The Comet baseball (0-2 overall) team is off to a somewhat rocky start this season losing Saturday at home to rival Diablo Valley College 21-6.

With an experienced but young team, some returning players are trying their hand at new positions — sophomores Johnny Velasco at third base and Eric Whitfield behind the dish as catcher.

The lopsided loss was mainly fueled by the lack of pitchers hitting their spots and the Comet offense not putting enough runners in scoring position.

The Vikings’ (2-0 overall) offense jumped all over the Comets’ pitchers from the start of the game putting up four runs in the top half of the first inning.

Additionally, the Comets’ pitchers couldn’t seem to fine-tune their location.

In the game, four DVC runners scored on wild pitches, five other runners advanced due to wild pitches, four batters were hit by pitches and a whopping 15 batters reached first base on walks.

“We need to work on our pitching, cut down on the walks and it will all work itself out. It’s still just the beginning of the season,”  Whitfield said.

The attitude in the locker room was upbeat after dropping the first two games of the season and the team seemed to focus on a larger silver lining — losses to good teams early on will only help them build and improve their skills so they are more prepared for play in the Bay Valley Conference.

The baseball team will return to action in an away game against City College of San Francisco on Thursday at noon. 

In the middle innings, Vikings coach Larry Quirico made the call to his bullpen and brought in freshman pitcher Scott Miller. The move wasn’t enough to contain CCC’s lineup.

The Comets had an explosive eighth inning where they minimized the number of runners left on base and made their hits count with a total of four runs crossing the plate.

Freshman outfielder and designated hitter Dylan Wilson started it off with a long double that rolled well past DVC freshman left fielder Amari Baltimore.

The left fielder eventually scored off the bat of freshman third baseman Joel Quintos’ single up the middle.

“We’re starting to come together more as brothers, but we played better on Friday than we did today because we were more focused,” Wilson said.    

In the second half of the game Whitfield significantly improved by blocking more pitches and keeping the ball in front of him than in the first half.

Although the Comets have an experienced team with many returning veteran sophomore players, the bullpen seems to be the largest hurdle they must get over, with nine out of 10 players being freshmen.

Ronald Ragland who went to Fremont High School and originally came to CCC for football said once the pitching staff noticed his impressive arm he was excited about pitching for the Comets.

“As a team, the upside of today’s game was that everyone rallied behind us and gave us confidence,” Ragland said.