The Irvine Valley baseball team scored five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning and went on to an 8-3 Orange Empire Conference win over Cypress on Thursday afternoon at home.
The Lasers had big-game performances at the plate from freshman right fielder Kade Murray and sophomore catcher Jimmy Zakhar. Murray went 1 for 3 with 2 RBI and Zakhar was 2 for 4 with a home run, one run scored and two RBI.
After Cypress took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning, Zakhar gave the Lasers the lead for good in the bottom of the fifth inning by launching a two-run home run to left field.
IVC freshman left fielder Drew Seidel then singled to bring in sophomore third baseman Darren Shorter to make it a 3-1 game.
An RBI double by Murray in the fifth added to the lead. Sophomore center fielder Shane Stafford also scored on the play on a Cypress error to put IVC ahead, 4-1.
Irvine Valley sophomore righty Caden Byers picked up the win and battled all day.
He moved his record to 4-2 overall. Byers went 6.1 innings and gave up 11 hits and three earned runs. He struck out four and walked one.
Freshman righty Colin Rhee came on in relief and threw 2.2 innings scoreless innings. He gave up three hits with one one walk and had a strikeout.
Hunter Drake took the loss for Cypress. His record went to 4-3 overall. He gave up five runs (four earned) in 4.2 innings with two walks and five strikeouts.
Irvine Valley plays again on Friday at 1 p.m. at Cypress to finish the conference series.
