Cal Baseball: Bears Drop 2 of 3 to Cougars
The California Golden Bears drop the series against the Houston Cougars with only one win behind a stellar pitching performance on Saturday by Gavin Eddy and Cole Clark.
Friday, 2/21: Cal Baseball has had three days off since their last game against Nevada on February 17th. They stayed home in Berkeley to host the Big 12’s University of Houston Cougars for a three-game weekend series at Evans Diamond at Stu Gordon Stadium. Mike Neu and the Bears coaching staff turned to Jr. Pitcher Austin Turkington for his second opening start to a series this season, and he opened the evening retiring six of the first seven batters he faced, only giving up one walk in the top of the 1st inning.
Cal's offense started off far too slow, as the Bears were shut down for their first twelve at-bats to start the game, reaching base just once via walk in the bottom of the 2nd inning, only to end the inning grounding into a double play. Houston Jr. Pitcher and hometown recruit Ryan Dollar would give up only three hits in his start for the Cougs, as he would pitch 5.2 innings and strikeout six.
The Cougars began the top of the 3rd inning with back-to-back singles by So. C Riley Jackson and Jr. SS Tyler Cox. A two-out double by Jr. DH Connor McGinnis would score both runners, and McGinnis would score after the Bears committed their first error of the season on an overthrow to first by Jr. Cade Campbell at third, giving Houston the 3-0 lead.
Houston would go on to score three more runs in the top of the 5th inning, with the Bears plating home two in the bottom half of the inning thanks to a solo home run by So. first baseman Dominic Smalidono for his first of the season and series, and Cade Cambell scoring on an error.
The Bears would go on to load the bases in the bottom of the 6th with two outs, but would leave all three runners stranded as So. left fielder Jacob French struck out looking on a 3-2 fastball that low and inside and appeared to be ball four for everyone at Evans Diamond, but instead ended the inning with no runs for Cal.
Sr. relief Pitcher David Shaw (not that David Shaw), came to relieve Turkington after he had faced three batters in the top of the 5th, and Shaw was able to hold Houston to only one hit as he closed the game out with 5.0 innings, six strikeouts, one HBP, but also gave up four walks.
In the bottom of the 8th inning, Cougars So. reliever Alex Solis gave up a leadoff double to Seth Gwynn, who would score on PJ Moutzouridis’ single to left to make it 6-3 Cougars. The Bears would rally in the bottom of the 9th for one more run, before being retired for the night and game one of the three-game series with a 4-6 loss.
Saturday, 2/22: Gavin Eddy, and Cole Clark. That’s the recap. The Bears and Cougars played game two of their three-game series on a sunny afternoon in Berkeley, with 560+ in attendance, Cal turned to Redshirt Fr. Gavin Eddy as their second consecutive game-two starting pitcher, and just like last week against the Wolf Pack- Eddy was locked in.
Eddy gave up two walks in the top of the 1st inning but would go on to pitch 5.0 innings for the Golden Bears where he struck out four, and gave up zero hits to the eighteen batters he faced on the outing.
Houston’s pitching got off to a hot start as well, with German-born Jr. Paul Schmitz getting the start for the Cougs, pitching 5.1 innings in his first outing since his 6.0-inning win against Minnesota on 2/15. Cade Campbell got Cal’s offense rolling in the bottom of the 3rd inning with a leadoff single followed by a Ryan Tayman walk. Both of them would go on to score on a Jarren Advincula single and a PJ Moutzouridis ground out, putting the Bears up 2-0 early.
Gavin Eddy would be relieved by Cole Clark in the top of the 6th inning, and just like Eddy, Clark was electric. Clark would finish the game on the mound for the Bears pitching 4.0 innings and giving up Houston’s only run for the afternoon, as well as two hits, zero walks, and six strikeouts.
The Bears would score three more runs in the bottom of the 6th inning with a leadoff base hit and stolen base from Advincula, a walk to Smaldino, a base hit RBI for DH Max Handron, reaching base via HBP for French to load the bases, an RBI infield-single from Campbell that tripped up Cougars Pitcher Chris Scinta, followed by a throwing error from the third baseman Ryan Tayman to add two runs to the Bears lead and make it a 5-0 ballgame, which would be more than enough in Cal’s 5-1 victory over Houston.
Eddy and Clark would hold Houston to two hits on the entire afternoon, with Eddy earning his first career win at Cal, and Clark earning his first save in a Golden Bears uniform.
Sunday, 2/23: To close out the series and weekend, Cal and UH had one last game at noon on a cloudy day in Berkeley. The rubber match would be between Cal’s Ethan Foley, who was coming off a great start against Nevada last Monday, and Houston’s Graysen Drezek who won his last game against Minnesota in his season debut.
Houston picked up three hits in the top of the 1st inning but was unsuccessful in scoring any of them home. Foley would give up the first run of the day on a leadoff home run to So. center fielder Tre Broussard, before retiring the next three batters only down 0-1. Cal would gain a run back in the bottom half of the inning thanks to a leadoff single by Cade Campbell, who would score on a fielding error with two outs.
De la Torre would come in to relieve Foley in the top of the 4th inning but was inevitably pulled in the top of the 5th after giving up back-to-back base hits to start the inning. Cole Tremain came in and gave up a three-run home run to Jr. Cade Climie, walked the next batter, overthrew a pickoff to first, and then recorded his first out on a groundball play that Houston challenged, but stood as an out, and was then pulled for Spencer Dessart to record the next two outs and end the inning down 5-1.
The game would remain quiet on both offensive sides for the next four innings, and Tucker Bougie came in for Cal to hold Houston’s lead to four in the top of the 9th inning. Broussard would hit a leadoff double and steal third after Climie struck out on three pitches, only for McGinnis to homer and give the Cougs a 7-1 heading into the bottom of the 9th inning.
Canadian Graduate Transfer and Pitcher Antoine Jean would try to close the game out for Houston, and after striking out Gwynn swinging after being down 3-0 in the count, gave up a walk to Advincula and Moutzouridis before being pulled for So. Diego Luzardo. Luzardo would give up a three-run home run to Dominic Smaldino for his second of the series and season and was subsequently pulled for Houston’s go-to closer Richie Roman, who struck out Handron, Thomas, and Campbell to close out the game and win the series two games to one against the Golden Bears.
Cal Baseball returns to Evans Diamond at Stu Gordon Stadium on Wednesday night (Feb. 26th) against Cal State Bakersfield at 6:00 PM.