SAN MARCOS -- The Palomar College baseball team strayed off the well-worn path to victory Saturday, but found its way back despite a rough detour.

The Comets' No. 1 ranking in Southern California was hanging by a thread after a 7-4 loss to Santa Ana in a second-round game of the Southern California Super Regional at Myers Field. But with its season at stake, Palomar responded from their first loss of the postseason with a 7-3 victory over Long Beach City to earn another shot at Santa Ana in Sunday's finals.

"We were just out there putting it all on the field," said Comets catcher B.K. Santy, who worked all 18 innings of the doubleheader behind the plate and sparked Palomar with an RBI single in the second inning of the nightcap. "It was do or die, and we all knew that. And we lived to fight another day."

The top-seeded Comets and the No. 5-seeded Dons will clash again at noon.

Palomar (36-12-1) needs to win to force a second game or it will be Santa Ana (36-11) advancing to the State Final Four in Fresno next weekend.

The Dons put themselves in the driver's seat by winning Saturday's first game on the strength of the long ball.

Palomar took a 1-0 lead into the fourth inning, but designated hitter Kyle Hardman crushed a three-run home run to right field off Palomar starter Sam Jew, and first baseman Chris Miller added a two-run shot to nearly the same spot an inning later, giving Santa Ana a 6-1 lead.

The Comets cut the deficit to 6-4 with a run in the bottom of the fifth and two more in the seventh on a run-scoring balk and an RBI double by shortstop Tyler Saladino, but the Dons padded their lead in the ninth with another homer, this one a solo shot by Derek Eligio off reliever Aaron Edwards.

The loss forced Palomar to an elimination game against Long Beach City, which remained alive earlier Saturday with a 2-1 win over Mt. San Antonio in a loser's bracket contest.

Sophomore left-hander Matt Strom got the call to keep Palomar's season alive, and he responded by holding Long Beach City to two runs on six hits over 6 2/3 innings before yielding to four relievers.

"Matt had a real good change-up going," Santy said. "It looks like a fastball, but it drops off the table."

Santy's two-out single in the second scored Alfonso Casillas for the Comets' first run, and an RBI double by Saladino in the third made it 2-0.

Palomar added two more runs in the fourth, which began with a leadoff single by third baseman Matt Hubbard. A sacrifice bunt by Santy and a wild pitch moved Hubbard to third, and he scored easily when Terrence Buchanon beat out a squeeze bunt for an infield hit. Designated hitter Leland Sisco made it 4-0 with a two-out RBI single that scored Buchanon.

Strom, a sophomore out of Temecula Valley High, retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced, but Hector Iribe hit a one-out single in the fourth and designated hitter Bubba Loard clouted a two-out, two-run homer to left-center to slice the Comets' lead in half.

But then it was Palomar's turn to go yard. Center fielder Branden Webb followed a one-out double by Casillas in the seventh with a towering home run to right, giving the Comets a four-run lead again.

Webb doubled and singled in Palomar's 5-0 win over Mt. SAC on Friday, but he was struggling at the plate Saturday, going 0-for-6 with three strikeouts in the two games before stepping to the plate in the seventh against LBCC.

"Coach Buck (Taylor) told me about the mental and the physical adjustments I needed to make," said Webb, a freshman out of Mt. Carmel High. "I tried it on the at-bat before (the home run) and I just got under it."

Webb flied out to right field on that at-bat, but in his next trip to the plate he jumped all over an inside fastball off Vikings pitcher Scott Watson that was deposited well over the fence in right. Webb carried his heroics over into the bottom of the seventh, when he climbed the outfield hill to make a difficult catch in front of the 368-foot sign on a deep drive to straightaway center by Jonathan Keener.

The Palomar relief corps did the rest, capped by Casey Edelbrock's perfect ninth inning that sealed the win for Palomar and ended Long Beach City's season at 30-18.

"We definitely got tested today, but these guys came back and competed," said Taylor, who used four relievers over the final 2 1/3 innings. "At first we thought about saving those guys for tomorrow, but we needed to win this one or there wouldn't be a tomorrow."

Taylor said that he and pitching coach Tyler Kincaid will wait until today to decide who will start on the mound against the Dons.

"We'll have to mull and ponder that one," he said. "It will be on hands on deck." At least the Comets do have another day to make decisions, despite the difficult loss to Santa Ana in Saturday's first game.

"We don't take any teams for granted," Webb said. "I felt like we were prepared for the first game, but we just didn't answer back against Santa Ana. Our backs were against the wall for once, but we regrouped.

"Hopefully we can do it again tomorrow."