Varsity Softball beat rival Gunn High School 6-0 on April 16.

The game was a no hitter, with pitcher Samanta Prabhu striking out 16 batters.

Senior captain Kensie Pao said the team felt competitive going into a game against their rivals.

“Going into the game we went in with the mindset that this is our rival Gunn and that we want to play a good game,” Pao said. “At the same time we played a game that was very similar to the games that we’ve already played.”

Head coach Michelle Teofan echoed this idea, and said going into the game, the team had to fight to keep their place in the El Camino and De Anza leagues.

“Clearly this was a game that we needed to win to keep our first place position,” Teofan said. “This was particularly stressful given our recent loss to Mountain View (High School) right after spring break.  ”

Despite this pressure coming into the game, Teofan said Paly played well.

“We knew that Gunn was our biggest competition, not just from a home field/rival perspective, but from a #1 vs # 2 perspective,” Teofan said. “We played the best game that I have ever seen this team play. Both from an offense and defense perspective.”

Junior Laila Joshi said the team played well, and said part of this was consistency. 

“Overall, I think our team did really well,” Joshi said. “We were able to make a lot of good defensive plays and our at bats were consistent.”

Pao said the team worked strategically to prepare for the game. 

“We had a lot of good RBI hits, and we supported each other as a team a lot,” Pao said. “We played really good bunt defense, and we had a really clean fielding day, and so I’m really happy about the team’s performance overall.”