Cal Baseball: California Beats UC Davis, 7-2
California improves to 5-3 after defeating the Aggies in Davis, CA.
What was supposed to be a “home-and-home” two-game series between the Golden Bears and Aggies in Berkeley and Davis turned into a single-night game at UC Davis as the Tuesday night game on Evans Diamond was canceled due to inclement weather.
The California Golden Bears came into Wednesday night’s game at 4-3 after taking the series last weekend over the top mid-major Anteaters at UC Irvine. Davis opened the season by getting swept by Texas, where they were outscored 27-7, and winning last week’s series against Santa Clara, with whom the Bears split their season opener.
To face off under the lights at Phil Swimley Field at Dobbins Stadium, Mike Neu and the California Golden Bears went to Freshman Trent Roach to make his second start of the season. Roach got the loss in his first start against the Broncos on February 16th and had a great bounce-back game this time around against Grayson Bonanno and the Aggies. Bonanno made his third appearance of the season for the Aggies, having appeared in both of UC Davis’s prior losses on the season.
California got on the board first in this late-night matchup in front of tens of fans in Davis, when Cade Campbell hit a single to left and advanced to second and third on defensive miscues by the Aggies that put runners on the corners for the Bears, which brought Jett Kenady to the plate who grounded into a double play, but Camplbell scored on the defensive submission by the Aggie infield and Cal took the 1-0 lead in the 2nd. The Bears added one more in the top of the 3rd on a Daniel Murillo RBI-single, and Grayson Bonanno’s night would be over after 3.0 innings, 2 H, 1 K, and 2 ER.
Trent Roach was on fire for the Golden Bears to start the game, retiring the first 10 batters he faced, having allowed one runner due to an error by Campbell at third base in that span – which was immediately cleared from the bases on a 6-4-3 double play on the very next pitch. Roach would go into the 4th inning having not allowed a runner in scoring position, but after walking his second batter, gave up a two-run home run to Evan Gentil to tie the game at 2-2. Zach Story then singled to center, and Roach’s night was over as Mike Neu brought Tanner Grove in from the bullpen. Grove then got Azai to pop up, and McNeal to strike out to end the inning with no further damage.
Grove would pitch 1.2 innings for the Bears, striking out two, hitting one batter, and not allowing a walk or a hit in his relief appearance before Jett Wright would come in to relieve him in the 6th. Cal added two more in the 6th on a two-out triple from Gannon Snyder, followed by a two-run home run from Jett Kenady, his first career home run, to make it 4-2, and Hideki Prather would hit an RBI-single in the top half of the 7th to bring in Ethan Kodema to make it a three-run ball game.
A couple of insurance runs in the top of the 9th put the final nails in the coffin on the Cal Aggies, as a 7-2 victory is what the Golden Bears will travel back to Berkeley with after defeating UC Davis to improve to 5-3 on the season. WP: Tanner Grove (1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K) LP: Carter Speights (1.0 IP, 2 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, K)
The Bears will face off against Sacramento State on Friday at 6:05 PM, Saturday at 2:00 PM, and Sunday at 1:00 PM. All games will be available to watch on ACCNX/ESPN+.
Great job Justin coveting Cal baseball so well and smartly. Perhaps we’ll get more to enjoy the sun at Eva nd Dismond/Stu Hordon stadium. It’s great baseball played by extremely talented true student athletes (who don’t play for NIL money).
An encouraging few games for the Bears, though we will see if the strong pitching holds up against ACC foes. The freshmen are looking good but the success of Cal’s big three of Eddy, Foley and De La Torre (Cal’s Sun., Sat. and Fri. starters, respectively) will reveal whether Cal can be a factor in the conference race. I think the offense will be scrappy enough to give them a chance.