Cal Baseball: Bears Lose 10-4 to Gaels in Berkeley
California's losing streak extends to four as the Bears drop the final matchup against Saint Mary's this season.
The Bears closed out their five-game homestand with a second and final State Route 24 matchup by hosting the Saint Mary’s Gaels, whom California beat 13-7 on March 18th in Moraga.
The Golden Bears entered Monday night’s matchup at 18-21 after getting swept by now-No. 25 NC State at home over the Easter weekend, while the Gaels entered the game at .500 with a record of 19-19, after taking a mid-week win against SJSU and sweeping Pepperdine to win four straight before coming to Berkeley to conclude their five-game road trip.
California went with a bullpen game on Monday night, giving Logan Piper the start and only one inning of play, where left fielder Aiden Taurek hit a two-out solo shot to right to get the Gaels on the board in the top of the 1st. Cal’s Jacob French would tie it up in the bottom half of the 2nd with a one-out home run of his own for his third of the season, and Freshman DH Kalen Applefield, who made his NCAA debut, hit a sac-fly later in the inning for an RBI to bring PJ Moutzouridis home and give California a 2-1 lead.
Jarren Advincula extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a double in the bottom of the 3rd, making it his 25th out of the last 26 games he has reached base safely via a hit, and he swapped places with Cade Campbell, who hit a double of his own down the left field line to put the Bears ahead 3-1 as Gavin Eddy held the Gaels to one run through 4.1 innings of relief pitching for the Bears.
Eddy’s night ended in the 6th as he left the bases loaded with one out for Cole Tremain, who gave up a sac-fly RBI to Ian Armstrong, a walk to Tanner Griffith to reload the bases, and back-to-back two-RBI base hits that would score a total of five runs for Saint Mary’s to put the Gaels ahead 6-3, and have the lead for the remainder of the ballgame.
Applefield recorded his first college hit in the bottom of the 7th as he ripped a double down the right field line, and would advance to third on Elijah Clayton’s first collegiate hit. Clayton stole second while Advincula walked to load the bases, but Cal could only score one on a Campbell sac-fly, two runners would be left stranded, and the Bears would remain down 6-4 headed into the 8th.
Jordy Lopez came out to pitch for the Bears in the 8th after relieving Tremain in the 7th, but was relieved after walking Mettam, and allowing Armstrong to reach base on a throwing error by Lopez on a bunt play, allowing Griffith to sac-bunt Mettam home, and Kashimoto to hit an RBI single to make it 8-4 Gaels, and end Lopez’s night. JJ Hollis came in, but immediately surrendered a double to Taurek that would score Kashimoto, and then Pierce followed with an RBI base hit before the Bears finally got out of the inning, now down 10-4.
Cal would get no runners beyond second base for their next two innings at the plate, and lose the game to continue their late-season struggles and losing streak with only 12 games to go. Cal drops to 18-22 and will return to ACC action this Friday against Notre Dame for a three-game in-conference series. Game times (PST) will be Friday, April 25th at 3:30 PM, Saturday, April 26th at 11:00 AM, and Sunday, April 27th at 10:00 AM.
Cal currently has the broadcast information as “TBD”- but Notre Dame has Friday and Sunday’s games slated for ESPN+/ACCNX streams, while Saturday’s is labeled as TBD on both teams’ sites.
Unfortunately for the Bears, ND is now on a role having swept Stanford at Stanford. 2 of those games were blow outs.