What was a tight game for five and a half innings turned into a blowout for the Irvine Valley baseball team on Friday afternoon at home.
Irvine Valley scored 13 runs in the bottom of the sixth inning - all with two outs - on its way to a 16-9 victory over Grossmont.
The win lifted IVC's record to 7-5 overall.
The score was tied, 3-3, through five innings with both IVC sophomore right-hander Caden Byers and Grossmont lefty Zander Fox pitching well early on.
But then came IVC's turn to bat in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Irvine Valley sent 19 batters to the plate, had eight hits, one hit batter, three walks and took advantage of two Grossmont errors in the big inning.
IVC chased four Grossmont pitchers in the frame.
Irvine Valley took the lead for good at 4-3 when freshman second baseman Gavin Grutzmacher was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Then freshman left fielder Drew Seidel scored on a wild pitch to make it 5-3.
Freshman third baseman Nomar Vasquez walked to load the bases again and sophomore center fielder Shane Stafford doubled to left to bring in two runs and give IVC a 7-3 lead.
After a walk to freshman right fielder Kade Murray, freshman first baseman Jackson Snitko hit a two-run single and Irvine Valley had a six-run lead.
And it was 10-3 after freshman designated hitter Shaun McCaghren hit an RBI single.
The Lasers scored another run on a Grossmont throwing error, Seidel had an RBI single and one more Griffin error made it a 13-3 game.
Grutzmacher followed with a two-run double down the left field line and Vasquez closed out the socoring with a run-scoring single.
Grossmont came back with four runs in the top of the seventh inning and two more in the ninth, but still fell seven runs short.
Byers picked up the win on the mound. He went to 3-1 after pitching six innings and giving up three runs (two earned) on seven hits and one walk with eight strikeouts.
Several IVC players had big days on offense. Grutzmacher, Irvine Valley's leadoff hitter, went 2 for 4 with three runs scored and three RBI.
Vasquez was 4 for 4 with a walk, two runs and two RBI, Stafford went 3 for 6 with three doubles, one run and four RBI, Snitko was 2 for 4 with two runs and two RBI and Seidel went 2 for 2 with two walks, three runs and one RBI.
Irvine Valley will play its third game in a row at home on Saturday when it hosts San Diego Mesa at 12 p.m.
