Irvine Valley's baseball team dropped its Orange Empire Conference opener on Tuesday afternoon, 3-2, at Santa Ana.
The Lasers led, 2-1, heading into the fifth inning, but Santa Ana scored single runs in the bottom of the fifth and bottom of the seventh innings and came out on top.
Irvine Valley's record slipped to 14-3-1 overall. Santa Ana improved to 11-5 overall.
The two teams play the second game of the three-game series on Thursday at Irvine Valley at 2 p.m.
Santa Ana took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning, but Irvine Valley responded with two runs in the top of the third.
Freshman left fielder Kyle Dobson scored from third on a Santa Ana error and then sophomore third baseman David Rojas knocked in a run with single to put IVC ahead, 2-1. Both IVC runs were unearned.
But those were the only runs Irvine Valley could muster on the day.
Santa Ana tied the game at 3 in the bottom of the fifth. After an IVC error, Drake Wood reached on a fielder's choice to bring in a run.
Wood knocked in the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning on a single up the middle. Santa Ana's final two runs were unearned.
Both teams had eight hits on the afternoon.
Sophomore second baseman Trent Whitaker was 2 for 4, freshman first baseman Pu'ukani De Sa went 2 for 5 and Dobson was 1 for 3 with a walk and a run for the Lasers.
IVC freshman starting pitcher Brennen Farber threw well. He went seven innings and gave up three runs (one earned) on eight hits and one walk with six strikeouts. Farber took the hard-luck loss and his record went to 2-1.
Sophomore Chad Burchit pitched one scoreless inning with a strikeout.
Santa Ana used five pitchers total. Reliever Nathan Cachu earned the win, going 1.1 scoreless innings late. And Jack Owens got the save with 1.1 scoreless innings. The Lasers put a runner in scoring position in the top of the ninth, but Owens ended the game with a strikeout.
