South Teams Get The Upper Hand In Day 1 Of 3C2A Baseball State Championships
IRVINE -- South No. 1 seed Palomar College's Joey Navarro emptied the tank on the mound, pitching a complete-game gem to lead the Comets to a 6-2 win over N2 Feather River in Game 1 of the 3C2A Baseball State Championships on Saturday afternoon at Great Park.
With the victory, the Comets (42-6) advance to the championship semifinals to play Santa Ana (41-6-1) on Sunday at 2 p.m. The Golden Eagles (36-15) face Ohlone (40-9) at 10 a.m. in an elimination semifinal.
If its his last appearance of 2026, Navarro (10-2) went out in style, using 140 pitches to hold Feather River to just two runs on four hits, walking only three, while striking out 10.
Palomar jumped out in front early, scoring a run in the bottom of the first, courtesy of a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch off the body of Preston Conklin.
FRC tied the game in the top of the third when Noah Carrington led off the frame with a bad-hop double down the left-field line. He advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Josh Davies and scored two batters later on a fielder's choice off the bat of Walker DesRosier.
Palomar took advantage of a pair of costly errors which caused the majority of the damage down the stretch. In the bottom of the seventh with two outs and a runner on third, a harmless ground ball to end the inning was overthrown, allowing Conklin to score from third to put Palomar up, 4-2. One batter later, Adrian Macias slugged an opposite-field, two-run home run to put the Comets up, 6-2. Four of Palomar's six runs in the game were unearned, putting even more strain on the Golden Eagle pitching staff.
But the story was Navarro, who kept FRC's leadoff batters off the bases in seven of his nine innings pitched, allowing for less stress and an opportunity for a rare complete game. In the top of the ninth, Feather River put runners first and second before Navarro retired the final FRC batter on a harmless ground out to third to end the game.
Rainn McMillan went 2-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI for the Comets, while Michael Rodda added two hits and a RBI.
Nick Anderson went 1-for-4 with an RBI for the Eagles. FRC starter Jack Hanna (6-2), took the loss, allowing two runs on three hits with three walks and three strikeouts over 2.2 innings. Jayden Andrade, Gunner Mountcastle, and Carter Lindyn held the Comets to no earned runs over the final 5.1 frames, but the four unearned runs over that span proved to be the difference.
SANTA ANA 10, OHLONE 4
What the bats started for S2 Santa Ana, the arms finished as the Dons rolled to a 10-4 win over N1 Ohlone College in game 2 of the 3C2A Baseball State Championship on Saturday night.
Thanks to a four-run first inning and a three-run third, Santa Ana grabbed all the momentum early in the contest and from there, SAC relief pitcher Johnny Morales kept Ohlone quiet over the final four innings. Morales earned his second save, holding the Renegades scoreless on just three hits with seven strikeouts, preserving the win for Dons' starter Andrew Phillips (9-0).
Phillips dodged some potential big innings and earned the win, allowing four runs on eight hits over five innings with three walks and two strikeouts.
Ohlone had opportunities to get even closer to the Dons, loading the bases in the third and sixth innings, only to come up empty each time. The Renegades finished the evening with 10 runners left on base and just four runs, in spite of a sturdy, 11-hit performance.
SAC's Niko Paoletto went 2-for-5 with two runs scored and a three-run home run that highlighted the Dons' four-run first inning. The offense was well distributed throughout the Santa Ana lineup with the first six hitters of the lineup – Paoletto, Jack Mueller, Aiden Marquez, Evan Reiter, Barrett Ronson, and Ken Tomitaka – each collecting two hits, scoring all 10 runs and driving in six. Ben Melendrez anchored the bottom portion of the lineup with two hits and two RBI.
Ohlone's offense was led by Chuy Vasquez, who went 2-for-5 with two RBI, while Cam Hegamin, Joaquin Stuart, and Paul Wagner each had two hits apiece. Stuart and Wagner each also scored a run and drove in a run for the Renegades.
The Renegade bullpen did a solid job of keeping the Dons in sight as the fivesome of Nick Valentine, Caden Roth, Brennan Baptist, Ben Thompson, and Zak Vasquez combined to hold the Dons to two runs over the final 6.2 innings with Roth and Thompson striking out a combined nine SAC batters over their 4.1 innings of work.
Game Stories by Tony Altobelli, CCCSIA