Cal Baseball: Bears Keep Rolling with 14-12 Win Over Wake Forest in ACC Championship
The #16-seeded California Golden Bears are moving on to the quarterfinals of the 2025 ACC Baseball Championship tournament to face #1 seed Georgia Tech after upsetting the #8 seed Wake Forest 14-12.
Are the California Golden Bears making an ACC postseason run after going 9-21 against conference opponents this season? In back-to-back 6:00 AM PST start times for the Atlantic Coast Conference's Pacific-based school, Cal has defied the odds and now upset two historic programs to continue their run in the ACC Baseball Championship, with a win against Wake Forest this morning to move on to the quarterfinals and face the No. 1 seeded Georgia Tech, tomorrow (Thursday) at 3:00 PM EST.
Cole Tremain got the opening role/start for the Golden Bears against the Demon Deacons’ Logan Lunceford, who struck out 83 batters in 53.1 innings leading into Wednesday morning’s game. Both pitchers worked through the 1st inning with no damage, but could not get out of the 2nd inning as Lunceford surrendered a lead-off single to Jacob French, then hit Carl Schmidt with a 0-1 changeup to put two runners on for Max Handron to keep his hot-streak alive with a double to right center that would bring both runners home and give the Bears and early 2-0 lead. Cade Campbell followed with a single through the middle and advanced to second on a ball in the dirt to have both runners in scoring position. Alex Birge walked to load the bases, and that would be all for Lunceford, as Wake Forest head coach Tom Walter would go to the bullpen and bring in Joe Ariola, who would get Ethan Kodama to fly out to left for a Sac-Fly RBI, but then hit Advincula with the first pitch of his at bat to reload the bases, walked Moutzouridis to bring in Campbell, and Jacob French followed two batters later with a single to left to bring in two more runs to make it 6-0 Cal.
Wake Forest was able to scrap together some runs in the bottom of the 2nd, as Dalton Wentz got the Demon Deacons on the board with a one-out solo shot to right field to make it a 6-1 ballgame, before Tremain proceeded to walk Austin Hawke, strike out Jimmy Keenan, and hit Javar Williams with a 1-2 pitch that would have Mike Neu bring David Shaw in from the bullpen. Shaw walked his first batter and gave up a two-RBI base hit to right field to Marek Houston to make it a 6-3 game. Shaw then hit Kade Lewis with a 0-1 91-mph fastball to the ribs, before getting Jack Winnay to ground out to Advincula at second base to end the inning.
David Shaw remained in the game for the Bears through the bottom of the 5th, where he opened the inning with a strikeout on Wentz before walking Hawke and Keenan back-to-back, striking out Williams, and loading the bases with an infield hit to Matt Scannell. Gavin Eddy was brought in to try and keep the Demon Deacons from scoring, but he walked Marek Houston on four straight pitches before getting Lewis to strikeout with the Cal lead now shrunken to 6-4.
Cal was able to get some runs back in the top of the 6th against Wake Forest’s relief pitcher Luke Schmolke, as he walked Moutzouridis and Smalidino to start the inning. The Bears’ best hitter this season, Jacob French, doubled down the right field line past the diving first baseman to bring Moutzouridis home and advance Smaldino to third, and that would prompt Wake Forest to bring in Griffin Green from the pen, whose first pitch was a wild pitch that scored Smaldino. Max Handron was hit by a pitch, setting the stage for Cade Campbell, who followed with a sacrifice fly to center field that brought French home from third. Afterward, Green issued a four-pitch walk to Birge and was then replaced by Zach Johnston, who promptly struck out Kodama on three pitches to end the inning with Cal now up 9-4.
The Demon Deacons did not let that five-run lead last long, as Jack Winnay got the rally started with a leadoff walk and was brought in on a two-run home run to right field by Dalton Wentz, and Jimmy Keenan followed with a solo shot of his own two batters later to bring Cal’s lead back to just two runs at 9-7. Eddy’s morning was over after walking the next batter, promoting Neu to bring in Jordy Lopez to get the Bears out of the inning with a strikeout against Scannell.
The leadoff walks continued to kill Wake Forest’s pitching, as Advincula walked to start the top of the 7th inning, and Moutzouridis followed with a single to left to put two runners on for Smaldino, who doubled to left to bring Advincula home and put two runners on for French. French could not get Moutzouridis to score on a ball hit in the infield, but Carl Schmidt hit a monster three-run home run over the left field wall to put the Bears ahead 13-7. Eddy worked through a hit and a walk in the bottom of the 7th to keep the Demon Deacons from scoring, and the Golden Bears were starting to look like they were about to pull away with another upset victory in Durham, North Carolina.
Another lead-off walk for the Bears in the top of the 8th would cost Wake Forest as Haiden Leffew let Alex Birge reach base on four straight balls before PJ Moutzouridis brought him home on an RBI double to left center to make it 14-7. Austin Hawke led off the bottom of the 8th with a solo home run to right-center field to bring the Demon Deacons within six, but a 9th inning rally is where it looked like Cal may be running out of gas in this tournament of roster depth.
Lopez walked Houston on four pitches to lead off the inning and surrendered a first-pitch base hit to Lewis that would bring Ethan Foley in to pitch and try and close out this second round for the Golden Bears, and Foley got a quick two outs on a single pitch as Winnay grounded into a double play that was beautifully turned by Campbell and Advincula to put Cal one out away from moving onto the quarterfinals. Luke Costello kept the Demon Deacons alive with a base hit through the wide-open gap in the right side of the infield to score Houston, making it a 14-9 game. Foley then walked Wents, hit Hawke with a 1-0 fastball to load the bases for Keenan, who walked Costello in for a run to make it 14-10 Cal, and then Williams followed with a two-RBI single on a bad hop ground ball to Smaldino that bounced over his head making it 14-12.
Cal pitching coach Chris Bodishbaugh came out to the mound to make the two-out pitching change to bring in Logan Piper to try and get the final out for the Golden Bears, with Wake Forest having the winning run at the plate in Matt Scannell with runners on the corners. Piper got Scannell to ground out to Advincula at second base to stop the bleeding and end the game, sending the Wake Forest Demon Deacons home in the 2025 ACC Baseball Championship, and propelling the California Golden Bears on to the quarterfinals to face the No. 1-seeded Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.
Cal won their first back-to-back games against ACC opponents this season since March 21st-23rd, when they swept Stanford, having not won a series outside of the season finale against Boston College or a back-to-back against any other ACC opponent outside of their Bay Area rival.
No errors on defense, but a total of 23 walks between both teams (Cal 10, WF 13) on offense, and 27 runners left on base (Cal 11, WF 16) was over shadowed by offensive showcases from Jacob French (4-6, 2B, 3R, 3RBI) and PJ Moutzouridis (3-4, 2RBI, 2BB, SB), as Cal never trailed the Demon Deacons once in this game.
The Golden Bears will move on to face the top-seed and No. 16-ranked Georgia Tech (39-16) in Game 9 of the ACC Baseball Championship, with the quarterfinal game between Cal and the Yellow Jackets starting at 3:00 PM EST tomorrow (Thursday) on ESPN+ with an ACC Network subscription.
You took great notes and gave us a thorough recap of a remarkable upset. Thanks, Justin Buechler!
Hey, this is terrific news! Go Bears!