The De Anza College softball team defeated the visiting Diablo Valley College Vikings 6-2 on Thursday, March 13.

Led by a complete game performance from freshman right-handed pitcher Lauren Matias and strong defensive play behind her, the Dons managed to keep the Vikings off the scoreboard for six of the seven innings in the game.

“(The team) played well together and got the job done,” Matias said. “I didn’t play to my full potential today.”

Matias said she was tired going into the game, but managed to outduel Diablo’s pitcher Carrie Lee.

In the first inning, neither team could get anything going. Both starting pitchers combined for three strikeouts and shut down the offense.

After a quick top of the second inning, the Dons struck in the bottom half with one run. Sophomore outfielder Victoria Chavez hit an RBI single to give the Dons the early 1-0 lead.

One inning later, an offensive flurry by the Dons extended their lead to five runs.

Matias started with a single to left field. Then freshman infielder Hailey Perkins hit a line drive past the pitcher to put freshman outfielder Amber Smith in scoring position. Smith pinch ran for Matias after getting on base.

On the next play, freshman infielder Caitlin Shannon flied out to left field, but the Vikings left fielder bobbled the fly ball from Shannon and Smith scored from second base to increase the score to 2-0.

One batter later, the Dons scored another two runs courtesy of the Vikings left fielder to put the score at 4-0. Next, freshman catcher Arianna Eugene bunted to score another run from third base and the score was 5-0.

In the top of the fourth, Matias gave up her first hit of the game to her opposing pitcher Lee. But the Vikings couldn’t take advantage of the single and stranded their pitcher on base.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, freshman infielder Claire Cali got an infield single after beating out a throw from the shortstop.

The next batter for the Dons hit a sacrifice bunt to move Cali to second base.

After Matias grounded out to the pitcher and moved Cali to third base, Perkins drove in Cali to give the Dons a 6-0 lead.

During the top of the fifth inning, the Vikings broke through against Mathias, driving in two runs thanks to two errors from the Dons.

After giving up a walk to start the sixth inning and a single to start the seventh inning, Matias and the Dons recovered defensively and produced inning-ending double plays in the sixth and seventh to finish the game.

De Anza head coach Rachel Pacheco said her team played well defensively despite committing a few errors and got hitting from the players when it was needed the most.

“We had timely hitting,” Pacheco said. “On top of that, we took advantage of our opponent’s mistakes to score those runs from those hits.”

The win gives the Dons a record of 7-10 overall and 4-4 in conference play. The team’s next home game is against Hartnell College at 3 p.m. on Thursday March 20.