Irvine Valley's baseball was hanging on to a late lead at Golden West on Thursday in a key Orange Empire Conference game.
The Lasers led, 3-2, in the seventh inning before things went sideways.
IVC ended up falling, 9-3, to the Rustlers. Golden West clinched the three-game series after earning a 2-1 victory on Tuesday at IVC.
The finale of the series is on Saturday at Irvine Valley at 12 p.m.
Irvine Valley, ranked No. 12 in Southern California, saw its record fall to 14-8 overall and 2-3 in conference.
No. 19 Golden West improved to 11-9 overall and 3-2 in conference.
Irvine Valley left 15 runners base in the contest.
The Lasers were also 1 for 14 with runners in scoring position and made two errors in the seventh inning and three more in the eighth to help Golden West score seven times and win going away.
Golden West ended up going 5 of 10 with runners in scoring position and didn't commit an error.
Irvine Valley scored first. The Lasers put up a run in the top of the fifth inning on freshman catcher Ryan Gaynor's sacrifice fly.
And the Lasers took a 3-1 lead in the top of the third. With the bases loaded, freshman third baseman Ryan Rafferty walked to bring in a run.
And then freshman centerfielder Grant Rockefeller was hit by a pitch to bring in freshman left fielder Zack Stack.
Golden West cut the lead to 3-2 with a run in the bottom of the third and the score stayed that way until the seventh when the Rustlers took the lead for good.
Sophomore right-hander Tyler Venturelli started on the mound and went five innings. He gave up two runs on seven hits and one walk with two strikeouts.
Sophomore Matt Markus took the loss in relief and his record fell to 2-2 overall. He went two innings and gave up seven runs (one earned) on five hits and one strikeout.
IVC finished with eight hits on the day. Sophomore right fielder Cole Joy went 3 for 5 and Stack went 2 for 3.
Louie Canjura was 2 for 5 with three runs scored and four RBI and Jake Hinzo went 3 for 4 with two runs scored and two RBI to lead Golden West.
Kamalu Vincent-Simeona earned his first win of the season. He came into the game in relief and pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up two hits and two walks and striking out three batters.
