Posted: May 10, 2025
Haywood silences Cerritos, Comets statebound again
Palomar
(40-3)
8
Cerritos
(31-12)
0
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Palomar | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 7 | 1 |
|
Cerritos | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
SAN MARCOS, CA (5/10/2025) – Nevaeh Haywood pitched 11 scoreless innings over two games as Palomar College continued its postseason softball success with a two-game sweep of Cerritos College in the California Community College Athletic Association Southern California Super Regionals.
Shutting out the Falcons in both games, the Comets won Game 1 on Friday, 9-0 in five innings, before clinching the series on Saturday with an 8-0 victory. After opening the first round of the SoCal Regionals with a two-game sweep of College of the Canyons, the Comets followed with another sweep of Cerritos to advance to the CCCAA State Championship for the 24th time in program history.
Palomar will be taking a 40-3 record and a 15-game winning streak into the eight-team state tournament, which is being held May 15-18 at West Valley and San Jose City colleges. The only other team in the state with 40 wins is West Valley, the No. 1 seed from the Northern California Regionals with a 41-3 record.
As the No. 3 seed from the South, Palomar will open the state tourney May 15 against College of San Mateo (39-3), the No. 2 seed from the North.
Haywood survived four challenging innings in Game 1 against Cerritos as the No. 6-seeded Falcons had baserunners in scoring position in all four frames against the sophomore right-hander. Haywood allowed just three hits but also hit four batters and walked one.
Cerritos failed to score on any of its opportunities, and after a walk and two hit batters loaded the bases with one out in the top of the third inning, Haywood induced the Falcons batter to bounce into an inning-ending 5-2-3 double play turned by sophomore third baseman Breanna
Lutz and sophomore catcher Isabella De Filippis.
The Comets were nursing a 1-0 lead at the time after scoring a first-inning run on a leadoff double to left-center field by Lutz, a sacrifice bunt by sophomore second baseman Josephine Hueberger and a run-scoring groundout by freshman left fielder Taylor Armstrong.
Still leading by just one run going to the bottom of the fourth, the Comets erupted for an eight-run rally highlighted by home runs by Zoe Karam and Armstrong. Freshman right fielder Alexis Huey ignited the outburst with a leadoff single, and she was one of four Palomar hitters to bat twice in the inning as the Comets sent 13 batters to the plate.
Freshman center fielder Gisele Gonzalez had two hits in the inning, including a run-scoring double and a single. Freshman shortstop Nalia Nuanez reached base with a perfectly-placed bunt single, and Lutz was hit by a pitch for the second time to load the bases for Heuberger, who connected with a two-run double down the left-field line.
Karam followed with a three-run blast over the fence in left field for her team-leading 12th home run of the season and third round-tripper against Cerritos. The sophomore first baseman hit two homers against the Falcons in Palomar's 18-0 regular-season romp at Cerritos on March 1.
Armstrong capped the big rally by slicing a hit to the left-field corner which spun away from the Falcons left-fielder, allowing Armstrong to speed all the way around the bases for an inside-the-park home run, her first four-bagger of the season.
Sophomore left-hander Maddie Bedolla pitched a perfect fifth inning to preserve the shutout, Palomar's 20th of the season.
Haywood spun seven more scoreless innings in Game 2 on Saturday, shutting down the Falcons on six hits with a complete-game effort for her 20th win of the season against two losses. Haywood did not allow a hit until a two-out single in the third inning, and she finished with one walk and seven strikeouts, including four looking.
A leadoff single by Gonzalez and an RBI triple to center by Lutz provided Haywood with the only run she needed in the third inning, and the Comets went on to add two runs in the fifth on a two-out, two-run single up the middle by Huey. Palomar tacked on three more runs in the sixth, with two scoring on a triple to left-center field by Heuberger.
With the Comets batting in the top of the seventh inning as the designated visiting team, Heuberger put a cap on Palomar's final home game of the season with a two-run single to left for the final margin. Heuberger had three hits in Game 2 and Gonzalez had two as both players provided four hits in the two-game series.
Cerritos had only two baserunners reach third base against Haywood, the second time coming in the seventh inning following a leadoff double and a sacrifice bunt. The next two batters grounded out harmlessly against Haywood, including a game-ending grounder to Nuanez which the shortstop charged and made the throw just in time to Karam to seal the shutout and end the Falcons' season at 31-12.
The other three second-round playoff pairings in the South also finished in two-game sweeps. Top-seeded Orange Coast (32-7) eliminated No. 10 Fullerton to end the season for the defending state champions, No. 2 Cypress (35-9) bounced out No. 8 Saddleback, and No. 5 El Camino (37-7) stunned South Coast Conference rival and No. 4 seed Long Beach City with two straight Super Regional wins on the Vikings' turf.
Orange Coast is making its first appearance in the 3C2A state tournament since 1993 and will face Modesto (28-13-1), the North's No. 4 seed, in the first round on May 15. Other first-round pairings at the state tourney include Cypress against Yuba (37-7-1) and El Camino against West Valley.
Palomar is seeking its third state crown under head coach Lacey Craft, whose teams won titles in 2013 and 2015. The Comets reached the state championship game in 2018, 2019 and 2023. Hall-of-Fame coach and program founder Mark Eldridge guided Palomar to three previous state championships in 1989, 1993 and 2000.