Irvine Valley's baseball team missed out on a chance to beat the top team in the Orange Empire Conference on Tuesday afternoon on the road.
The Lasers had 15 hits, but left 13 runners on base in a 8-7 defeat in 10 innings in the first of a three-game series with OCC.
Irvine Valley's record slipped to 16-19 overall and 5-10 in conference. Orange Coast improved to 24-11 overall and 12-4 in conference.
The Lasers found themselves down, 2-0, after the first inning, but came back with three runs in the top of the second to take the lead.
Sophomore first baseman Cooper Moore hit an RBI double and then freshman center fielder Ben McConnell knocked in two runs with a triple down the right field line.
Orange Coast tied the game in the bottom of the third on an error and then took a 5-3 lead on a two-run homer by Ramiro Velasco.
A single by sophomore right fielder Grant Rockefeller scored sophomore left fielder Wyatt McGinnis to bring Irvine Valley within a run in the top of the fifth inning.
Irvine Valley trailed, 6-4, but scored a run in the top of the sixth on a groundout by freshman third baseman Dustin Angus to again get within a run.
And Irvine Valley was down, 7-5, heading into the top of the seventh inning when Rockefeller singled to right field to bring in freshman catcher Ryan Santa Cruz and freshman second baseman David Rojas to tie the game.
It stayed that way until the bottom of the 10th inning when, with runners on first and second, OCC's Coby Kauhaahaa ripped a shot into the right-center field gap to score the winning run and end the 3-hour, 34-minute game.
Rockefeller led the Lasers by going 3 for 5 with a run and three RBI. McConnell was 2 for 4 with a walk and two RBI, sophomore shortstop Colin Conroy and McGinnis each went 2 for 6 and Moore was 2 for 5 with one RBI.
Skylar Limonchi and Chris Ceballos each went 3 for 5 with two runs and one RBI, Domenic Donato went 3 for 5 with two RBI and Velasco added two hits and two RBI for the Pirates.
Freshman Nick Janowicz started on the mound and went five innings, giving up seven runs (six earned) on six hits and four walks with two strikeouts.
Freshman Noah Bradford took the loss in relief. He pitched 1.1 innings and gave up on run on one hit and two walks. He fell to 6-3 on the year.
Doug Magee pitched 3.2 innings of scoreless relief to pick up the win and improve to 4-1.
Game two of the three-game series takes place on Thursday at IVC, beginning at 2 p.m., with the finale set for Saturday at 12 p.m. back at OCC's Wendell Pickens Field.
