“We all played hard, and we lost,” said third baseman Michael McGill. “That’s just the way it goes sometimes.”

Carlmont came out ready to play, but fell short against Palo Alto High School on Saturday afternoon.

Palo Alto started off the game strong with a home run, keeping Carlmont on their toes. Recovering quickly, Carlmont ended the top of the first inning with only one run scored by Palo Alto.

The offense struggled to come back, and ended the inning with three outs in a row. Palo Alto kept the bats alive with a solid hit to center field and a run batted in (RBI), keeping Palo Alto in the lead.

Pitcher Matt Seubert picked up the team with three strikeouts to start off the third inning. Again, the offense couldn’t find the right spots.

“We could have drove in the runners [who were] in scoring position,” said McGill. “We had several opportunities to score, but we didn’t capitalize on them.”

The game stayed clear of injuries for Carlmont, but Palo Alto wasn’t so lucky. During the top of the fourth inning, the pitcher received a foul ball in the face when he was up to bat. He was pulled out of the game and taken to the hospital. It is unknown how severe his injury was.

Carlmont’s defense quickly ended the inning. Providing some relief for the team, shortstop Kyle Barret managed to put a run on the board during the bottom of the fourth inning by stealing home on a past ball.

The next two innings went by as a battle of the defenses, keeping the score at 2-1 Palo Alto.

“We managed to prevent them from scoring [for a few innings], but we couldn’t put the bats on the ball when we needed to,” said first base man Alex Pennes.

During the top of the seventh inning, Palo Alto’s bats came alive. With two batters on base, one run scored, and one out on the board, relief pitcher Sean Yao came in for Seubert.

“I thought the game went well,” said Yao. “Paly (Palo Alto) was a good team, and we competed until the last out.”

Palo Alto kept their hitting streak going, and put four more runs on the board. Exhausted, Carlmont was able to finish off with a run by outfielder Julian Billot. The game ended with a final score of 7-2 Palo Alto.

“The game, although it ended poorly, wasn’t that disappointing because we know that at the end of the day we can look back and not regret anything,” said McGill.

Carlmont’s next game is at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, March 18 against Kalani High School.