Comets Cruise Into Semis
Walnut, CA - Palomar College, the SoCal No. 1 seed in this weekend's CCCAA State Softball Championships, cruised into the semi-finals on Friday afternoon with a 8-0, six-inning victory over NorCal No. 3 Sierra College. The Comets continued their hot hitting and fantastic pitching, while getting a little help from Wolverine errors.
The Comets put four on the board in the bottom of the first. Freshman Sarah Fisher got it all started with a double to right-center field. Sophomore Alicia Garcia followed that up with a single to right field that allowed Fisher to third. Fisher would score on the next play, thanks to the first of seven Sierra errors on the day. Moments later, sophomore Crystal DesLauriers launched a three-run bomb to left field that made it 4-0. In the bottom of the fourth, Fisher would hit a sacrifice fly to center field to give the Comets a 5-0 advantage.
With the Palomar (40-3) offense more than humming at the plate, sophomore Alicia Garcia (27-0) was in the zone. Garcia, who threw a five-inning no-hitter yesterday in the opening round, didn't give up her first hit of the week until there were two outs in the top of the third. Garcia would surrender back-to-back singles to center field, but got a pop-up to end the threat and cruised the rest of the way. Garcia would finish with a line of five innings pitched, two hits and a walk surrendered, and six Wolverines struck out.
In the bottom of the sixth, things came unglued for Sierra defensively as they committed three more errors. Those three errors combined with three Comet hits would lead to three more runs and the game ending in the sixth. Freshman Kylie Pignone would clinch the win with an RBI single through the left side that brought in Fisher for the game winning run.
At the plate, Palomar was paced by Pignone who was 3-for-4 with that RBI. Fisher finished 2-for-3 with a pair of runs and an RBI. Freshman Jillian Zamora was 1-for-2 with two runs scored.
With the win, Palomar advances to tomorrow's semi-finals back at Mt. San Antonio College. They will square off with this weekend's host, Mt. SAC at 3:00 PM. Sierra will drop into the elimination bracket and will play NorCal No. 1 College of San Mateo at Mt. SAC tonight at 7:00 PM.