WHITTIER — After dropping its Del Rio League home opener to California last month, the La Serna baseball team hosted the Condors again Wednesday and needed a win to stay in sole possession of first place.

The Lancers took control early with four runs in the second inning, and staved off a late comeback attempt by California in a 5-2 win that evened the season series.

La Serna (13-9, 7-2) will travel to Cal (16-6, 5-4) today to take on the Condors in the series rubber match.

La Serna pitcher Grady Long knew what was at stake and delivered in his start. The sophomore allowed two runs in six innings. Long, who is also the football team’s starting quarterback, picked up five strikeouts.

“(I was) trying to attack the zone and get ahead, make them hit it,” Long said. “I think I did a pretty good job of that. I got behind in the counts in the end, but I feel like I worked myself back and had a great defense behind me making plays all day.”

The Lancers supported Long with 10 hits and three players had multiple hits.

“We’ve been swinging pretty well,” La Serna coach Anthony Gonzales Jr. said. “Hitting is contagious as everybody knows, and these guys are just feeding off each other. They are very hungry, and they work very hard on their hitting craft.”

La Serna’s Isaiah Lopez Del Haro was 2 for 3 with a double, and Ryan Barraza finished 2 for 3 with an RBI single.

It didn’t take long for La Serna’s offense to get going.

After a quiet first inning, where the Lancers went down in order, the offense produced four consecutive base hits to begin the top of the second inning.

La Serna got a pair of two-RBI singles to crack open the game with a 4-0 lead.

Long credited the offensive outburst with reenergizing him on the mound to power through three more scoreless frames.

“It’s a great feeling, definitely brings the energy going into the next inning,” Long said. “I feel better, my arm feels better, everything feels better going into the next inning with some run support. They did a great job.”

La Serna added a run in the fifth, pushing its lead to 5-0.

The Condors scored two runs in the sixth inning to breathe some life into the team.

In the seventh inning, Cal had runners in scoring position, but a double play ruined any chance of a comeback attempt.

“I’m proud of how our guys rallied and responded,” Cal coach Kyle Pine said. “Unfortunately we ran ourselves out of an inning in the sixth and got a bad call that we didn’t like in the seventh. That killed two rallies that might have (made) a different outcome to this game.”