Bullpen shuts down Santa Ana as Comets advance to state championship game

IRVINE, CA (5/24/2026) – For the second straight day, it was the pitching that carried the No. 1 seed Palomar College Comets. Sunday afternoon at Great Park, it was the bullpen's turn. Cody Cappelletti, Angel Barron, and Jude Atley combined to retire the final 18 batters Santa Ana stepped to the plate, and Palomar held on for a 4-3 victory over the No. 2 seed Dons to advance to the 3C2A State Championship game. The Comets are 43-6 and one win away from the program's first state title.

Palomar built a 4-0 lead through three innings before Santa Ana made things interesting. Michael Rodda grounded in the first run in the first inning with Braedon Peterson-Cheek on third, Rainn McMillan drove in another in the second, and Rodda doubled in the third to plate Elijah Stephens and Gavin Malcomson and push the lead to four. But the Dons answered immediately with a three-run home run by Aiden Marquez to cut it to 4-3, and just like that the game had a different feel.

Stephens started on the mound and worked three innings, allowing three runs while giving the Comets exactly what they needed to get through the early going. Cappelletti came on in the fourth and was sharp for 4.1 innings, striking out seven without issuing a walk and keeping Santa Ana completely off the board. When the Dons threatened in the eighth, Barron entered with the lead still hanging at one and did what he does, he got the outs. His two-thirds of an inning kept the door closed at exactly the right moment, and Atley finished it off with a perfect ninth, punching out all three batters he faced to send the Comets to the championship.

Rodda finished 2-for-4 with three RBI and was the engine of the offense on a day when runs were hard to come by against Santa Ana's Travis Bergmann, who retired 21 of the last 22 batters he faced after taking over in the third inning.

Santa Ana fell to 40-6-1. Marquez's three-run home run accounted for all of the Dons' scoring.

Palomar will play the winner of Santa Ana and Feather River in the state championship game Monday morning at 11 a.m. at Great Park in Irvine.