The Irvine Valley baseball team battled back from a six-run deficit early to get back in the game, but Riverside pulled away with a big, seventh inning and beat the Lasers, 12-7, Friday afternoon at the OC Great Park.
Riverside swept the three-game, Orange Empire Conference series. The No. 17 Tigers improved to 17-8 overall and 6-3 in conference.
Irvine Valley's record fell to 13-13 overall and 2-7 in conference.
Both teams finished with 16 hits.
Riverside used a bunch of its knocks early and then late.
The Tigers had a 5-0 lead after the top of the third inning, scoring two runs in the first, one in the second and two more runs in the third.
Irvine Valley got back into the game with a two-run, bottom of the third and then scored three more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to pull within 6-5.
The Lasers scored their two runs in the bottom of the third inning on RBI singles by freshman first baseman Casey Kudell and freshman catcher Connor Tallakson.
And added the three runs in the fourth on a two-run triple by freshman left fielder Noah Madole and a RBI double by freshman first baseman Shane Kary.
But it was the top of the seventh inning that was the difference.
Riverside scored five runs to turn a one-run game into a 12-6 lead.
The big blows were a two-run double by Darius Price and a two-run single by Julian Alvarez.
Alvarez, Matthew Bardowell and Brian West combined to go 8 for 12 with 12 RBI for Riverside.
Irvine Valley had three players with three hits. Noah Madole went 3 for 5 with three runs scored and two RBI, Kudell went 3 for 3 with a walk and one RBI and Kary was 3 for 6 with one RBI.
Freshman right-hander Sammy Murphy took the loss for the Lasers to go to 3-4 on the year. He pitched 5.2 innings and gave up seven runs (six earned) on nine hits and six walks with three strikeouts.
The Lasers play again on Tuesday, starting a conference series at Cypress at 2 p.m.
