Cal Baseball: Bears Win Big on Friday but Drop Two of Three to Miami
After opening the series with a five-home run 9-3 game on Friday, California drops the final two games of the weekend to hand the Hurricanes the series victory.
Miami, FL – Born and raised in the North Bay, California, Golden Bears head coach Mike Neu’s baseball journey began in wine country, where he attended Vintage High School and set the league record in career wins (21) and strikeouts (196) as a pitcher, while being named a first-team All-State, All-Region, and back-to-back Monticello Empire League player of the year.
From Napa, Neu’s career was one built through grind and grit, as he began the collegiate stage of his career in community college at Sacramento City College, where he was the 1998 Northern California Pitcher of the Year, the Bay Valley Conference Pitcher of the Year, and a Junior College All-American. He went 15-0 with a 1.44 ERA and was also named the MVP of the 1998 Cal State Championship Final Four after picking up a win, save, and 11.0 shutout innings in the tournament.
After Sacramento, Neu’s career was then placed in the hands of the transfer process. An academic and athletic transfer as a junior, Neu took his NorCal talents to the Sunshine State and enrolled at the University of Miami, where he was one of the most impactful players on the Hurricanes’ roster in their journey to their 1999 College World Series Championship and third title as a program. At Miami, Neu finished the season 3-1 with an ERA of 2.94 in 67 IP, where he struck out 110 batters. Neu led the nation in K/9IP (14.8) and earned All-College World Series team honors after collecting three saves in four of Miami’s games, including the championship game against rival FSU.
After Miami, Neu was selected in the 29th round of the 1999 Major League Baseball player draft by the Cincinnati Reds, where he spent four seasons in their farm system before being picked up by the Oakland Athletics in the Rule 5 Draft in 2022. Making the big leagues in 2003, Neu appeared in 32 games for the Green and Gold, where he posted a 3.64 ERA before being sent back to Miami (then the Florida Marlins) in a trade for Bill Murphy and Mark Redman. After being released by Florida, Neu signed with the Dodgers and retired after hitting free agency in the off-season.
Mike Neu then began his career, which we know him best for, in Berkeley. Neu picked up a couple of jobs as scouts for MLB clubs before beginning his time as the pitching coach, and then head coach for the Diablo Valley College baseball team (go Vikings!), where he led DVC to two Big 8 Conference titles in three seasons, and had the Vikings ranked as high as No. 1 in NorCal in 2011. Picking up traction for his success in Bay Area baseball, the University of California, Berkeley hired Neu as the pitching coach in 2012 and helped shape the Bears into one of the best pitching staffs in the Pac-12 until he departed for a head coaching job at Pacific in 2016. After two seasons in Stockton, Neu returned to Cal to begin his reign as the head coach of California Baseball in 2018.
Since Neu’s takeover at Cal, he has had to navigate the collapse of the Pac-12, conference realignment to the ACC, the transfer portal, NIL, and COVID-19. Neu had led the Golden Bears to a 185-152 overall record (91-87 in Pac-12 play) and took the team to the NCAA tournament once. Since the team has realigned to the ACC, California has struggled to stay on par with its East Coast opponents, falling to 48-52 with an ACC record of 16-35 in that span.
Now, fast forward to the weekend, Mike Neu’s “full circle” moment in this series comes down to returning home to where he capped off his collegiate career, as he continues to try to steer the Golden Bears baseball program in the right direction against some of the best baseball talent the NCAA has to offer. The California Golden Bears traveled down to Miami, FL to take on the Hurricanes for the first time in the regular season since joining their new conference, having last faced off in the ACC tournament last year – where the Bears stunned the Hurricanes with a 12-2 win in the first round to send Miami home, even as they were NCAA Tournament bound in head coach JD Arteaga’s second season at the helm of the program.
Game 1, Friday 4/24/2026: California 9 – Miami 2
Having played college ball at Mark Light Field, Mike Neu returned to his old stomping grounds, where he once was a CWS legend, to lead the Golden Bears in their first series against Miami with Friday’s opener under the lights and in front of a crowd of 2,800 fans in Coral Gables, Florida.
Getting the start for the then-30-10 Hurricanes was Senior left-hander Rob Evans, who entered Friday night’s game at 8-1 and went 7.2 innings against Stanford in last week’s 6-3 Friday opener on The Farm. With Jacob French getting Cal their first base runner by reaching on an error in the top of the 1st, the Bears jumped on the board quickly with some early offensive-pop from Jett Kenad,y who hit a two-run home run to left, and Lawson Olmstead launching a solo shot over 424 ft to make it a quick 3-0 ball game.
The Hurricanes were quick to respond to Oliver de la Torre, with a sac-fly RBI to score one in the first, but de la Torre was stellar in his outing once again, posting his usual Friday stats for the Golden Bears, being dominant and efficient. De la Torre put up 8.0 innings while allowing just five hits and two runs to the Hurricanes, while striking out seven and walking just one of the 28 batters faced. He has gone at least 7.0 innings in each of his last three starts and has not pitched less than 5.0 since mid-February, tallying up 62.1 IP for the Bears thus far this season.
Cal’s offense took advantage of some defensive misreads and pitching mistakes as Campbell singled and found himself in scoring position in the 2nd on a balk from Evans, and scored on a ground out to the right side of the infield to make it 4-1 Cal. The Bears then scored another run in the 4th after loading the bases on three consecutive walks that knocked Evans out of the game, before Hanson walked with one out to score another run and make it 5-2.
