Comets Clip Golden Eagles, 6-2

IRVINE--Palomar College broke open a one-run game with three runs in the bottom of the seventh to pull away for a 6-2 win over Feather River in the opening game of the 3C2A Baseball Championships at the Great Park in Irvine.

That sends Feather River into a a must-win game on Sunday at 10 a.m. against the loser of this afternoon's game between Ohlone and Santa Ana. If the Golden Eagles are winners there, they would play again later in the day.

The Golden Eagles ran into a tough pitcher in Palomar's Joey Navarro, who went all nine innings and allowed just four hits and struck out ten. Navarro threw 140 pitches to improve to 10-2 on the season.

FRC, trailing 1-0, tied the game in the third when Noah Carrington doubled down the leftfield line and later scored on Walker DesRosier's ground ball to second base. The Comets answered in the bottom of the third and the fourth with a run each, but the Golden Eagles pulled to within a digit again in the fifth on Nick Anderson's RBI-single to make it 3-2.

But Palomar, the top ranked southern California team and listed #2 in the state, crossed the plate three times in the seventh to break the game open, with the biggest blow coming off the bat of Adrian Macias with a two-run homer.

In one last effort, FRC got two runners on base in the ninth, but couldn't bring them home. 

The Dirty Birds sent four pitchers to the mound that were able to hold the Comets to six total hits. The majority of the work was done in middle relief by Jayden Andrade, who pitched four innings and struck out six batters. He gave up just three hits and four runners crossed the plate, but none of those runs were earned. 

Feather River moves to Sunday's game with a 36-16 record. Palomar, located in north county San Diego, will advance to the winner's game with a 43-6 record.