In the first game of the 3rd Annual SoCal Challenge, the Cerritos College baseball team recorded a 7-4 win over Irvine Valley College at Kincaid Field on Thursday. With the win, the Falcons (2-2) will now take on San Joaquin Delta College at 2:00 p.m. in the next game of the invitational.

Cerritos jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when freshman outfielder Julian Francois (Serra HS) tripled to lead off the inning and scored on a sacrifice fly from freshman second baseman Bilal Ali (Long Beach Millikan HS). After the Lasers tied the game, sophomore shortstop Andy Vega (Mary Star of the Sea HS) opened the second inning with a triple and was plated on a double by sophomore third baseman Alex Bueno (Centennial, NV HS). A fielder's choice from freshman outfielder Angel Alvarez (Arvada, CO HS) put Cerritos in front, 3-1.

Holding Irvine Valley at bay was freshman pitcher Jael Leal (Gahr HS), who worked out of tough situations in each of his five innings. Of the 10 runners left on base while Leal (1-0) was on the mound, eight of them were in scoring position. Even in his final inning, Irvine Valley was able to load the bases until Leal got Nolan Cusey to fly out to Francois in left field to end the inning.

The Falcons extended their lead to 6-1 after freshman first baseman Sawyer Chesley (Laguna Beach HS) led off the sixth inning with a solo home run, while two walks, an error and a balk allowed Bueno to come around the bases. They added an insurance run in response to Irvine Valley scoring three times in the top of the seventh inning. Alvarez, who drove in a pair of runs on the day, reached base on an error, moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt from freshman outfielder Terril Steen, Jr. (North Torrance HS) and then went to third on a balk. With the bases loaded after Francois and Ali were walked, Chesley was hit by a pitch to bring in the final run.

Freshman Noah Perelman (Edison HS) pitched the next two innings, while freshmen Noah Ortega (Downey HS) and Carter Stoddard (Sunny Hills HS) accounted for an inning each, with Stoddard picking up his second save in as many games.