No. 1 Eastfield Pounds Navarro, Palma Hits for Cycle

MESQUITE, Texas -- Sebastian Palma hit for the cycle, and Dallas College Eastfield's No. 1-ranked baseball team blitzed Navarro College 17-8 Monday.

Palma went 4 for 4 with five runs batted in as Eastfield (31-10) scored in every inning but the sixth, cementing the win over the National Junior College Athletic Association Division I opponent with a six-run eighth. Palma bumped his NJCAA Division III-leading home run total to 18. His 72 RBI is 10 more than the next closest leader, albeit in 11 more games. 

Luke Sasser went 3 for 4 with a double, triple and two RBI, and Sebastian Vasquez was 3 for 5 with a solo homer. Sergio Gastelum and Keydren Majors also homered, and combined to drive in seven runs -- a season-high five coming off the bat of Gastelum, who was 2 for 4. Majors went 2 for 2. 

Eastfield's 17 hits increased its NJCAA Division III-leading total to 428, and the four home runs lifted the season number to 55, which ranks second in the lowest level of junior college baseball. 

In a bullpen game for the Harvester Bees' pitching staff, Caleb Deane got the win after pitching the second and third innings. He struck out five. Colin Carrejo, Cooper Sexton and Turner Corey each tossed a scoreless inning. Sexton and Corey each had two of the Bees' staff's 15 strikeouts. 

Navarro (22-18) scored four runs in the seventh to pull within 9-8. But the Bees tacked on eight more runs over their next two at-bats to increase their nation-leading win total past 30 for a fifth consecutive year.

The Harvester Bees begin a three-game Dallas Athletic Conference series with Dallas College Mountain View 12 p.m. Wednesday at home.