The Palo Alto Vikings’ baseball team lost 12-0 against the Westmont Warriors Saturday, in its first game of the regular season. Westmont took advantage of several mistakes from Paly’s pitchers and defense to build a lead in which the Vikings never made a dent.
Paly’s trouble started early as senior pitcher Neal Ketchum gave up a pair of walks and an infield single to load the bases with no outs. Ketchum got two strikeouts, but the second ended in a pastball on which Paly could not make the play, which allowed Westmont to get on the board first. The Vikings fell even further behind on the very next pitch as Westmont drove in two more runs with a line drive to center field. Paly could only respond with a single from junior Steve Burk before infield outs to finish the first frame trailing, 3-0.
Ketchum settled down over the next couple of innings as he struck out two, but he got no run support from the Viking lineup as Paly also failed to make contact. Westmont struck again in the third inning as Ketchum hit a second batter and gave up a long triple to left field to put the Warriors up by four. Paly coach Dave Jefferson chalked the early runs up to the normal jitters of a team playing its first game of the spring.
“Nervousness played a role,” Jefferson said. “Once they got in the game, they started speeding it up instead of letting it come to them.”
Jefferson took the pressure off of Ketchum in the fourth after the pitcher threw two more pastballs to allow a strikeout victim to advance to second base and gave up a base hit and a walk to load the bases. Burk took over pitching and allowed two inherited runs to score on a single and fielder’s choice, increasing Paly’s deficit to 6-0 on Paly’s errors.
“We threw away a few balls that turned into tailspins and allowed them to score a lot of runs,” Jefferson said.
A pair of errors by the Paly defense and a balk by Burke added to the trouble in the fifth inning, allowing another run to score. Burke then hit a batter to load the bases and surrendered three more runs on a fielder’s choice and a Westmont double, making the lead 10-0. Paly tried to respond by putting a runner in scoring position with a walk and hit batsman, but Ketchum was thrown out trying to steal third to stop the Viking effort.
The Westmont attack kept up even through the final inning as junior relief pitcher Colin Byrne gave up a two-run homer to put the Warriors up a dozen. Paly gave no resistance in the last frame, putting up three straight outs and finishing without a score.
Jefferson was disappointed with the defeat but felt that the Vikings could get back on the winning track soon.
“We just had our first game with a team like Westmont who really came out to compete,” Jefferson said.
The Vikings will get a chance at redemption when they play the St. Francis Lancers at 4:00 p.m. Tuesday in Mountain View.