesday afternoon.
It was the first game of a three-game Orange Empire Conference series between the two schools.
The win, which snapped a three-game IVC slide, improved the Lasers' record to 17-9-1 overall and 3-7 in conference. Cypress' record slipped to 19-8 overall and 4-6 in conference.
Farber's record went to 3-2 on the year. He leads the Lasers in innings pitched with 55.0 and now sports a 2.45 ERA.
He went all nine innings Tuesday, giving up two runs on 11 hits and one walk with five strikeouts.
Cypress used five pitchers on the day with starter Raul Herrada taking the loss. He gave up two runs in 3.1 innings.
Irvine Valley took the lead early, scoring a run in both the top of the second and third innings.
Cypress answered with a run in the bottom of the third to make it a 2-1 game, but the Lasers gained some breathing room in the top of the seventh with three runs to go up, 5-1.
The Lasers finished with 15 hits on the day. Eight different players had at least a hit. And freshman first baseman Pu'ukani De Sa and sophomore center fielder Ben McConnell each had three hits.
De Sa went 3 for 6 with a run scored and two RBI. He knocked in two of the runs in the key top of the seventh inning with a single to left field.
McConnell went 3 for 5 with a walk and a run scored.
Freshman third baseman Spencer Weston was 2 for 4 with one RBI, freshman designated hitter Joey Lapolla was 2 for 3 with two walks and two runs and sophomore second baseman Trent Whitaker was 2 for 5.
The second game of the series is on Thursday at Irvine Valley at 2 p.m.
