In the first game of its new season, the American River College baseball team lost 8-0 at home Thursday afternoon to the West Valley College Vikings .

The team was hoping for a better start to its season than a shutout after finishing last season with an 11-25 record.

Vikings starting pitcher Tim Emory had a very effective six innings, managing his pitch count well through the fifth, only allowing four hits and two walks with two strikeouts.

The Vikings relief pitching over the next three innings was equally as impressive, only allowing the Beavers one more hit in the game.

Beavers starting pitcher Thomas Peterson threw seven strikeouts compared to one walk over five and a third innings, and controlled damage reasonably well, only allowing three runs on eight hits. But a shaky defense behind him and solid hitting from the Vikings ended his night prematurely.

The Beavers were ineffective from both an offensive and defensive standpoint. They had a team total of five hits in 30 at bats, and hit a high number of easy pop flies. Meanwhile on defense, there were three fielding errors, and relief pitching gave up five earned runs after Thomas Peterson came out of the game in the fifth.

The Vikings have gotten off to a hot 2-0 start, beating Solano Community College 11-7 on Jan. 28. ARC will now go on the road for two games, the first of which being a rematch with West Valley on Saturday.