Cal Baseball: Bears Take Series From Louisville
California wins two of three against their ACC opponent and moves to 20-18 on the season
The California Golden Bears’ winning streak was once again snapped by the San Jose State Spartans, but a much more impressive streak was kept alive as Louisville came to Berkeley over the weekend.
Without hesitation, let’s dive into how Cal’s FIVE-GAME winning streak in the ACC was formed, something they have never done before, and how the Bears and Cardinals matched up at Stu Gordon Stadium over the weekend.
Game 1, Friday 4/17/2026: California 8 – Louisville 5
Kicking off the series on Friday night under the lights at Stu Gordon Stadium, the California Golden Bears and Louisville Cardinals faced off for the second series since Cal joined the Atlantic Coast Conference. With the two teams drawing a crowd of 888 fans out to Berkeley, CA, Oliver de la Torre got the opening start for the Golden Bears against Wyatt Danilowicz, a Senior who posted a 2.70 ERA with 52 strikeouts in 33.1 IP last season, where he was also named to the 2025 Academic All-ACC Team. De la Torre was coming off a seven-inning complete game against Pitt, in which he allowed just one run on three hits while striking out four, and looked to keep his streak of going five innings per start alive since February 27th.
With a first pitch at 6:06 PM, de la Torre retired the first Cardinals batter before allowing a base hit to Zion Rose and a two-run home run to Bayram Hot, getting Louisville on the board early against the Bears. Cal offense against Danilowicz was completely flat to start this game, as the Bears did not manage to get a runner on base via a hit until the bottom half of the 5th, whereas the Cardinals added two more runs in the top half of the 4th on a leadoff home run from Tague Davis and a sac-fly-RBI from Kade Elam to make it 4-0.
The Bears were finally able to claw back offensively in the bottom of the 5th as Lawson Olmstead got the rally started for Cal with a leadoff single while Carl Schmidt followed with a double down the left field line to put runners in scoring position for Cade Campbell – who hit a line drive base hit through the left side of the infield to bring home Olmstead and get California on the board for the first time in this game. Ethan Kodama and Jacob French would then both deliver with RBI singles of their own, giving Cal two more runs to cut the deficit within one and make it 4-3 Louisville heading into the 6th.
The Cardinals did immediately respond to those three runs from Cal with another leadoff homerun from Tague Davis against de la Torre, but the Bears came back out in the 6th and got hold of a lead that they would never lose in this matchup. Daniel Murillo led off the inning by getting hit by a 3-2 pitch, while Olmstead followed with a walk to knock Danilowicz out of the game after putting two runners on for Carl Schmidt, who launched a three-run home run to deep center against Jake Schweitzer, to give the Bears a 6-5 lead.
De la Torre returned out to the mound for the 7th and after giving up a leadoff hit that was turned into an out after George Baker tried extending a single into a double against the arm of Kodama in RF, and a one-out hit the Alex Alicea before getting Crain and Rose out and ending his night with 7.0 IP, 8 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, and 3 Ks – pitching back-to-back seven-inning starts for the Golden Bears. Cole Clark replaced de la Torre in the 8th and worked through an error and a base hit to give Cal another chance at the plate before handing the ball off to Ethan Foley for his first career save opportunity.
Cal added two more insurance runs in the bottom of the 8th on a Joshua Hanson two-run home run to deep left field to make it 8-5, and Foley came in to close it out in the 9th, retiring all three batters he faced and earning the save as California took game one in this three-game series against a team that went as far as the College World Series just last season. Game 1: California. WP: Oliver de la Torre (3-4, 7.0 IP, 8 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 3 K). LP: Jake Schweitzer (1-1, 2.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, BB, K).
Game 2, Saturday 4/18/2026: California 6 – Louisville 5
Getting right back into action for game two at Stu Gordon Stadium, California and Louisville squared off for a Saturday afternoon at the ballpark with a first pitch at 2:06 PM, and the Cardinals’ Ethan Eberle facing off against California’s Gavin Eddy. Last season, Eberle made 20 appearances for the Cardinals while starting in 10 of those games and ended up striking out 59 batters in 62 IP. He earned 2025 ACC All-Freshman Team honors, Academic All-ACC Team honors, and was also named to the 2025 NCAA Nashville Regional All-Tournament Team after pitching 6.1 shutout innings against Wright State, where he had struck out 11 Raiders.
Gavin Eddy returned to the mound for his usual Saturday start after going 5.0 innings against Pitt last weekend, where he earned a win while going 5.0 innings and allowing six hits and three runs. Louisville was able to strike first in this game against Eddy in the top half of the 2nd as Lucas Moore led off the inning with a single to right and advanced to third on a botched play at second by Jacob French while trying to get Moore out on a stolen base attempt. Jimmy Nugent then grounded out, which allowed Moore to score and give Louisville a quick 1-0 lead in the game.
