Irvine Valley's baseball team took a 5-0 lead into the botom of the sixth inning Tuesday in its opening game of the series against Orange Coast on the road.
But the Pirates rallied with six runs, incuding two in the bottom of the ninth to earn a 6-5 victory at John Altobelli Ballpark.
Irvine Valley's record slipped to 16-22 overall and 3-16 in the Orange Empire Conference. Orange Coast went to 11-27 overall and 5-14 in conference play.
The Lasers did most of their damage in the top of the third inning, scoring four runs.
Freshman first baseman Jackson Snitko knocked in the first two runs with a double. An Orange Coast error brought in another run for the Lasers and then freshman center fielder Sam Tucci scored on a wid pitch to make it a 4-0 game.
Irvine Valley went up, 5-0, in the top of the sixth when sophomore right fielder Chase Quezada walked with the bases loaded.
The Lasers also got a strong start by freshman right-handed pitcher Tyler Eastham. He gave up just one run through six innings, holding the Pirates to four hits and two walks with four strikeouts along the way.
The Pirates began their comeback in the bottom of the sixth inning when Chris Ouellette tripled to right-center and scored on a sacrifice fly by Tyler Covington, trimming the deficit to 5-1.
A home run by Flynn Barnes in the seventh brought Coast within 5-2. Tyler Arevalos added an RBI double in the seventh and OCC made it a 5-4 game in the bottom of the eighth.
A walk, sacrifice bunt and infield single put runners at first and third in the bottom of the ninth. And with two outs, Covington hit an RBI single to tie the game and an error on the play by IVC brought in the winning run for the Pirates.
The Lasers finished with four hits on the afternoon. Snitko drove in two runs and Quezada had one RBI.
Freshman lefty Christian Viggiano took the loss, giving up two runs on three hits with one walk in 0.2 innings pitched.
IVC will host the Pirates on Thursday (2 p.m.) in game two of this three-game set with the season finale set for Friday at 1 p.m. at OCC's John Altobelli Ballpark.
