Palomar earns top seed for SoCal Regionals

SAN MARCOS, CA (4/29/2026) – As expected, Palomar College has the top-seeded softball team for the California Community College Athletic Association Southern California Regionals, and the Comets will host a best-of-3 first-round series May 1-2 against No. 18 seed Ventura College.

 

Postseason play for the 2026 season began April 28 with a pair of play-in games for the 18-team SoCal Regionals. Ventura was on the road at No. 15 Orange Coast and came away with a 9-3 victory to advance to the Regional series at Palomar. No. 16 seed College of the Canyons hosted No. 17 seed Moorpark and scored a 5-2 victory to earn the right to take on No. 2 seed Cerritos.

 

Palomar will host the first game of its Regional series against the Pirates on May 1 at 2 p.m. Game 2 will be played May 2 at noon, with a deciding game to follow if necessary. The eight first-round winners will advance to the Super Regionals being held May 8-9, also in the best-of-3 format.

 

The top four teams from the South and the top four from Northern California will continue on to the double-elimination 3C2A state championship tournament being held May 14-17 at Bakersfield College.

 

The Comets finished the regular season with a 37-1 record, including an unbeaten 15-0 season in the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference. Palomar was ranked No. 2 behind College of San Mateo in the final California Community College Fastpitch Coaches Association regular-season state poll.

 

San Mateo, the defending state champion, also has a 37-1 record going into the postseason and is the No. 1 seed for the Northern California Regionals.

 

Led by conference Player of the Year Alexis Huey and Pitcher of the Year Kiara Flaviani, the Comets claimed their 12th consecutive PCAC pennant this year. Palomar finished the regular season with a 25-game win streak going into the playoffs.

 

Ventura won the Western State-North Conference with a 12-0 record and is 22-18-1 overall following the play-in win over Orange Coast.

 

No. 2 seed Cerritos won the South Coast Conference championship with an 18-3 record and is 31-9 overall going into its series against Canyons (23-18). No. 3 seed San Diego Mesa was the runner-up to Palomar in the final PCAC standings with an 11-4 record and is 26-12 overall going into its first-round matchup at home against No. 14 seed Mt. San Jacinto (27-13).

 

Other first-round pairings for the SoCal Regionals include No. 4 seed Mt. San Antonio (29-11) hosting No. 13 Southwestern (22-16), No. 5 Long Beach City (29-9-1) hosting No. 12 Chaffey (29-11), No. 6 Citrus (27-13) hosting No. 11 Saddleback (28-12), No. 7 Fullerton (27-13) hosting No. 10 El Camino (26-14) and No. 8 Cypress (27-13) hosting No. 9 Antelope Valley (29-11).

 

In the North Region, the top-seeded teams after College of San Mateo are No. 2 West Valley (35-4), No. 3 San Joaquin Delta (28-10) and No. 4 Sierra (26-11-1).