Cal Baseball: Bears Take Down Gaels 6-5 in Moraga
Carl Schmidt’s huge offensive night (3-4, HR, 2 RBI) leads Cal to a midweek victory off State Route 24.
After baseball’s most evil rival, the weather, took home a victory against California and Saint Mary’s back on March 31st, the Bears and Gaels finally got the opportunity to square off for their 2026 matchup with a 6:00 PM Tuesday night game at Louis Guisto Field in Moraga, California, rather than Berkeley, as the original game had intended.
The Gaels came into Tuesday night’s home game with a 25-18 record, where they have been above .500 in each of the major win categories for NCAA baseball: conference play (10-8), home games (13-8), and away games (11-9). California, on the other hand, sat at 10-10 on the road while being 7-14 in conference play and was gearing up for a back-to-back of makeup games with Saint Mary’s, and then UC Davis later tonight at 6:05 PM.
Making the commute east on the beautiful State Route 24, the Bears reached Moraga for a pitching duel between Cal’s Jordy Lopez and SMC’s Talin Gardini, a two-time All-Western League Pitcher of the Year in high school in San Diego, CA. The Bears’ offense immediately got on the board against Gardini and the Gaels in the top of the 1st, as Jett Kenady got a rally started for Cal with a one-out double to left, and Daniel Murillo followed with a single past the shortstop to put runners on for the heart of the batting order. Lawson Olmstead brought in Kenady on a sac-fly-RBI to right field, and Carl Schmidt followed by launching his eighth home run of the season to left field to make it a 3-0 game. The Gaels did respond with a run of their own against Lopez after he gave up a one-out double and sac-fly, thus putting a runner on third when Prather allowed a passed ball, allowing Ian Armstrong to easily score and make it 3-1 Bears.
Gardini would last just 1.2 IP for the Gaels while Martin Romero would relieve him to finish the 3rd, and Cal would plate across two more runs in the top half of the 4th as Gannon Snyder reached base on a walk while Kalen Applefield followed by getting hit by a pitch; Hideki Prather then singled to right to bring home Gannon, and Kenady would then hit a deep flyball to center for a sac-fly-RBI to bring home Applefield and make it 5-1 Bears. That four-run lead was short-lived for Cal, as Makoa Sniffen led off the inning with a home run off Jordy Lopez down the left field line for his 10th of the year, Ian Armstrong followed with a solo shot of his own to deep center field for his ninth of the year, and after Lopez got Jacob Johnson to strike out on three pitches, Jared Mettam launched the third home run of the inning for Saint Mary’s to left field, his third of the season.
After getting the third out of the inning, Lopez would not return for the bottom half of the 5th, and Jett Wright would come in and relieve him by holding Saint Mary’s to no runs, no hits, and just one base runner as Wright worked through 2.0 IP with ease to keep the Bears up in this game. Daniel Murillo added Cal’s sixth run of the night in the top of the 6th with an RBI-single to center to bring home Prather, and Cal looked to close the night out with a two-run lead.
Ryan Spalliero would relieve Wright in the 7th, and after working through the inning with relative ease, Take Kreis relieved him and put the Bears in a make-or-break situation. Kreis struck out Sniffen to lead off the inning, but surrendered a single to Armstrong, got Johnson to line out, walked Mettam, and then walked Dario Freschi to put the leading run on first base with two outs for the Gaels. Mike Neu then brought in Cade Colombara to try and get Cal out of the inning, and after giving up a run via a walk of his own to Brayden Gutierrez, Colombara struck out Cody Kashimoto on three straight pitches to strand the bases loaded and get Cal out of the inning, still ahead by one.
SMC’s Max Joshua came in to pitch in the 9th and struck out the side against Kenady, Murillo, and Olmstead before the Gaels had their final “ups” at the plate. Colombara managed to get two quick groundouts before hitting Sniffen with a 1-1 fastball to bring the tying run to the plate – but Armstrong struck out swinging to end it, and California would win the midweek OOC east bay-matchup by a final score of 6-5. Carl Schmidt went 3-4 in the game with a home run and two RBIs, while Jett Kenady continues to lead the Cal offense with an average of .337 on the season. Winner: California. WP: Jordy Lopez (2-0, 4.0 IP, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 K) LP: Talin Gardini (0-4, 1.2 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, BB, K)
California returns to action tonight to complete the back-to-back slate of games against the NorCal baseball squads. California takes on UC Davis at 6:05 PM at Stu Gordon Stadium tonight – the game will be streamed on ACCNX/ESPN+.
Hooray, I win the family rivalry!
I like watching Jordy Lopez play. Sort of a Swiss Army knife player; he can hit, play the outfield and pitch. He works fast on the mound. In this game he was lights out for a couple of his innings but got burned by the long ball. However, he kept Cal in the game, burned some innings and that was his purpose for this midweek tilt. Neat to see him get the win.