The De Anza College baseball team lost to the visiting West Valley Vikings 18-5 on Thursday March 6.

Freshman right-handed pitcher Kavin Mistry started the game on the mound for the Dons.

In the top of the first inning, the Vikings scored six runs off of Mistry to give their starting pitcher an early lead. From there the Dons were playing catch-up the whole game.

West Valley would tack on four more runs in the next two innings to make the score 10-0 heading into the bottom of the third inning.

Then, the Dons scored three runs courtesy of sophomore first baseman Joseph Garo and a little help from the center fielder.

With the bases loaded, Garo singled to center field and got an RBI. As the play went on, the Vikings’ center fielder misplayed the ball Garo hit and allowed two more runs to come in, making the score 10-3.

West Valley scored one run in the fifth inning and one in the sixth to push its lead to 12-3.

After the Dons held the Vikings to a scoreless top of the seventh inning, they cut into the Vikings’ lead in the bottom of the inning.

Freshman first baseman Stanley Sumibcay, Garo and freshman infielder Alejandro Padilla led off the bottom of the seventh inning with three straight singles to load the bases with no outs.

The Dons got an RBI single from freshman infielder Tyler Walters to close the Vikings’ lead to 12-4. Two batters later, freshman outfielder Robert Del Real grounded into a fielder’s choice and scored Garo.

With two outs, sophomore outfielder Jonathan Collins drew a walk and loaded the bases for sophomore catcher Christian Perez, but he struck out to end the rally for the Dons.

The Dons stranded multiple runners on base during the game and failed to score runs that could have closed the gap.

“We had our opportunities (to score),” Del Real said. “We were thinking too much at the plate, not focusing on what’s at hand and didn’t capitalize when we needed to.”

West Valley scored five runs in the top of the eighth inning to extend the lead to 17-5 and put the game out of reach for the Dons.

The Vikings would score one more time in the ninth inning and ended the scoring for the game.

“We didn’t play well defensively,” said De Anza head coach Scott Hertler. “We gave up too many runs in the first inning and that put us in a hole early in the game.”

The loss gave the Dons a record of 0-14 on the season and 0-3 in conference play.

The next home game for the Dons is against Chabot College at noon on Saturday March 15.