Cal Baseball: Canines at Cal. A Week in Review
Cal Baseball took a 9-2 win over the Fresno State Bulldogs last Tuesday in an out-of-conference matchup, but got swept by NC State to drop to 6-15 in conference play.
The California Golden Bears’ inaugural ACC baseball season struggles continued over the weekend as Cal hosted North Carolina State University for a three-game series that began on Thursday night, to accommodate Sunday’s Easter festivities. Cal opened the week with their standard out-of-conference game, keeping in the theme of minimizing voyages and maintaining local teams, by hosting Fresno State University on Tuesday night (4/15) at Stu Gordon Stadium.
To catch everyone up, I’ll do a rundown and quick summary of each game before Cal hosts Saint Mary’s College tonight on Evans Diamond and then travels to South Bend, Indiana, to face off against Notre Dame this weekend.
Tuesday, April 15th: Cal Beats Fresno 9-2 Behind Stellar Pitching Performances.
The California Golden Bears began their five-game home stand with a Tuesday night game against the Fresno State Bulldogs, pulling off a 9-2 victory behind an outstanding pitching performance by Gavin Eddy, who relieved Spencer Dessart after he opened the game with a three-up-three-down top of the 1st. Eddy (3-2) threw for a career high 7.1 innings, giving up two earned runs on five hits, while striking out seven en route to his third win of the season.
The Bears got on the board early with Jarren Advincula reaching base on a leadoff walk in the bottom of the 1st, and scoring on a Dominic Smaldino triple to put Cal ahead 1-0. The Bulldogs got a run back in the 2nd to tie it up 1-1 on a Cam Schnieder RBI-single through the middle of the infield, but Cal would jump far ahead in the bottom half of the inning, as Moutzouridis singled up the middle, Tayman was hit by a pitch, and Kodama singled on a ball that Fresno pitcher Tyler Patrick could not field cleanly, loading the bases for Jarren Advincula. Advincula jumped on the first pitch he saw and drove an inside fastball the opposite way towards right field for a grand slam to give Cal a 5-1 lead.
Cal added two more runs off a solo shot to left center field by Dominic Smaldino in the bottom of the 3rd, and a one-out home run from Max Handron in the bottom of the 6th to give Cal a 7-1 lead, with Carl Schmidt joining the long-ball parade with a two-run shot to right to make it 9-1.
Logan Piper would relieve Eddy in the 9th and give up an RBI single to Bobby Blandford to make it 9-2 Cal, but Schneider and Ruby would both strike out looking to end the game with the Bears winning by seven and playing solid baseball all around on Tuesday night.
Advincula (2-4, 2 R, HR, BB) had his 21st multiple-hit game of the season and has gotten at least one base hit in 21 of the last 22 games, while Dominic Smaldino (2-4, R, 3B, HR, 2 RBI) picked up his 10th home run of the season.
Cal improved to 18-18 after the win and would go on to host the NC State Wolfpack Thursday-Saturday in ACC conference play.
Thursday, April 17th: Bears lose Bad to Wolfpack.
California hosted the NC State University Wolfpack for a three-game ACC series over the “weekend” in Berkeley and continued their struggles against ACC opponents. NC State opened its three-game road trip with a dominant 9-0 victory over the Golden Bears on Evans Diamond at Stu Gordon Stadium.
NCST jumped on David Shaw in the top of the 2nd inning with back-to-back homeruns, starting with a lead-off home run by Justin Decriscio and followed up with an Alex Sosa solo shot to right center to get an early 2-0 lead, and added three more runs in the top of the 3rd as Ty Head led-off with a four-pitch walk and scored on a two-run home run by Chris Mchugh to make it 4-0, with Fraasman singling to left field for another run, making it 5-0 Wolfpack.
David Shaw’s night ended after 4.0 innings, where he gave up six hits, five earned runs, one walk, and five strikeouts, and was relieved by Logan Piper in the 5th, who pitched great out of the pen for the Bears and would not allow a run until the top of the 9th inning when Head led off with a base hit to Moutzouridis at short and scored on a double to left, before giving up a two-run home run to Josh Hogue, ending his appearance and brining in Tucker Bougie to try and close out the inning. Bougie surrendered one unearned run on a fielder’s choice to make it 9-0 Wolfpack, as the Bears looked to climb back from a huge deficit in the 9th.
NCST’s pitching was lights out all night, holding Cal to no runs on seven hits. Dominic Fritton pitched 6.0 innings, giving up six hits, no runs, two walks, and struck out two, and was relieved by Andrew Shaffner in the 7th, who would retire nine of the ten Cal batters he faced to close out game one of the series with a commanding 9-0 victory for NC State.
Jarren Advicula was able to extend his hitting streak to seven games and got a base hit for the 22nd time in the last 23 games. Dominic Fritton (5-3) earned the win, while David Shaw (0-4) has yet to pick up his first victory on the year, and adds his fourth loss to his record, while Cal drops to below .500 once again and sits at 18-19, while sitting second to last in the ACC baseball standings.
Friday, April 18th: Cal Chokes an Early 6-0 Lead, and Loses 7-6.
