De Anza baseball team falls to Sierra College by way of blowout

Kassandra Zeledon, Staff Reporter

The De Anza baseball team suffered another blowout loss to Sierra Community College on Feb. 4.

A scoreline of 21-2 marks yet another huge loss for the dons having been recently defeated by Santa Rosa Junior College 38-1.

Sierra started off by scoring a run in the first inning after their batter hit a ball to get to first base and then successfully stole second and third base.

De Anza tried to answer in the third inning by stealing bases of their own but they were unable to put a run on the board.

Heading into the fifth inning, Sierra’s pitcher was throwing a mixture of balls and strike balls against De Anza players.

“We had a lot of bases on balls and that leads to a lot of runs for the other team,” head coach Don Watkins said. “The guys are just practicing trying to get more accurate and more consistent strikes.”

Though the players faced a lot of adversity in the game, they didn’t let that get their spirits down as cheers from the dugout were heard throughout the entire game.

Players were encouraging one another and giving each other advice on plays.

Christian Tavarez, 20, business management major said he felt good coming into the game but it got out of hand.

“Base had one beginning and scored eight runs meaning the other team has one inning where they score most of the runs and get a lot of hits,” he said.

Tavarez said he could have thrown more strikes and fewer balls.

Regardless of the game’s outcome, Coach Watkins said he continuously encourages his team to get better.

“I’ve talked to them about journaling our experiences and writing it down when we win or lose and how we can do better as an individual or a team,” he said. “In about four or five weeks they can look back and see that they went through some growth by making sure we are always reflecting on what we do.”

A fourth loss by 10 or more runs hands De Anza a record of 1-4 for the season. The team will look to bounce back against College of San Mateo on Feb. 8.