Cal Baseball: Bears Snap 9-Game Losing Streak With a 13-3 Win Over Pacific
California recorded a 13-3 victory over the University of the Pacific on Tuesday night in a 10-run "mercy rule" 7-inning game to cap off the away games for the 2025 regular season.
The California Golden Bears returned from their five-day hibernation to continue their NorCal out-of-conference lineup of games against the University of the Pacific Tigers in Stockton, California. Cal and UoP last played on April 7th in Berkeley, where the Bears won 14-8. Now, the Tigers had the opportunity to host the Golden Bears at Klein Family Field in front of 850 fans on Tuesday night.
Mike Neu went for a bullpen game for the Cal pitching staff, giving Cole Tremain the start against the Tigers’ Josh Souza, in his 16th appearance for Pacific. The Tigers got on the board first in the bottom of the 1st inning as John-Howard Bobo led off with a double down the right field line on the first pitch Tremain threw, followed by a walk to McClellin and an error by Tremain on a throw to second that allowed Waldon to reach base and Bobo to score. Jake Tandy would also single with one out, allowing McClellin to score, giving the Tigers the early 2-0 lead. The Bears responded right back in the top of the 2nd, as Dominic Smaldino led off the inning with a double to center field and Kalen Applefield followed with a walk to put two runners on base for the Cal offense. Cade Campbell plated both runners home with a double off the top of the left field fence to tie the game at 2-2.
Ryan Spalliero relieved Tremain in the bottom half of the 2nd for his fifth appearance this season, and would give the Tigers their last run of the night on a Brian McClellin base hit RBI up the middle of the infield to put Pacific ahead 3-2. This lead lasted for just the half inning, as Nathen Nino relieved Josh Souza after his night was over after just 2.0 innings, two hits, two earned runs, and one walk, and Nino would surrender a lead-off double to Jacob French, and then allowed him to advance to third on a wild pitch. Nino then walked Carl Schmidt, struck out Advincula, gave up an RBI single to Smaldino to tie the game, then got the second out of the inning via a sac-fly RBI to Applefield to give Cal a 4-3 lead, in which Max Handron followed with a two-run home run to left to give the Bears a 6-3 advantage over the Tigers.
Cal came right back to the plate swinging in the top of the 4th, as Alex Birge led the Bears off with a slow rolling hit to right field that he legged out for a double, but would be out on a fielder’s choice that put Moutzouridis on first. French then singled to the right to put runners on the corners for Schmidt, who hit a slow “chopper” back to the pitcher for a single that scored Moutzouridis to make it 7-3. Advincula struck out again on a 3-2 pitch, but Smaldino followed with a single to right, allowing French to score and Schmidt to go to third, and Kalen Applefield followed with his third home run of the season down the right field line to add three more runs to the Bears’ lead, making it 11-3 California. Applefield has homered in three of his last four games for the Bears and is batting .400 in his first five career games. Nino’s night ended there, as Justin Iglesias relieved him after he gave up nine earned runs in 1.2 innings pitched.
Cal Baseball’s Golden Bear Achievement Award winner, Gavin Eddy, pitched the 4th inning for the Bears and got two quick outs on three pitches, but walked Bobo and gave up a single to Wood before throwing a wild pitch and allowing both runners to advance into scoring position. Luckily, Eddy worked through the accuracy issue and got Waldon to strike out swinging to end the inning. Cal added one more run in the top of the 5th with a one-out triple by Alex Birge, who would score on a sacrifice fly by Moutzouridis to give the Golden Bears a sturdy 12-3 lead, clawing for one more run to end the game early in a seven-inning mercy rule. Eddy returned to the mound for the bottom half of the 5th and surrendered back-to-back singles to start the inning, but got out of the jam as Schnabel flied out to center and Petersen grounded into a double play.
Tigers head coach Reed Peters pulled the Pacific starters in the top of the 6th as the Bears brought their two, three, and four batters to the plate, with Schmidt leading off against Tigers reliever Jackson Lux and singling to center. Advincula lined out to right, Smaldino followed with a walk, Applefield struck out, and Jeff Hoffman pinch hit for Max Handron- walking in his lone plate appearance to load the bases with two outs for Cade Campbell to allow the Bears to end the game in the following inning with a 10-run lead, but Campbell lined out to Park Romney in center field to end the inning, stranding all three runners for the Golden Bears.
David Shaw relieved Eddy in the bottom of the 6th and gave up a lead-off base hit to Andre Vidal, but followed it up with a strikeout of his brother, Adrian Vidal, before getting Romney and Wood to pop up to end the inning with the nine-run lead intact. Jacob French added the 13th run and 10-run lead for the Bears in the top of the 7th off of Tigers reliever Ethan Shaver with a base hit up the middle to score Elijiah Clayton who came in for PJ Moutzouridis at short, and Shaw returned for the bottom of the 7th to retire the Pacific Tigers in order and end the game early with California winning 13-3. French now leads the team in batting average and is 10th in the ACC overall at .356, overtaking Jarren Advincula’s spot after his 0-5 day at the plate.
Cal improved to 19-27 while Pacific fell to 18-31, and the Golden Bears have officially concluded their regular-season travel for 2025. Cal will host No. 2 Florida State in a three-game ACC series at Stu Gordon Stadium this Friday - Sunday, with game one starting May 9th at 6:00 PM, game two on the 10th at 2:00 PM, and game three on the 11th at 1:00 PM- with all games livestreamed/broadcasted on ESPN+ with an ACCNX subscription.