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BASEBALL: Palomar 5, SD Mesa 4 TOP PHOTO: Palomar shortstop Jared Montoya tags out Mesa’s William Law trying to stretch a long single off the fence into a double to lead off the the top of the sixth Tuesday. Jordan Gardner (below left) fielded the ball off the fence and gunned down Law with a laser throw from deep right to Montoya. Photo by Hugh Cox. Ryan Semon delivers a pitch on the way to 3 2/3 one-hit, scoreless innings. Semon advanced to 7-0 on the season and lowered his ERA to 0.72, which leads the state — Photo by Hugh Cox.

Semon (7-0) tops Mesa, leads state with 0.72 ERA

Ryan Semon

SAN MARCOS (4-04-2017) — Freshman left-hander Ryan Semon came out of the bullpen to throw 3 2/3 lock-down innings to close out the game Tuesday and  Palomar left visiting San Diego Mesa standing in the bottom of the ninth, beating the Olympians 5-4.

The Comets ran their record to 21-6 on the season and 12-1 in the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference with their ninth straight win, achieved when Jared Montoya raced home from third base on a one-out wild pitch.

Montoya singled to center to lead off the ninth and moved to second on pinch-hitter Carl Schwettmann’s sacrifice bunt. Montoya advanced to third when Marco Young (2-for-4) used his blinding speed to beat out an infield single to the first baseman as he slid into the bag.

That gave Semon the victory to advance to 7-0 on the season. Semon, who red-shirted a year ago coming out of Valley Center High School, lowered his ERA to 0.72, best among all California community college pitchers, as he struck out five and walked none.

Semon had entered the game with the game tied 3-3 in the top of the sixth with one out and runners at first and second. The Olympians scored an unearned run to take a 4-3 lead before the Comets got out of the inning when catcher Tristan King gunned down Lewis Butler trying to go to third on a ball in the dirt. Semon ended the inning by getting Sloan Blanscet to ground out to short.

From then in it was lights out for the visitors. Semon struck out five of the 10 batters he faced the rest of the way, including the Olympians’ last four batters of the game. He allowed only one hit over 3 2/3 scoreless innings.

Jordan Gardner made the defensive play of the game to lead off the top of the sixth when he fielded Mesa’s Will Law’s long single off the rightfield fence and gunned Law down trying to stretch the single into a double. Gardner’s laser throw to Montoya, the shortstop, beat Law to the bag as Montoya applied the tag.

Previously, leftfielder Joey Cooper made a slick defensive play of his own, catching a long fly hit over his head by the Olympians’ Grant Ruthenburg with a batter at second and two outs for the final out in the top of the third. Cooper hauled in the ball as he ran toward the fence at Palomar College Ballpark, preventing Mesa from causing even more damage in what wound up as a two-run inning.

Starter Connor Zalewski and Semon combined to throw a six-hitter.

Grant Buck drove in two of the Comerts’ four runs with a first-inning single and a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the third. He went 2-for-3 for the day.

Cameron Haskell drove in the first run of the game with a grounder to the right side earlier in the first inning. Montoya (2-for-4) drove in Haskell, aboard on a single for the Comets’ other run in the sixth.

The two teams will play the second-game of their conference series on Thursday at Mesa, beginning at 2 p.m., and will finish the series with a noon game on Saturday back at Palomar. The Comets will close out a four-game week when they visit Fullerton for a non-conference game that has been postponed twice due to rain.

 W. TRACK & FIELD: Orange Coast Invitational

Palomar’s Danielle Martin (left) and Hailie Santana run 1-2 in the 400 meters in the Orange Coast Invitational on Friday. — Photo by Hugh Cox

PC 2nd behind Vanguard University at OCC

COSTA MESA (3-31-2017) — Palomar placed second to Vanguard University at the Orange Coast Invitational meet on Friday, placing 6 points out of first place.

Vanguard scored 182 points to win the meet, followed by Palomar at 176 points, Orange Coast with 164, Cuyamaca 32 points and Arizona Christian University 14 points.

Danielle Martin ran a 1:07.72 and Hailie Santana 1:08.40 to give the Comets a 1-2 finish in the 400-meter dash. Palomar also had a 1-2 finish in the 400 hurdles, with Deyanira Lop0ez(1:09.12) winning and Sharik Faigueroa (1:11.01) taking runner-up honors.

Betsabe Reyes was the Comets’ other first-place winner, throwing 31.21 meters (102 feet, 4.7 inches) in the discus. Palomar’s Shelley Munoz finished in third.

The Comets’ Courtney Snee took second in the shot put and third in the hammer throw. Melissa Ventura placed second in the triple jump and third in the 100-meter hurdles. Ventura, Sharik Figueroa, Lopez and Santana finished third in the 4×100 relay.

Palomar’s other third-place finishers were Martin in the triple jump, Kaisa Garner-Davis in the shot put and Figueroa in the javelin.