The Palo Alto High School baseball team lost to Los Altos, 2-4, away at Los Altos, tying the three game series in the SCVAL De Anza Division Finals. The Vikings struggled to get hits, but managed to score two runs before the Eagles took over.
For the first three innings, the Vikings controlled the game. Starting at bat, the Vikings sent Jack Witte (’12) up in the lead off spot. He grounded out to first and was followed by Alec Wong (’12) and Austin Braff (’12) who each got a walk to first. After a swift double play by the Eagles’ defense Kevin Kannappan (’12) took the mound. The first two batters were caught out. He finished the inning strong by striking out the next.
In the second, after getting walked, John Dickerson (’12) gave Paly an early lead when he stole home. Paly held the lead 1-0 going into the bottom of the second. With Kannappan on the mound, the Vikings held the Eagles at zero. The Eagles got two hits off Kannappan, but he ended the inning with another strike out.
With momentum growing, Witte shot one between first and second, making it to first. Due to an error at first, Witte took off toward second and ended with a double. A bullet by Wong over shortstop brought Witte home, bringing the Vikings into a comfortable 2-0 lead.
At the bottom of the third, Los Altos got a single by third putting a man on first. After a strike out and ground out, third base was occupied and home plate was at risk. However, an out at first ended the inning.
The fourth inning is when the tides turned. During the top Paly occupied a few bases from walks and steals, but in the end were shut down. The Eagles came into the inning starting off with a walk. A pop fly out to deep center was dropped by Isaac Feldstein (’13), giving the Eagles a double and a run by Nolan O’Such (’12). With the lead cut to one, the Eagles drove the ball down toward third base. This brought home Dominic Gachina (’13) and Conrad Rogers (’13), giving Los Altos the lead for good.
In the fifth, pinch runner Mathias McAfee (’13) ran in another to give the final score of 2-4 Los Altos.
In a final last effort to bring home a win, the Vikings loaded the bases with one out left in the seventh inning. An out at first ended the ball game.
A clear issue for the team is their lack of hits. Their hits added up to four while their walks more than doubled that at nine.
“We need to work on swinging the bat,” coach Erick Raich said. “We took nine straight pitches in one span there where we didn’t even swing the bat.”
Although hits are preferred over base on balls, the team did a good job racking them up. For their third game coming up tomorrow, the team hopes to bring that number up.
“We’ll see what happens tomorrow,” Raich said. “They’re going to come out with some momentum and we’ll see what we can do. Tomorrow is a new day.”
