Stilinovich And Vizcaino Throw A 5-Hit Shutout
TOP PHOTO: Winner Nate Stilinovich, who started the game with 7 innings of 4-hit, shutout ball, delivers a pitch in the Comets' 5-0 victory over Southwestern on Thursday. DIRECTLY ABOVE: Shortstop Jared Montoya, who fielded a grounder and forced the Jaguars' Hunter Reed (20) at second, relays the ball to first on a third-inning double play. Palomar second baseman Gabe Willis, who homered in the bottom of the first, is at right. -- Photos by Hugh Cox
SAN MARCOS (4-27-2017) -- Left-hander Nate Stilinovich and right-hander Jonathan Vizcaino combined to pitch a 5-hit shutout on Thursday as Palomar closed out its home regular season with a 5-0 victory over visiting Southwestern.
The second-place Comets (30-8, 20-3 Pacific Coast Athletic Conference) and the third-place Jaguars (25-14,14-9) will close out the regular season on Friday at 2 p.m. at Southwestern. Palomar still has an outside chance to tie for the PCAC championship, which the Comets can accomplish if they win and College of the Desert upsets first-place Grossmont, which still leads them by one game.
But the Griffins beat the COD 26-3 Thursday to clinch at least a title tie and it's likely the Comets will enter the Southern California Regionals as the conference's runner-up.
With Thursday's score tied 0-0, the Comets' Gabe Willes smashed his second home run of the season over the rightfield fence at Palomar College Ballpark, a solo shot with two outs in the bottom of the first inning.
That was all the cushion Stilinovich needed to record the pitching win, and after the HR, the Jaguars prevented Willes from doing any more damage with his bat by walking him in the fourth ining and hitting him with pitches in the fifth and eighth innings.
Stilinovich (4-3) threw 7 innings, allowing only 4 hits while striking out 6 and walking 1. At one point he retired 13 Southwestern batters in a row. Vizcaino came in to relieve Stilinovich in the top of the eighth and finished off the Jaguars with 2 innings of no-hit, scoreless ball.
Palomar concluded the scoring for the day with another run in the bottom of the third and 3 more in the fourth inning.
The Comets made the most of only 5 hits of their own. Besides Willes' home run, Tristan King and Jordan Gardner each had an RBI single. Joey Cooper contributed a sacrififice fly and the other run scored on a passed ball.
Gardner made the defensive play of the game by coming in to make a diving catch in rightfield to rob Kyle Pineda of a hit in the sixth inning.