Irvine Valley's baseball team got back in the win column with a solid all-around performance in a 10-4 Orange Empire Conference victory over Fullerton at home.
The win snapped a four-game skid for the Lasers, who improved their record to 19-5-1 overall and 5-13 in conference play. Fullerton, which had taken the first two games of the three-game OEC series, slipped to 10-22 overall and 5-13 in conference.
IVC scored the first run of the game on a sacrifice push bunt by freshman first baseman Pu'ukani De Sa, which brought in freshman right fielder Joey Lapolla from third.
But Fullerton responded with one run in the top of the third and two more runs in the top of the fourth inning to go up, 3-1.
All three runs were unearned against IVC freshman starting pitcher Justin Dunham.
And the Lasers gave Dunham some runs to work with by putting six on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning to take control.
Freshman third baseman Luke Armstrong hit a two-run double, freshman shortstop Robert Haw had an RBI single, Lapolla came through with an RBI double and freshman left fielder Kyle Dobson rounded out the scoring with a two-run single.
IVC took a 7-3 lead.
The Lasers added to their advantage in the fifth inning when freshman catcher Dante Catalino hit a RBI single up the middle to make it a 8-3 game.
Fullerton got a run back in the top of the eighth inning.
And Irvine Valley closed out the scoring in the bottom of the eighth on a two-run single to center by De Sa.
Dobson went 3 for 4 with two RBI, Lapolla was 2 for 2 with two walks, three runs scored and one RBI, Armstong was 2 for 2 with three runs and two RBI, Catalino went 2 for 4 with one RBI and De Sa knocked in three runs.
Diego Black was 3 for 3 with a run scored and Eddie Ureno had one hit and two RBI for Fullerton.
Dunham got the win to improve to 5-3 overall. He went seven innings and gave up three runs (none earned) on four hits and one walk with six strikeouts.
Sophomore Noah Bradford pitched the final two innings. He allowed one run (unearned) on one hit and one walk with a strikeout.
Taed Heydinger took the loss for Fullerton. He went five innings and gave up eight runs on 10 hits and one walk with three strikeouts.
Irvine Valley takes a break from conference play next week. It travels to LA Harbor on Tuesday for a 2 p.m. game and then hosts Harbor on Wednesday at 2 p.m.
