Irvine Valley's baseball team won its third game in a row and eighth in its last nine contests by taking care of San Diego Mesa, 7-4, on Monday afternoon.
IVC swept the two-game series over Mesa. The Lasers defeated the Olympians, 7-2, last Thursday.
The game Monday was a makeup after the scheduled game on Saturday was wiped out by wet conditions.
The Lasers improved their record to 9-4 overall, while Mesa's record slipped to 3-7.
Irvine Valley took control in the fourth inning, scoring two runs.
A bunt single by sophomore catcher Cole Joy was thrown away by the third baseman and allowed freshman third baseman Ryan Rafferty to score from second. Freshman left fielder Zack Stack moved from first to third on the play. And then the next hitter, sophomore designated hitter Alec Ceniceros squeezed in Stack from third base for the 2-0 lead.
San Diego Mesa got a run back in the top of the fifth inning. Andres Velasco hit an RBI single.
But the Lasers scored two more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to go up, 4-1.
Sophomore first baseman Tyler Wagner hit a sacrifice fly to left to bring in sophomore shortstop Tyler Odekirk and then Ceniceros hit an RBI single up the middle to score Rafferty.
The Lasers then broke the game open in the bottom of the seventh. With the bases loaded, freshman catcher Ryan Gaynor hit a three-run double into the left-center gap. Odekirk, who finished the day with three hits, Stack and Wagner each scored to give Irvine Valley a 7-1 advantage.
That was more than enough for sophomore right-handed pitcher John Stevens. He went seven innings and gave up just one run on five hits and one walk with seven strikeouts.
Stevens earned the win and improved his record to 2-1 on the year.
Mesa pushed across three runs in the top of the eighth on a couple of triples off IVC freshman reliever Rafael Salas.
But Salas got out of the inning and then set the Olympians down in order in the top of the ninth to close the game out.
Odekirk was 3 for 5 with two runs scored and one RBI. Stack went 2 for 3 with two runs scored, Joy was 2 for 2, Ceniceros was 1 for 2 with two sacrifices and one RBI and Gaynor went 1 for 3 with a walk and three RBI.
Will Law was 3 for 4 and Zack Mann went 2 for 3 with two RBI for San Diego Mesa.
Irvine Valley plays again on Wednesday, hosting College of the Desert at 2 p.m.
