No. 1 Comets roll as Clavel blanks Knights

SAN MARCOS (3/27/2023) – Guilianna "Gigi" Clavel pitched her second shutout of the season as the top-ranked Palomar College softball team remained unbeaten Monday with a 9-0 romp over San Diego City College in a Pacific Coast Athletic Conference rain make-up game at Bradley Park. 

The win, which was shortened to five innings by the mercy-run rule, lifted Palomar's record to 19-0 on the season, including a 5-0 mark in the PCAC. Clavel, a freshman right-hander out of Bonita Vista High School, limited the Knights to three hits while improving her season record to 5-0. She was supported offensively by a trio of three-run innings by the Comets, highlighted by back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the second inning by Faith Steffany and Allyson Amato. 

Steffany, a freshman right fielder (Rancho Buena Vista HS), got the Comets off to a quick start when she led off the first inning with a walk, stole second base and scored on an RBI single by Amato, a sophomore first baseman. After Amato stole second, sophomore third baseman Aaliyah Rivas followed with a run-scoring triple to right field. 

Sophomore second baseman Malachy Russell-Millen was hit by a pitch and Clavel walked to load the bases. After Rivas was forced out at the plate, sophomore catcher Elisa Haas hit an RBI groundout to second base to score Russell-Millen for a 3-0 Palomar lead. 

With one out in the second inning, Steffany legged out an inside-the-park home run to right-center field for her second homer of the season. The next batter was Amato, who clouted her third home run of the year over the fence in center field. One out later, the Comets added another run on a two-out walk to Russell-Millen and singles by Clavel and freshman shortstop Itzell De Los Rios (Olympian HS). 

The Comets were held scoreless in the third, but three errors by San Diego City (4-13, 1-4) and a run-scoring double by Haas led to three fourth-inning runs and a 9-0 Palomar lead. The Knights loaded the bases with one out in the top of the fifth inning on two singles and a walk, but De Los Rios and freshman second baseman Sarah Vega (Hilltop HS) turned a 6-4-3 double play to end the game. 

A busy week continues for the Comets as Palomar will host Orange Coast on Tuesday for a non-conference double-header with Game 1 beginning at 12 noon. Weather permitting, road games will follow on Wednesday at San Diego Mesa for a regularly scheduled conference game and Thursday at Santa Ana for a make-up non-conference contest which was rained out on March 2.