The Fullerton Hornets baseball team lost in an upset to the Irvine Valley Lasers 17-5 Tuesday.

The loss dropped Fullerton’s record to 2 and 7 as Irvine Valley won their first game of the season, their record now being 1-7-1

Hornets head coach Chad Baum attributed their loss to bad pitching and defense.

“We sucked and we weren’t very good…the other team played harder and wanted to win more,” Baum said.

Despite the 12-run deficit, the Hornets earned 10 hits to the Lasers 15.

However, Fullerton’s struggles were highlighted with six defensive errors over the course of the game, all of them coming from the infield.

The scoring began in the second inning when Irvine Valley first baseman Hank Schineller, left fielder Dante Faicchio and second baseman Eric Burkle each scored unearned runs after reaching base on fielding errors.

In the bottom of the second, Hornet third baseman Jacob McClure scored on an RBI single by left fielder Dominic Martinez.

In the third inning, the Lasers tacked on four more runs, with one being unearned due to another Hornet error.

Fullerton responded in the bottom of the third as Matt Darr scored on a single by Ryan Lamastra.

In the top of the fourth, Irvine Valley scored four more runs, one of them being unearned due to yet another Hornet defensive error.

Fullerton began to mount a comeback in the bottom of the fourth, as Darr hit a base-clearing triple scoring three runs, shrinking the Lasers lead to 11-5.

The Lasers responded with one run in the top of the fifth.

The Hornets loaded the bases again in the bottom of the fifth inning but failed to score any runs from the opportunity.

Irvine Valley added three runs to their lead in the top of the eighth–two on a double by Faicchio and one more on another double by Schineller.

After no response by the Hornets, the Lasers sealed the game with two more runs in the ninth inning cementing the 17-5 victory.

“We’ve got to play baseball better, and go back to the ABCs,” Baum commented regarding what the team needs to do to improve.

When asked if COVID-19 played a role in the team’s losses, Baum said no.

The Fullerton Hornets will try to respond to Tuesday’s loss when they play Irvine Valley again Thursday at Fullerton College at 2 p.m.

Click here for a full stream of the event, plus live commentary. A full list of upcoming Hornet Baseball events with results of past games can be viewed here.