SANTA ANA - The Dons offense staked starter Kevin Clementi to an early 3-0 lead and he took care of the rest as SAC defeated Irvine Valley College 5-1 in an Orange Empire Conference game. The victory gives the Dons (18-11, 9-7) a 2-0 series win over Irvine Valley (8-20, 4-12) with the series finale coming on Tuesday, at Irvine Valley College.

The Dons also moved into a four-way tie for second place in the OEC, joined by Cypress College, Orange Coast College and Riverside City College. Both Cypress and Riverside won today to move up with the Dons while Orange Coast lost, dropping them into the tie.

After Clementi retired IVC in order in the top of the first inning, the Dons scored three runs in the bottom half of the first with the first five batters reaching in order. Joshua Vargas led the frame off with a single before Alex Mascarenas doubled him in from second, after a stolen base.

Ryan Aguilar then reached on a fielder's choice followed by a single by Garret Brown. Daniel Martinez, Jr. also reached on a fielder's choice with all runners safe on the play before Troy Baird drew a walk that forced Aguilar home. The scoring was capped off by a sacrifice fly by Cesar Serna that scored Brown.

Martinez extended the Dons lead to 4-0 in the third inning with a solo home run to right field. It was Martinez's second home run in as many games and third in the last five.

Brett Hamilton provided Irvine Valley's lone run with a solo home run in the fifth inning before the Dons scored their final run of the game in the seventh inning when Vargas doubled in Cameron Baranek.

Clementi (2-2) picked up the win for the Dons as he held IVC to just the one run on three hits while striking out six over seven innings. Jesus Meza (1-7) took the loss for the Lasers after allowing all five runs on eight hits over 6.2 innings of work.