OAKLAND– For the first time in nearly two years, the De Anza Mountain Lions took to the field on the road dropping their season opener against Laney College 7-2 on Jan. 27. 

Starting Pitcher Mat Garcia pitched seven innings and allowed seven runs on eleven hits and four walks. He said that his nerves were high but that the last three innings were much more settling, where he only allowed two hits. 

“I decided to calm down a little bit for the first start of the year,” Gomez said. “The adjustments I made was just to attack them, just to make them hit the ball instead of those little dribblers.”

Laney’s right fielder Tyler Shonnard set the tone of the game early with a lead off home run hit on only the second pitch of the game. De Anza answered back in the top of the second when third baseman Iram Maciashit hit a solo home run to tie the game at 1-1. 

The Mountain Lions then had an opportunity to take the lead in the third with runners on first and second with one out, but they couldn’t pull through when shortstop Caleb Severson hit into a double play to end the inning.

This proved costly as Laney would respond in their next frame by scoring six runs in the next two innings.

De Anza’s offense would respond with a run of their own in the fifth but couldn’t bring any more runs home. The Mountain Lions would only get two more hits in the last four innings and registered six consecutive outs in the seventh and eighth.

The Mountain Lions looked to have a rally in the top of the ninth when first baseman Marquez Macias led off with a double, but two swinging strikes outs and a walk later, catcher Cesar Ortega jr would ground out to end the game.

Mountain Lions Manager Don Watkins said he was proud of the way his team played despite the loss and liked seeing the competitiveness out of his starting pitcher.

“They’re awesome kids,” said Watkins. “For two years not being on the field we were resilient.”

Watkins said the team will have to make some adjustments..

“It’s a game of hitting so we’re going to try to out him them and out score them,” said Watkins. “We got to hit and we got to score.”

De Anza will play its first home game since the pandemic, Tuesday, Feb. 1 against the City College of San Francisco.