Paly baseball lost their season opener to Serra, 4-1, on Thursday afternoon. Henry Harding (’25) got the start on the mound for the Vikings and held the Padres in check for most of the afternoon. 

The Padres struck first, tallying two runs in the first two innings, but Harding quickly settled in after. The best inning from the sophomore pitcher was the 4th when he set Serra down in order, beginning with a strike out swinging, and capped off by two nice plays from second baseman Zach Thom (’24) and Charlie Bates (’24). 

In the 5th, a one-out bloop single to left field by Serra would come back to bite, as that run was later scored on a two-out triple off the right field wall. Serra brought their A-game on the bump, keeping the Vikings out of the hit column for most of the game. Paly got on the board in the last of the 7th inning, with a pinch-hit RBI single down the left field line by Tyler Mostofizadeh (’23).

Overall, the showing from the young team was encouraging, showing that they can hang with one of the best teams in the section. 

 “The team is very young, [and] opening up with Serra was a great test for us,” Russ Filter (’23) said.

Experience will be something that the team will begin to collect as the year goes on, but as of now, the lineup is riddled with many underclassmen making their varsity debut. A lot of the success from last year’s team came from a multitude of seniors, ten to be exact. 

“Our starting lineup only had two varsity starter returners from last year’s squad,” Filter said.  “Going forward, once our younger guys get more experience, we will be in a great spot.”

The Vikings’ next contest comes against Monterey at a neutral site on Monday.