De Anza College’s baseball team lost to the visiting Chabot Gladiators 20-2 on Thursday April 10.

In the first inning, freshman starting pitcher Marcus DiBenedetto kept thwarting attempts by Chabot’s base runner to steal second base by throwing to the first baseman. The plan worked and DiBenedetto ended the inning without allowing that runner to score.

In the second inning, Chabot’s Michael Johnson got on base by bunting a single to the third baseman. Ivan Perez drove in Johnson from first base after  Dons shortstop Jake Smirnov committed an error on the play to give the Gladiators a 1-0 lead. Travis Hull then hit a sacrifice fly and drove in Perez from third base to push the lead to 2-0.

The Dons loaded up the bases in the bottom of the second inning after drawing three consecutive walks from the Chabot starting pitcher. The Dons could not capitalize on the chance to put runs on the score sheet and left the runners stranded on base.

Chabot tacked on four more runs at the top of the third inning. Patrick Massoni and Tyler Davis each got two RBIs to put the score at 6-0.

The Dons fought back at the bottom of the third when freshman first baseman Stanley Sumibcay hit a single to drive in freshman outfielder Marcus Maldonado to cut into the Gladiator’s lead at 6-1.

In the top of the fourth inning, Chabot added four more runs to spike their lead against the Dons to 10-1.

Neither team scored in the fifth and sixth innings.

During the seventh inning, Chabot’s Smith led off with a double to center field. The next batter, Ryan Howell, drove in Smith by doubling to left field. Two batters later, Hull got an RBI single by driving in Massoni from second and increasing the Gladiator’s lead to 13-1.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Dons struck out three consecutive times to end the inning.

“We played better than we did last time,” Sumibcay said. “We’ve seen improvement in both our defense and offense.”

Chabot scored another four runs in the eighth inning to push the lead to 17-1.

In the top of the ninth inning, Chabot added three more runs to increase their lead to 20-1. Then at the bottom of the ninth, Dons sophomore infielder Michael Lee scored the game’s last run to put a final stamp on the game.

“We’re improving, we’re getting better,” said De Anza head coach Scott Hertler of his team.  “(But Chabot is) really good.”