Cal Baseball: Bears Lose Two Around the Bay, Losing Streak Extends to 9
The Golden Bears dropped back-to-back battles around the bay, as San Francisco beat Cal 10-9 on Tuesday in Berkeley, and San Jose State hosted and beat the Bears 14-5 on Wednesday night in San Jose.
What is in the Gatorade in Berkeley? The 2025 Cal Baseball season continues to be a disaster, as the Golden Bears tried to bounce back from being swept at Notre Dame with two out-of-conference games against the University of San Francisco Dons on Tuesday night at Stu Gordon Stadium, and a Wednesday night game at Excite Ballpark against San Jose State University.
In Mike Neu’s 8th season coaching the Golden Bears, their rankings amongst the offense in the ACC have them 10th in AVG (.279), 14th in RBI (270), 16th in BB (144), and 16th in OB% (.352). And their pitching has been no less of a struggle, as the team ranks 13th in ERA (6.04), has the least amount of saves and save opportunities (4), has allowed the fifth most amount of hits (397), third most in runs allowed (297), fifth in walks (200), tied for last in strikeouts (370), fourth most home runs allowed (59), and third most sacrifices allowed (with 22 runners advancing via an out).
Tuesday: April 29th, Dons Beat Bears 10-9 with Late Game Comeback
The California Golden Bears took just one day off from their trip to South Bend and returned to action with a $2 Tuesday night at Stu Gordon Stadium for the second matchup of the season against the University of San Francisco Dons. Cal had won the first game back on March 24th, 10-6 in San Francisco, after scoring four runs in the top of the ninth, and striking out 19 Dons to tie Cal’s record for most combined strikeouts in a game.
The San Francisco Dons came into Tuesday night’s game at 19-25, with a 7-11 record in the West Coast Conference, and jumped on Cal starting pitcher Spencer Dessart early in the top of the 1st, with Kenny DeCelle reaching on a two-out walk, and Patrick Keighran following with a two-run home run to left to give the Dons the early 2-0 lead. The Bears responded in the bottom half of the inning with a two-out double down the left field line by Jarren Advincula, who would score on a base hit to right field by Dominic Smaldino. Cal would take a 3-2 lead, as Freshman Kalen Applefield continues to be a rising talent off the Bears’ bench, with a two-run home run to right field for his second in back-to-back games.
Dessart’s night was over after an inning, and he was relieved by Jordy Lopez, who stranded two runners on base for the top of the 2nd, but it was just one of those days where he could not record an out when it was the top of the 3rd. Matty Fung led off with a single, followed by a base hit from Kenny DeCelle. Patrick Keighran came to the plate and this time hit a three-run home run to left center field to give the Dons a 5-3 lead. Eddison Esquivel followed with a base hit to keep the rally going against Lopez, but it did not stop there, as Tyler Harries and Nick Walsh followed with back-to-back singles to make it 6-3, while Lopez and Cal still had not recorded an out in the top of the 3rd. Mike Neu said that six straight hits were enough for him, and brought in JJ Hollis from the bullpen, who would give up another base hit to Brendan Burke before Schweizer flied out to left, Jordan Lewis reached on a fielder's choice that scored Walsh, and Lewis would be thrown out trying to steal second.
Cal would claw back in the bottom of the 4th while down 8-3, as Smaldino led off the inning with a base hit to left but was thrown out trying to extend it to a double, but Applefield was hit by a pitch and Handron homered after to make it 8-5. The Bears would even the score again in the bottom of the 5th, as Applefield singled to center with two outs in the bottom of the 5th and runners on the corners to make it 8-6, followed by Handron singling to right with Smaldino and Applefield both running and scoring with two outs, to make it an 8-8 ballgame. Cal added another run in the bottom of the 6th, as Alex Birge singled to center field with one out, and Carl Schmidt brought him home on a two-out single to right center field, giving the Bears a 9-8 lead.
The 7th inning saw no runners reach base, but Logan Piper came out to pitch for the Bears in the 8th and proceeded to walk pinch hitter Trevor Harmon on four pitches. He got Burke to strike out, but then walked two more batters to load the bases, and got Rogers out at first on a comebacker that hit Piper in the leg, but allowed Harmon to score and tie the game. Tucker Bougie would get the Bears out of the inning, but Cal’s offense could not get anything across in the bottom of the 8th.