Cade Campbell hit the third home run of the night for the Golden Bears in the top half of the 6th after Carl Schmidt led off the inning with a double to make it 7-2, while Jett Kenady hit his second of the game to lead off the top of the 7th to make it 8-2. Daniel Murillo immediately followed with a solo home run of his own to go back-to-back with Kenady once again this season, and Cal would pull away with a 9-2 win as Cade Colombara would relieve de la Torre in the 9th, strike out Alex Sosa, walk Brylan West, get Dylan Dubovik to fly out to Kodama in right, and finally get Michael Torres to fly out to Hanson in center to end the game. WP: Oliver de la Torre (4-4, 8.0 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, BB, 7 K). LP: Rob Evans (8-2, 2.2 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 3 K).
Game 2, Saturday 4/25/2026: California 3 – Miami 4
Trying to capitalize on the momentum from de la Torre’s great outing, the California Golden Bears baseball team returned to action on Saturday night in front of a crowd of 3,100 against the Hurricanes’ Lazaro Collera, a local sophomore pitcher from Miami, FL, who had appeared in 15 games for the Canes while starting in seven of those this season.
Jett Kenady got the scoring started with an RBI-double to right to bring home Hideki Prather and give Cal a 1-0 lead, but the Hurricanes jumped all over Gavin Eddy in the bottom half of the inning, as Miami’s Jake Ogden led off the inning with a double down the left field line, and Max Galvin followed with a base hit to left to put runners on the corners for Derek Williams. Williams popped up in the infield to Murillo at first, but Alex Sosa followed and hit a towering three-run home run to right to give the Canes a 3-1 lead.
Gavin Eddy settled in from there for the Bears, matching de la Torre AND his own prior start last week against Louisville, by going 8.0 innings against Miami and allowing just the three earned runs in the 1st, six hits, and striking out seven. Cal’s offense was able to pick him up in the top of the 5th as Ethan Kodama and Jordy Lopez both reached base on back-to-back walks and scored on a two-RBI double from Hideki Prather to make it a 3-3 game. Miami and California both would not score until the 9th inning, as Cal would leave three men stranded on base in the 8th after Kodama struck out swinging with two outs and the bases loaded.
Replacing Eddy in the bottom of the 9th, Cole Clark came in to try and bring this game into extra innings after Cal got no runs across in the top half of the inning. Clark gave up a leadoff walk to Dubovik before getting a bunt pop-fly to himself for an out – but after surrendering a base hit to Gabriel Milano and putting two runners on, Clark was subbed out for Ethan Foley, and Foley got Alvarez to fly out for a sac-fly before intentionally walking Ogden to load the bases and make it a force out at every base with two outs. Unfortunately, Max Galvin took four straight balls out of the zone from Foley, and Dubovik scored to give Miami a 4-3 walk-off win against the Bears. Cal did not capitalize on the momentum from a 9-2 win and back-to-back stellar starting pitcher performances. Game 2: Miami. WP: Lyndon Glidewell (3-0, 1.1 IP, BB, 3 K) LP Cole Clark (2-3, .1 IP, H, ER, BB).
Game 3, Sunday 4/26/2026: California 1 – Miami 4
In a winner-takes-the-series rubber match, California and Miami squared off on Sunday at 1:00 PM EST with the series on the line and different ambitions within the ACC standings. For California, overtaking Notre Dame by two games and being one game behind Duke before heading to Virginia Tech next weekend would be more than ideal, while Miami looked to capitalize on the fact that their in-state rival FSU shares their in-conference record and lost two of three against Stanford on The Farm in Palo Alto.
California had the start for Sunday as “TBD,” but Otto Espinoza earned the job once again and went up against Miami’s AJ Ciscar, who was making his 10th start of the season for the Canes. Miami got on the board first in the bottom of the 2nd against Espinoza, as Brylan West led off the inning with a walk and advanced to third on a one-out double from Vance Sheahan. Gabriel Milano then singled through the middle, and Miami took a 1-0 lead in the game.
Espinoza would last 4.0 innings for the Bears and allow just three hits and one run, but he did walk four and struck out only one as his command was not as dialed in. Ethan Foley would relieve him in the 5th, and after getting a quick out to begin his afternoon, Ogden and Galvin hit back-to-back singles and scored on a two-RBI hit from Alex Sosa to give the Canes a 3-0 lead heading into the latter half of this game.
The Bears responded in the 6th against Ciscar with a trio of base hits to start the inning from Kenady, Murillo, and Olmstead, but the Canes got two quick outs on a ground out double-play from Schmidt while sacrificing the run before Campbell lined out to short and ended the inning with just one across and down 1-3. Miami immediately got that run back in the 6th on an RBI-single from Milano, and they would pull away in this game with their 4-1 lead and send the Bears home with a series loss and one-run defeat while collecting 10 hits on the afternoon. Game 3: Miami. WP: AJ Ciscar (4-3, 7.2 IP, 10 H, ER, 7 K) LP: Otto Espinoza 2-2, 4.0 IP, 3 H, ER, 4 BB, K).
California drops to 22-20 on the season with an ACC record of 7-14 in Mike Neu’s return to Miami, as the Bears head into the week with both Saint Mary’s and UC Davis on their schedule ahead before hosting Virginia Tech over the weekend. All games will be streamed on ACCNX/ESPN+.
The Saturday game was basically even, and Miami’s centerfielder had a couple of catches that were ESPN Top Ten material, including robbing Cal of a home run that would have given the Bears a 4-3 lead. Alas, in a game of inches, the Bears were ever so close to grabbing this series.
Time to get hot, down the stretch. Go Bears!