After shutting out Long Beach City, 6-0, on the road in its 2026 opener on Friday, Irvine Valley's baseball team played its first game at home on Saturday and took down the Vikings, 7-3.
IVC, off to a 2-0 start, plays its next two games on the road.
The Lasers are at West Los Angeles on Tuesday at 1 p.m. and then play at Compton on Wednesday at 1 p.m.
On Saturday, IVC scored early and often against LBCC.
Irvine Valley put up two runs in the bottom of the second inning, added three runs in the bottom of the third and then took a 7-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth frame with two more runs.
To get things started in the second inning, freshman right fielder John Uchytil had a two-run single up the middle.
In the third inning, freshman first baseman had an RBI single and then sophomore third baseman Lucas Scott added a two-run single to make it a 5-0 game.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, freshman catcher Shane Flynn scored on a balk and then Ceja scored on a wild pitch.
Long Beach tried to make it close, putting up two runs in the top of the sixth and a single run in the seventh, but it wasn't enough as IVC freshman right-hander Cooper Hahn and sophomore lefty Christian Viggiano were more than good enough on the mound.
Hahn earned the win, going six innings. He gave up two runs on four hits and one walk with seven strikeouts.
After sophomore righty Drew Mits pitched an inning, Viggiano closed things out with two scoreless innings. He gave up one walk and had one strikeout.
IVC had eight hits on the day with Ceja going 2 for 3 with a walk and three runs scored, Scott finishing 2 for 3 with two RBI and Uchtytil going 1 for 4 with two RBI.
Sophomore center fielder Sam Tucci also had two hits with a double and scored a run for the Lasers.
