The Irvine Valley baseball team handed Santa Ana just its third loss of the season, defeating the Dons' 9-7, Saturday afternoon in the final game of a three-game Orange Empire Conference series.
Santa Ana, ranked No. 1 in the state, took two of the three games.
Irvine Valley improved its record to 11-8 overall and 1-2 in conference. Santa Ana went to 17-3 overall and 2-1 in conference.
Irvine Valley was able to take a game behind some tough pitching from sophomore Robbie Haw and freshmen Steve Hayden and Joshua Ribera and getting some clutch hits, including a three-run home run by sophomore third baseman Dante Faicchio.
Haw earned the win, his second of the year, by going seven innings. He gave up seven runs (five earned) on nine hits and three walks with five strikeouts.
Hayden got out of a jam in a scoreless eighth inn and Ribera did the same in the ninth. Santa Ana had the tying run at second base with one out in the ninth inning, but Ribera got a pop out and then a fly out to end the game and pick up his second save of the year.
Dane Baker took the loss for Santa Ana.
IVC took the lead for good off of Baker in the bottom of the sixth inning. That is when Faicchio got into a pitch and sent it over the left field fence for the three-run shot. It gave Irvine Valley a 8-5 advantage.
The Lasers added a run in the bottom of the seventh inning on a passed ball to go up, 9-5.
But the Dons responded with two runs off of Haw in the top of the eighth inning. Hayden and then Ribera were able to shut the door, however.
Irvine Valley finished with 10 hits at the plate in the game. Sophomore center fielder Joey Lapolla was 2 for 5 with one RBI and sophomore left fielder Kyle Dobson went 2 for 4 with two runs scored.
Faicchio was 1 for 2 with the big home run, a double, a walk and two runs and sophomore first baseman Hank Schineller went 1 for 4 with a double and one RBI.
Santa Ana, which had 13 hits in the game, was led by Cedrick Perez and Copper Hansen, who each had three hits, and Austin Bartlett, who was 2 for 5 with two RBI.
