Comets silence Knights with sweep

SAN DIEGO, CA (3/4/2023) -- Palomar College baseball opened up conference play against San Diego City College and swept the series to move to 2-0 in conference play. ON Friday afternoon the Comets bested the Knights by winning 20-1 and on Saturday the Knights found a way to cool the flmaing hot bats of the Comets, but the Comets took game two 2-1 in 10 innings.

The Comets elected to get score pretty much any way possible on Friday afternoon. Up 2-1, sophomore Jack Sanders worked a lead-off walk to bring sophomore Quincy Scott to the plate. Scott doubled to score Sanders to take a 3-1 lead. Sophomore Kyle Harvey then doubled to score Scott. Freshman Noah Lazuka worked a walk of his own to get runners on first and second. Harvey and Lazuka then advanced on a wild pitch that send the City catcher looking for the ball and Harvey snuck in the run at home to take a 5-1 lead. Lazuka, now on third, then scored on a balk to round out the four run third inning. Then in the fourth, sophomore designated hitter Carter Hain had a 3-run inside the park home run to put the Comets up 10-1 before freshman Noah Lazuka sent one to left centerfield for his third round tripper of the season. Finally, up 19-1 in the eighth inning, sophomore Zuhayr Chouhdry was sent to the plate to pinch hit for Hain. Choudry tripled and then scored on an error by the shortstop to end the scoring frenzy. 

On Saturday, the Knights were able to get back in control a little. After a home run in the first inning by the Knights, the Comets got the run back in the top of the fourth inning when Lazuka singled to score Hain. Locked at one apiece, the Comets played their second extra innings game this season. In the 10th, Hain singled to score Sanders to take the 2-1 lead. Cosing pitcher Mike Villani was able to keep the lead for the Comets in the bottom half of the inning and recorded a conference-leading third save of the season. 

Palomar's pitching staff has only improved as the season has gone on. Sophomore Kyle Carr, a Texas Christian University commit, pitched six innings on Friday. He allowed the Knights their solo home run in the first and retired the next 13 batters in a row. He finished with six strikeouts and allowed just two hits. He received his fifth decision of hte season and moves to 4-1. Sebastian Castro, Nick Crystal and Logan Herrera each pitched one inning of relief each. The group allowed one hit and struck out four batters. On Saturday, Logan Hunt was given the nod as the starter. Through six innings, he allowed one run on four hits and recorded two strikeouts. Evan Langer, Carson Hamro and Villani came in for relief innings and did not allow a single hit. They struck out five batters. Hamro was the winning itcher and he moves to 2-1 on the season.

Palomar is now 10-5 overall and 2-0 in conference play. They will face Imperial Valley College on Tuesday on the road for a 2 p.m. first pitch and will be back at The Ballpark for a 2 p.m. first pitch on Thursday afternoon.