Irvine Valley dropped the second game of a three-game Orange Empire Conference series to Orange Coast, 5-3, on Thursday afternoon at home.
Fourth-ranked Orange Coast, which leads the conference, improved its record to 25-11 overall and 13-4 in conference. The Pirates, who have won seven games in a row and nine of their last 10, moved within a win of clinching the OEC title.
With the loss, Irvine Valley's record slipped to 16-20 overall and 6-11 in conference play.
The Lasers scored first on Tuesday, getting a run in the bottom of the first inning on a RBI double down the left field line by freshman third baseman Dustin Angus.
But Orange Coast tied the game in the top of the second on a sacrifice fly and then took the lead for good with three runs in the top of the fourth inning.
The big blow was a two-run home run by Jacob Doty to make it a 3-1 game. Skylan Limonchi followed with an RBI single to make it 4-1.
Irvine Valley got two runs back in the bottom of the fourth inning, scoring on a RBI double by freshman center fielder Ben McConnell and then having freshman catcher Ryan Santa Cruz score on a wild pitch to make it 4-3.
It stayed that way until the eighth inning when Doty hit his second home run of the game for Coast. This time it was a solo shot to left field.
Gus Culpo pitched the final five innings of the game for the Pirates to earn the win. He didn't allow a run and gave up just three hits and one walk with four strikeouts.
Freshman Keenan Cisneros started on the mound for the Lasers. He went 7.2 innings and gave up five runs on eight hits and three walks with four strikeouts. Cisneros took the loss to drop to 2-3 on the year.
Freshman Chad Burchit pitched a scoreless 1.1 innings in relief for IVC.
Each team had eight hits on the day. Angus went 3 for 5 with one RBI and sophomore right fielder Grant Rockefeller was 3 for 4 for the Lasers.
Doty went 2 for 3 with two home runs, three RBI and one walk and Landon Silver was 2 for 4 with a run scored for the Pirates.
The two teams finish the series on Saturday at Orange Coast at noon.
