San Diego Mesa baseball scored five runs in the last three innings but failed to come back from a six -run deficit that ended their season in a 7-6 loss to the Palomar Comets on May 8.
The Olympians scored three times in the seventh inning, twice in the eighth inning and got the game-tying run on base in the ninth inning before a game-ending double play knocked them out of the playoffs.
“They worked really hard to get in a good position and I’m really proud of them,” head coach Jake Portugal said.
After a 24-20 regular season and a fourth-place finish in the Pacific Coast Conference, the Olympians advanced to the 3C2A SoCal regional bracket for the first time since 2019. They made it in this season as the No. 15 seed.
The Comets’ bats got off to a quick start with two runs in the first inning off opener Brian Nuñez and three runs in the third inning off pitcher Finn Royer. An opener is used for the first, or sometimes the first two innings, to give the starter, who throws the bulk of the innings, a chance to face the top of an opposing team’s lineup only twice while facing the bottom of the order three times.
Right-handed pitcher Payson Lee had both started and closed games for the Olympians before he was the stopper in the elimination game, giving Mesa five innings, striking out five batters and allowing just two runs, which gave his team the chance to come back from an early deficit.
“It’s really just throwing strikes, keeping everyone engaged, keeping the game exciting,” Lee said of pitching with his team down early on in an elimination game.
The defense behind him allowed Lee to keep his focus on throwing strikes and trying not to walk batters, Lee said.
With a runner on second base in the seventh inning, third baseman Mason Gallegos laid out to stop a hard-hit grounder, got up on his feet and threw a strike to first baseman Frank Giacolone to end the inning.
However, Palomar starting pitcher Joey Navarro threw seven innings, allowing four runs (one earned), eight hits and struck out six batters.
“He threw pitches for a strike, locates them well, and we put up some good bats just didn’t necessarily string a lot of hits together,” Portugal said.
It wasn’t until the seventh inning that they got to Navarro when they cut a six-run deficit in half on an RBI hit by pitch from Giacalone and a two-run double from left fielder Gavin Gamino.
Their only damage before that came on Giacalone’s RBI single in the third inning.
Mesa scored two more runs in the eighth inning on Gallego’s RBI single and after center fielder Ethan Wright reached on an error which brought the Olympians within a run of the Comets.
Right fielder Nick Cook walked with one out in the ninth inning, which brought the go-ahead run to the plate, but the game ended in a double play.
Mesa beat No. 10 Santa Ana in the first round of the 3C2A playoffs with 4-2 and 3-1 wins on the road, but they lost to No. 6 Riverside City, 8-1, in the first game of the super regionals, forcing their elimination game against Palomar in the double-elimination super regional round.
