The Hawks baseball team played at home against Chabot College Gladiators on Tuesday, getting a 5-0 win to push their record to 6-0 to start the season.

Sophomore Josh Caldwell pitched the first four innings, giving up one hit and striking out six.

Caldwell was helped by early run support from sophomore center fielder Burle Dixon, who after being hit by a pitch to lead off the game, stole second and third base and was driven in on a groundout by sophomore infielder J.D. Mico on the next at-bat to make the score 1-0.

“I plan on having the most steals,” Dixon said. “I try to get on and get into scoring position. I try to steal second and third to get into scoring position for the guys behind me.”

Sophomore Joey Pankratz pitched in relief, taking over for Caldwell at the start of the fifth inning. Pankratz pitched three innings, giving up three hits and striking out two.

The score remained 1-0 until the seventh inning, when sophomore left fielder Clay DuVal, who walked on the at-bat before, was driven in by Sophomore catcher Jeremy Kolb when he hit a single and advanced to second on an infield error.

Kolb would then be driven in when freshman right fielder Jorge Montoya hit a double to the outfield.

“Each at-bat I was trying to work on something different,” Montoya said. “The first at-bat [Chabot’s pitcher] got me inside. My next couple at-bats I was looking outside, which he did, so I took it the other way. That’s when I got that double.”

Dixon would then hit the second double of the inning to drive Montoya in, bringing the score to 4-0.

“With guys in scoring position, you try to get those guys in and help run the score up to help our team win,” Dixon said.

Dixon then stole third, his third steal of the day, and scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of J.D. Mico to bring the score to 5-0.

“When you have a big lead on a team, it definitely relaxes everyone and gets everyone playing a lot more lose and just having fun,” said Kolb.

Freshman pitcher Brian Freitas closed out the game, giving up only one hit over two innings pitched, striking out one.

The Hawks are playing well and remain undefeated in the early season.

“I’m happy for our guys, but we’re still not playing our best baseball yet, we’re still trying to put together some good baseball,” said Hawks Head Coach Don Mico. “We pitched very well today, we got the timely hits. We got a couple errors late in the game, there’s stuff we gotta clean up as we get better.”

Next the Hawks have a three game series scheduled against College of the Sequoias on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. As of Wednesday, the games on Thursday and Friday have been postponed.

“They’re definitely a good team, and definitely a good test going into league coming up,” Kolb said. “Last year we went 1-2 against them down at their place, and so we’re definitely gonna want some revenge getting back at them, and hopefully we have a good weekend.”