After starting quiet at the plate to start the game, California got some momentum going in the bottom of the 3rd against Eberle, as Hideki Prather got a it started with a one-out single to left while Jett Kenady continued to stay hot at the plate with an RBI-double to tie the game before Daniel Murillo followed with a two-run shot to deep center field to give Cal a 3-1 lead. The Cardinals retook the lead in the top half of the 5th against Eddy as Nugent led off the inning with a home run to left, and Ben Slanker and Kade Elam each followed with a single to allow Zach Davis to bunt them over into scoring position for Griffin Crain. Crain singled through the third base side to bring home the tying run, and Zion Rose then hit a sac-fly-RBI to bring the leading run home before Eddy got out of the inning with three runs of damage and two runners left on base.
BUT that was of no concern for the Golden Bears, as Daniel Murillo gave Cal the lead right back on his second home run of the afternoon, another two-run home run to left, this time with Jacob French on first after a bunt-base-hit, and Cal took a 5-4 lead that they would never lose in this afternoon game on Evans Diamond.
Eberle worked through five innings for the Cardinals before being substituted by Peter Michael. Michael would give up one insurance run to Cal on a wild pitch that would allow Murillo to score from third and give the Bears a 6-4 lead heading into the 8th, while Gavin Eddy, on the other hand, had pitched his best game this season. Eddy went 8.0 innings and allowed seven hits and three earned runs while striking out seven, and Mike Neu handed the ball off to Ethan Foley for another save opportunity in back-to-back games to try and secure an ACC-series win at home.
Foley gave up a single to Nugent to lead off the top of the 9th before getting a fielder’s choice and strikeout to get two outs in the inning, but Zach Davis singled to right to bring home Nugent and show that Louisville was not done yet – only they were for Saturday, as Crain followed with a ground out to third in the next at bat that ended the game and gave California the series win against the Cardinals. Game 2: California. WP: Gavin Eddy (6-2, 8.0 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 ER, BB, 7 K). LP: Ethan Eberle (3-3, 5.0 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, BB, K).
Game 3, Sunday 4/19/2026: California 5 – Louisville 8
With the Golden Bears sealing their second straight ACC series win on Saturday night, Freshman Otto Espinoza looked to lead California to something they had never done since joining their new conference across the country, and that was sweep back-to-back ACC opponents. Last year, the Bears’ only sweep came against Stanford, and they did not win another series until Boston College came to Berkeley to close out the regular season.
Cal struck first on Sunday afternoon in front of a crowd of 858 fans as the Bears were all over Louisville starting pitcher Colton Hartman, plating home four runs in the bottom of the first on a Jett Kenady RBI double, a Daniel Murillo RBI-single, a Carl Schmidt base hit for an RBI, and finally a Joshua Hanson sac-fly-RBI to left before Hartman’s afternoon was over after just .2 IP and four earned runs.
Espinoza worked through the first two innings with no damage before the Cardinals flew in with two runs in the top of the 3rd, as Davis Tague launched a two-run home run to right, and knocked Otto out of the game in the 5th after he worked his way to two outs in the inning but gave up a base hit to Tague and hit Bayram Hot with a pitch in the next at bat to end his afternoon. Trent Roach came in from the bullpen, and the Cardinals hit back-to-back RBI hits to Crain and Nugent, and Louisville had tied the game at 4-4.
The Bears then went to Garrett Mackowiak in the top half of the 7th after two innings of no scoring, and Mackowiak surrendered an immediate leadoff home run to Tague Davis, and was then relieved by Ryan Spalliero, Spalliero would go on to give up three consecutive hits and allow the sixth run to score for the Cardinals, with the Bears getting one back in the 7th on a groundout from Daniel Murillo against Ty Starke to make it a one run ball game at 5-6.
The Cardinals then matched up against Cole Clark out of the Cal bullpen, and after getting the first out of the inning, Clark surrendered a two-run home run to Tague Davis, his third of the gam,e to make it 8-5 Louisville. California would not respond from there, and the Golden Bears would drop game three in this series and walk away from the weekend at 20-18 with an ACC record of 6-12. Game 3: Louisville. WP: Brandon Shannon (2-2, 5.1 IP, 2 H, ER, BB, 5 K) LP: Garrett Mackowiak (0-1, 0.0 IP, H, ER)
The California Golden Bears return to action with another weekday matchup against the San Francisco Dons on Wednesday, April 22nd – and will travel to Miami, FL this weekend to take on the University of Miami Hurricanes in a three-game ACC series. All games will be streamed on ACCNX/ESPN+.