The struggles of the De Anza College softball team continued after being shut out by San Mateo College 5-0 on April 15 at De Anza, their second consecutive loss to conference leaders.

De Anza played hard despite losing in nine innings on a walk off grand slam against current North-Coast Conference leader Ohlone College on April 14.

“When you go through an emotional game like this, it’s tough on a team,” Rachel Pacheco, manager of the De Anza team, said. “But everything aside, championships have to play every day. You still have to come out and play hard the next day.”

After starting pitcher Akemi Laiger loaded the bases with no outs, she enticed three ground balls. The other two were scored as errors, one to second, and the other short, leading to two unearned runs. San Mateo’s third baseman Nicole Cardoza followed with a two run single to right center, making the score 4-0 in favor of San Mateo.

The error charged to shortstop Emily Soumountha caused some controversy. After Soumountha cleanly fielded the sharp grounder, she appeared to apply a tag on the runner moving from second to third.

The umpire thought otherwise, called the runner safe, and claimed that the ball was not cleanly possessed by Soumountha when she made the tag.

Pacheco left the dugout and exchanged words with the umpire.

“Whether what I think is what he thinks, it doesn’t matter,” said Pacheco. “You dig as big of a hole as you put yourself in.”

Laiger was able to get out of the inning with a pop out to second, but her day was done, despite only allowing two earned runs and four hits. Pitcher Bianka Molina took over in the third despite having pitched all nine innings the day before. She ended up finishing the game, allowing only one more run in the top of the seventh inning on an RBI double by San Mateo’s catcher Tatiana Grelli.

“I had to be strong,” Molina said. “I was pretty tired, but I pitched my heart out, and did my best to keep my team in the game.” San Mateo starter Lauren Cole dominated, allowing only two hits in the game. She pitched seven consecutive innings.

“I was pretty amped,” said Cole. “I knew they were out for blood, but I was ready. I knew Coach Pacheco would keep me in the whole game.”

Head Coach Pacheco said that when a team is embarrassed in front of their home fans, the subsequent games are more emotionally involved. Pacheco added that she used to be friends with Head Coach Nicole Borg, of the San Mateo softball team, but now they are more focused on their respective teams then anything else.

“It’s definitely going to be a rivalry now,” said Pacheco.