Photo by JPWest Media
Irvine Valley's baseba team closed out its 2025 season with a 8-7 loss at Orange Coast in a three-game Orange Empire Conference series.
Trailing, 3-1, in the third, 6-3, in the seventh and, 7-6, in the bottom of the ninth, the Pirates pushed across two runs in their final at-bat to cap of their season, as well.
Irvine Valley finished its season with a record of 16-24 overall and 3-18 in conference play.
OCC ended at 13-27 overall and 7-14 in the OEC.
IVC went ahead, 6-3, in the top of the seventh inning with three runs on an RBI singles freshman center fielder Sam Tucci, freshman first baseman Connor Gomez and freshman left fielder Cole Lefevbre
But Andrew Charbagian went 3 for 5 with two home runs, three runs scored and five RBI for the Pirates, while Aiden Dillehay added two hits and two RBI, including the game-winning knock in the bottom of the ninth.
For Irvine Valley, freshman second baseman Brandon Abernathy went 3 for 5 with two runs and two RBI, freshman right fielder Thomas Riley was 2 for 4 with two runs scored and two stolen bases, Tucci was 2 for 5 with a run scored and two RBI for the Lasers.
Gomez also had two hits and the Lasers had 14 hits on the day, but left 10 runners on base.
Freshman right-hander Andres Hernandez (2-1) took the loss, giving up one run on three hits in 0.1 innings to end things for IVC.
Sophomore lefty Jackson Chastain started the game for Irvine Valley and pitched a solid 5.1 innings, allowing two earned runs on three hits with no walks and eight strikeouts.
