State tournament awaits streaking Comets

SAN MARCOS (5/13/2023) – Allyson Amato and India Caldwell are two sophomores who have left a lasting imprint on the Palomar College softball program. Those two players provided impressive performances in the final home game of their community college career, leading to a trip to the California Community College Athletic Association state tournament. 

Amato went 4-for-4 at the plate with three extra-base hits, and Caldwell pitched a two-hit shutout as the Comets completed a two-game sweep of Santiago Canyon College with a 10-0 triumph Saturday in Game 2 of their Southern California Super Regional series at Bradley Park. The win was the 40^th of the season for the Comets, who will be the South No. 1 seed when the CCCAA state tourney begins May 18 at Mt. San Antonio College. 

"Glad to get our 40^th win going to state," said Comets coach Lacey Craft after her squad improved to 40-1 on the year with its 15^thconsecutive victory. "Ally put on a clinic out there. Not only was she hitting the ball to all fields, she was digging out balls at first base. 

"Indie did a great job, and it was good to see a lot of depth in the lineup providing support behind her." 

Caldwell improved to 27-1 by limiting Santiago Canyon to a pair of second-inning singles in five innings of work. The only other baserunner for the Hawks reached on an infield error in the third inning. Caldwell retired 11 of the last 12 batters she faced with no walks and four strikeouts as she finished off Santiago Canyon's season at 25-20. 

After hitting a triple and a double in Game 1 of the series, Amato continued to swing a hot bat in Game 2. She led off the bottom of the first inning with a double to left-center field as the first five Palomar batters reached base. Singles by sophomore designated player Aaliyah Rivas, sophomore second baseman Malachy Russell-Millen and freshman third baseman Itzell De Los Rios combined with an infield error on a grounder to the right side by freshman right fielder Faith Steffany to produce a 2-0 lead for the Comets. 

Amato didn't stop there, pulling a one-out double down the left-field line in the second inning before scoring on a single up the middle by Steffany for a 3-0 lead for the hosts. Palomar added three more runs in the bottom of the third inning, all scoring after two were out. 

Sophomore center fielder Cadee Herrmann began the third-inning rally with a two-out single to left. Sophomore left fielder Jonessa Hebreo and Amato each followed with singles to score Herrmann, and when Amato's hit to center was misplayed for an error, Hebreo came around to score. Amato then scored on a single to left by sophomore designated player Aaliyah Rivas for a 6-0 Palomar advantage. 

The nine-time Pacific Coast Athletic Conference champions scored four runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 10-0 lead and bring on the mercy-run rule situation. Singles by Russell-Millen and De Los Rios led to a two-run double to left-center field by sophomore catcher Ellison Hazlett, and Amato finished off the Comets' 15-hit assault with her fourth hit of the day, a two-run triple to center. 

Caldwell retired the side in the top of the fifth on a pair of strikeouts and a flyout to Russell-Millen in shallow right field to polish off her 13^thshutout of the season and the 24^th shutout for the Palomar pitching staff. 

Rivas, Russell-Millen, De Los Rios and Hebreo all had two hits apiece at the plate. 

"This team (Santiago Canyon) made us play hard throughout the series," Craft said. "It was nice to see us play well in all three phases: pitching, hitting and defense."

In other SoCal Super Regional results on Saturday, No. 2 seed Mt. San Antonio finished off a two-game sweep of No. 7 seed Bakersfield with an 8-0 victory; No. 3 Cypress also completed a two-game sweep over No. 6 Ventura by an 8-0 score; and No. 4 Cerritos bounced back from a Game 1 loss on Friday with two wins over No. 5 Fullerton, 4-1 and 6-2. 

Those three winners will join Palomar as the SoCal representatives at the eight-team state tournament along with the four victors in the Northern California Super Regionals.