The Skyline men’s baseball team shut-out the West Valley Vikings, 5-0, during their home game on Tuesday.

The Vikings batted first, getting a man to first base, but that was as far as they got before receiving three outs. Then the Trojans followed with an almost identical round to complete the first inning, the score was tied at 0-0.

In the fifth inning, Skyline seemed poised to take several points when Denis O’Connor (#11) hit a single, and then immediately after, Tony Loeffler (#16) hit a double, putting himself on second and O’Connor on third. However, the Trojans did not capitalize on these two hits and received two more outs, ending the inning.

From the onset of the game, whenever a Skyline pitcher was getting ready to throw the ball, the members of the other team who were on the bench would make a racket, usually cheering on the batter. O’Connor said that “this is a part of the game and that you just have to work through it.” For Skyline, the majority of the commentary came from the crowd and Coach Dino Nomicos, who would remind players of useful tips and offer words of encouragement as they are getting ready to bat.

Then, in the sixth inning, everything changed drastically. Skyline was able to one-up their performance from the previous inning by getting the bases fully loaded, through a combination of hits and walks. Then, one of the players hit a double, moving two players back to home plate and making Skyline the first team to post any runs. Tony Loeffler once again hit a double, bringing two more guys back home and giving Skyline an additional two runs. Whereas the score had been an even 0-0 at the end of the fifth inning, by the end of the sixth Skyline had a 4-0 lead over West Valley.

During the seventh inning, Cody Larson (#32) hit a one-run homerun giving Skyline one more run, bringing their total to five. For the remainder of the game, the Skyline Trojans continued what they had been doing on defense the entire game. The two pitchers, Greg Gonzalez (#3), and Marcus Pointer (#22) were really focused and were striking out many of the Viking batters. In addition, the outfielders for Skyline caught nearly every ball, even the ones that would have been fouls. With this combination, West Valley’s offense was suppressed and the game ended in the top of the ninth inning after West Valley’s final attempt at scoring was denied.

After the game, when asked what he thought the team’s key to victory was, O’Connor said “changing our mindset to being to go out and play hard; play to win.”

The team has been preparing for this game since the beginning of the season by “attempting to build”, meaning that at first they focused on small things and then gradually focused on harder and harder things, O’Connor said. Individually, O’Connor said he prepared for the game by working on the new mindset.

Gonzalez believed that the key to winning on Tuesday was the pitchers, who “made the guys hit the ball”, meaning that the ball never came to them. According to Gonzalez, the Trojans’ win in today’s game was huge.

“It is big to get the win against the other division.” Skyline and West Valley are in two separate divisions, and this means that they only play each other once, whereas teams in the same division play each other a total of three times, so it is important to grab a win against teams not in your division. But this win is also a big one personally for Gonzalez.

“West Valley is good. This is the first time we have beaten them since I’ve been here.”

The Skyline Trojans will play next on Thursday, April 2, in Gilroy. This will be the first of three consecutive games away from home.