Photo by Richard Do / JPWest Media
The Irvine Valley baseball team showed grit and fight all day long, but fell to Long Beach City in its 2025 season opener on Friday afternoon at home.
The Lasers finished with 12 hits and tried to rally late. Long Beach came through with three more hits, including a couple of key ones.
Irvine Valley was on offense by freshman shortstop Jake Amundson, who went 3 for 5 and made a few outstanding plays on defense.
Freshman right fielder Sam Tucci added two hits and threw a runner out at home, sophomore second baseman and leadoff hitter Chase Quezada went 2 for 5 with a run scored and a stolen base and sophomore first baseman Jackson Snitko was 2 for 4 with a double and a walk.
Irvine Valley went behind 3-0 through four innings, but scored in the bottom of the fourth when sophomore center fielder Kade Murray scored on a wild pitch.
Long Beach City took a 4-1 lead in the top of the sixth inning with a run.
IVC then made it a two-run game again in the bottom of the ninth and had chances when Quezada scored on a wild pitch, but it ended there.
Long Beach City was led by Maz Ghiglieri, Eshua Desai and Eduardo Diaz, who all had three hits each. Ghiglieri and Desai also contributed an RBI apiece. Leadoff hitter Danny Rodriguez chipped in two hits and a stolen base.
For IVC, sophomore righty Zack Marker took the loss. He went three innings and gave up four hits and two runs (one earned) with two strikeouts and two walks.
Sophomore AJ Roettger followed with 4.1 innings and allowed nine hits and two earned runs with three walks and four strikeouts.
Freshman lefty Christian Viggiano did a good job at the end of the game for the Lasers by pitching 1.2 scoreless innings. He gave up two hits and struck out one.
Myles Dismute picked up the win for Long Beach City on the mound, going six innings. He allowed eight hits and one run with five strikeouts.
Niko Riera earned the save with two innings pitched. He gave up three hits, one run and three strikeouts and one walk.
The two teams face off again on Saturday at Long Beach City at noon.