San Francisco led off the top of the 9th against Bougie with a double to left by Eddison Esquivel, and immediately moved the runner over with a sac bunt by Tyler Harries to put the winning run on third base, who would score on a sac-fly to right by Burke, giving San Francisco a 10-9 lead.
The Bears would be retired in order as they brought Advincula, Smaldino, and Applefield to the plate, and would lose to San Francisco to drop to 18-26 overall on the season, with a 9-15 record at home. Max Handron went 2-3 on the day with a home run and four RBIs, while Kalen Applefield scored three times, brought in three RBIs, and homered for the second straight game. Off to San Jose on Wednesday.
Wednesday, April 30th: Bears Lose 9th Straight as San Jose State Wins 14-5
The Golden Bears traveled to the South Bay to Excite Ballpark, one of my childhood and personal favorite baseball spots in the Bay Area, to take on the San Jose State Spartans on Wednesday night. This was a homecoming game for Cal’s middle infield, as Jarren Advincula and PJ Moutzouridis went to local San Jose high schools (Advincula at Archbishop Mitty and Moutzouridis at Valley Christian, respectively).
Gavin Eddy made his ninth start of the season for the Golden Bears and worked through the Spartan offense with ease in the bottom of the 1st. Cal got the offense started in the top of the 2nd with two outs, as Max Handron hit his seventh home run of the season to give Cal an early 1-0 lead, but SJSU would strike back aggressively in the bottom of the 2nd as Jake McCoy homered to left field with one out to tie the game, and Fernandes, Nanez, and Lewis hit consecutive singles to make it 2-1, while Cal catcher Ryan Tayman threw the ball away trying to pick off the runner at third, and Caballero and Chamizo hit back to back singles to make it 4-1 with two outs and two runners still on. Zach Tallerman cleared the bases with a three-run home run to give the Spartans a 7-1 lead, and the Bears would never come close in the remainder of this game.
PJ Moutzouridis singled to right field in the top of the 5th for an RBI in front of his friends and family to bring Cal within five, but San Jose responded in the bottom half of the inning with a lead-off homerun from Zach Chamizo, followed by a bae hit by Tallerman who advanced to second on a passed ball from Tayman, but it did not matter anyways, as Jeriah Lewis hit a two-run home run on the next pitch to end Eddy’s night after giving up 10 runs in 4.0 innings. David Shaw would go on to give up two base hits and a triple to Jared Lewis, to make it 12-2 SJSU, but Jarren Advicula made a wild throw to third, allowing Lewis to score, making it 13-2.
California and San Jose would exchange runs in the 6th on an Advincula ground out RBI and a Fernandes RBI single to left, but Cal would get two more across in the top of the 7th with Jeff Hoffman making his 10th appearance off the bench to pinch hit for Applefield and reach with a base hit to left, followed by a two run home run from the pinch hitting Jack Johnston who has also only played in nine games before this game, making it 14-5 San Jose.
Both Cal and San Jose would empty their benches into the lineups for the remainder of the games, and the scores would not change as Cal would stand three runners across the next two innings and San Jose would hold onto their nine-run lead and beat the California Golden Bears 14-5 at home in front of 347 fans.
Cal sits at 18-27 with an ACC conference record of 6-18, with the best possible outcome of this regular season being a 25-27 record. That is extremely unlikely, as college baseball’s No. 2 program in the nation, Florida State, will be coming to Berkeley this weekend for a three-game series. This season, they are 14-7 in conference play with a 33-10 overall record. The Boston College Eagles will come to town the following weekend to conclude the regular season, and the Bears will likely be entering the ACC tournament as the 16th seed.
The University of the Pacific will host Cal tomorrow at 6:00 PM in Stockton, CA- the game will be live streamed to all ESPN+ subscribers (ACCNX not necessary). Cal last beat UoP 14-8 on April 7th in Berkeley.
New coaches please
I enjoyed last season’s outstanding showing. No way should the Bears have been left out of the NCAA Tournament. Mike Neu led the team to Cal’s best winning percentage achieved by a Golden Bears squad since 1966, yet the committee chose to include a .500 Florida Gators team in place of the Bears. Beginning this year, Cal is travelling more miles for conference games than almost any other team in the nation (Stanford also is underperforming this year, with all the ridiculous travel). As well, other programs in the P4 are out-luring Cal baseball in NIL fundraising. How much of this can you really blame on the coaches? Every standout player you have is earmarked for transfer. Advincula, etc. will have lucrative offers to leave after this season, and the roster could further thin out, despite coaches’ recruiting efforts and track record of player development.