Best baseball season in school history comes to an end
May 18, 2008
The Irvine Valley College baseball team saw the best season in program history end late Saturday afternoon with a loss to Orange Empire Conference rival Santa Ana College in the Southern California Playoffs Super Regional at Santa Ana.
The Lasers, who dropped their opening game in the double elimination tournament on Friday, bounced back with a 4-2 win over Bakersfield Saturday morning before losing to Santa Ana, 5-2, later in the day on Saturday.
"It is sad to have the season end," IVC Coach Kent Madole said. "We had quite a ride this year with this team and this group of guys. It was so much fun.
"These guys made it a lot of fun. We had a great group of sophomore players who gave it their all and really led the way and some freshman guys that stepped up all year long."
IVC took a 1-0 lead in the first inning over Santa Ana Saturday afternoon.
Center fielder Matt Ivanoff singled to center field, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by right fielder Brian Ferrante and scored on a single through the right side by Abel shortstop Medina.
But the the Dons came back to tie the game at 1-1 in the third inning when Casey Rihn doubled to right-center and scored on two consecutive passed balls.
Santa Ana extended its lead to 4-1 in the third inning with three runs on three hits. Marcus Piazzisi hit a two-run double down the right field line.
The Dons scored their fifth, and final, run in the fifth inning when Crispin Tarango hit a RBI double to left-center field scoring Derek Eligio.
IVC scored its second run in the seventh inning to cut the lead to 5-2 when catcher Alex Agortsas hit a sacrifice fly to score Medina.
But that was it for the Lasers.
"We just couldn't put enough hits together on offense today," Madole said. "Give credit to Santa Ana. I am still proud of my guys and the way they all fought and supported each other throughout the day."
IVC started the day with the win over Bakersfield. The win was IVC's first ever Super Regional victory.
In its only other trip to a Super Regional in 2005, IVC lost two straight games.
Ivanoff was 2 for 5, Ferrante went 3 for 4, third baseman Vince Hungerford was 2 for 4 with one RBI, first baseman Connor Rhoads went 2 for 4 with two RBI and Medina was 1 for 3 with one RBI for IVC.
Freshman pitcher Jared Haller got the win (8-2) going seven innings and giving up just one run on six hits with a walk and a strikeout.
IVC finished the year with a record of 32-17 overall.
Southwestern ended up winning the Super Regional, knocking off Santa Ana on Sunday.