The Bears and Wolfpack went right back at it on Friday night for game two of their three-game series, with Austin Turkington taking the mound for California and Heath Andrews for NC State, with 1,290 fans who showed up to support their teams at Stu Gordon Stadium.
Cal got an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 2nd on a PJ Moutzouridis homer to left field for his third of the season, and would add five more runs in the bottom of the 4th, as Schmidt singled to right center, followed by Cade Campbell sinbgling to right, Smaldino brining Schmidt home on an RBI single, Moutzouridis singling through the left side to score Campbell, and Handron reaching base on a fielder’s choice for Alex Birge to hit a three-run home run to right for his ninth of the season to make it 6-0 Cal.
Turkington’s night was cut short as he would last 4.1 innings, giving up five hits, four runs (all ER), two walks, and striking out two as the Wolfpack started off the top of the 5th hot as Nixon was hit by pitch to lead off the inning, followed by four-pitch a walk to Lanphere, and a base hit by Heavner to right center field to score Nixon, and brought Head to the plate who hit a ball passed Moutzouridis and Campbell to bring Lanphere home and make it 6-2. Turkington would get Hogue to pop up for an infield fly rule, but that would end his night and bring Spencer Dessart in from the bullpen to face McHugh, who singled through the left side for an RBI, with DeCriscio following with a walk on a wild pitch for a fourth ball that would score Head, and bring Sosa to the plate and single through the right side of the infield to score McHugh, making it 6-5 Cal. Dessart’s night ended there, as Cole Tremain came in for the Bears out of the bullpen and got Fraasman to pop-up in foul territory to Campbell for out number two, but Nixon would come back to the plate as the Pack batted around, and he would rip a base hit to right to bring DeCriscio home and tie the game at 6-6 before finally getting the Bears out of the inning.
NC State stole the lead in the top of the 7th on a one-out solo shot by Fraasman down the left field line to make it 7-6, as the Bears would not get a single runner on base since the 6th inning, with 12 straight outs being recorded as the Wolfpack won game two and took the series from Cal with a seven-run comeback.
Cal dropped to 18-20 as NC State improved to 26-12 and picked up their 10th ACC win of the season, while Anderson Nance (6-1) picked up his sixth win for the Pack out of the bullpen this year, while Cole Tremain (4-4) gets the loss as the Bears move to 6-14 in conference play this season.
Saturday, April 19th: NCST Takes Game Three to Sweep Cal.
Game three kicked off at 2:00 PM PST on Saturday at Stu Gordon Stadium in front of a small crowd of 729 fans with a low-scoring and low-action game to close out the series.
Mike Neu and the Golden Bears went to Oliver de la Torre to start game three, as the Pleasanton, CA native has thrown for at least 4.0 innings in his last four appearances (two of them starts), earning him a more prominent role in the rotation. De la Torre would walk Head to start the game, who would score on a sac-fly later in the inning, but Cal would get that run back in the bottom half of the first as NCST pitcher Ryan Marohn would give up a lead-off single to Advincula, who would advance to second on a base hit by Campbell, and both runners would move into scoring posiiton on a wild pitch. Smaldino lined out to Head in center for a sac-fly to score Advincula, as the Bears tied it up 1-1.
NC State came right back out swinging in the top of the second, with Fraasman grounding out to short, but Nixon followed and singled up the middle and Novy reached base via a full-count walk for Heavner to come to the plate and single to left field, loading the bases for Head, who lined out to Advincula for out number two. McHugh came to the plate and singled through the right side of the infield as runners were going on contact and two strikes, scoring two and giving the Wolfpack a 3-1 lead, a lead they would never lose in this ballgame.
The Pack would score two more in the top of the 8th inning off of Cal reliever Spencer Dessart, as DeCriscio reached on a fielding error by Moutzouridis at shortstop, putting a runner on for Sosa, who homered to right field to give NC State a four-run lead heading into the bottom half of the inning. Advincula would get some offense started for Cal, as he hit a two-out double down the left field line over Matt Heavner at third base, and Schmidt would trade places with him on a double of his own to make it 5-2 Wolfpack as the Bears entered the 9th with one last chance to take a game from NCST.
Jacob French would reach base via a walk in the bottom of the 9th, but that would be the Bears’ only base runner, and the Wolfpack would leave Berkeley with a sweep over Cal and enter the NCAA DI top 25 at No. 25 on Sunday morning as they improved to 27-12, 12-6 ACC, and Cal drops to 18-21, 6-15 ACC, barely a game above last-place Pitt in the conference standings.
Cal hosts Saint Mary’s in Berkeley tonight at 6:00 PM, and will travel to Notre Dame this weekend and face off against the Fighting Irish for a three-game series before coming back to California to face off against USF, SJSU, and Pacific.
Gametimes for Cal at ND are Friday (4/25) at 3:30 PM, Saturday (4/26) at 11:00 AM, and Sunday (4/27) at 10:00 AM, with all games currently labeled as “TBD” for broadcasting and streaming, leaving a cable broadcast option on the table!