Cal Baseball: No. 3 Yellow Jackets Outscore Bears 33-7 in ACC Series Sweep
Golden Bears drop to 1-11 in the ACC and fall below .500 on the season in Jarren Advincula’s dominating return to Evans Diamond
BERKELEY – With the weather in Berkeley removing a midweek game against the Saint Mary’s Gaels, the Golden Bears took a week off from their series loss against Wake Forest in Winston-Salem and hosted the No. 3 ranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at Evans Diamond for a Thursday – Saturday series that gave both teams an Easter Sunday off.
The Bears and Yellow Jackets, both public universities that house some of the nations’ greatest minds, last faced off in the 2025 Atlantic Coast Conference baseball tournament, where Georgia Tech sent California home after the Bears made a random run in the tourney with wins against 8-seeded Miami and 9-seeded Wake Forest; both teams who would go on to participate in the NCAA Division I tournament, but GT ended the 16-seeded Cal’s hopes and dreams that were fueled by a headbanded Grogu and bottle of Swag Sauce.
Georgia Tech, who finished last season at 41-19, began the 2026 season under the reigns of a new head coach after Danny Hall announced his retirement at the end of the 2025 regular season and before the Jackets were sent home in the Oxford Regional by Ole Miss. Former FSU 1st round pick and Georgia Tech Associate Head Coach of the last five seasons, James Ramsey, has taken over as the new head coach and hit the ground running with portal acquisitions, recruit signings, former player retention, and a hot No. 3 ranking in the nation that took a great Yellow Jackets team from last season and built upon it.
As part of the splash in the transfer portal pool that was dominated by the SEC and familiar ACC power houses, Georgia Tech made headlines when they snagged Cal’s star shortstop Jarren Advincula in the portal over a lucrative offer thrown from Rocky Top Tennessee. Advincula, once Cal’s star player, was named 2024 First-Team All-Pac-12 as a freshman and 2025 2nd Team All-ACC while in Berkeley - and has already gotten off to a great start with the Yellow Jackets since leading the Golden Bear Baseball exodus of 2025. After coming home to the Bay Area and facing off against his rival team, Advincula’s season average sits at .422 as the 6’2” junior shortstop has five home runs and 38 RBIs thus far.
Mendoza. Ott. Stojaković. Advincula? Add him to the Mount Rushmore of gone too soon Cal Bears.
Game 1, Thursday 4/2/2026: California 2 - Georgia Tech 17
The No. 3 ranked Yellow Jackets wasted no time getting ahead in this series with an absolutely demoralizing 10-run mercy rule victory over the Bears in Berkeley on Thursday night. Switching things up in the Cal rotation with the one-day short of rest, Mike Neu went to freshman and midseason Freshman Second Team All-American (PerfectGame) reliever Otto Espinoza to make his second start for the Golden Bears after posting a 1.48 ERA in his prior seven games. Espinoza was matched up against Tech’s Tate McKee, who locked himself into the No. 1 starter position after going 8-3 in 16 series openers last season.
For Cal, this game (hell, this series) was over before it even started… if that is fair to say. The Yellow Jackets jumped ahead with an explosive 1st inning against Espinoza that saw four batters reach base before an out was even recorded. Drew Burress led off the game with a four-pitch walk, followed by a double from Vahn Lackey to put runners in scoring position for former Cal Bear shortstop Jarren Advincula - who followed with a very familiar double down the right field line to plate home both runners and give the Jackets a 2-0 lead. Advincula then advanced to third on a wild pitch from Otto and scored on a sac-fly before two more runners scored on an RBI single from Carson Kerce and an error by Daniel Murillo at first base to allow Caleb Daniel to reach base and make it a 5-0 game.
Espinoza’s day ended there after just .1 IP, 4 H, 7 R, 5 ER, 2 BB and no strikeouts as Spalliero relieved him with two runners on and only one out; but the Jackets did not let up on the gas pedal, as Will Baker (Spalliero’s first batter) jumped on a 2-1 fastball and drove it to right for an RBI-single before both he and Dnaiel advanced into scoring position on a wild pitch, and eventually both scored on a fielding error by Campbell at third and another RBI-double from Advincula, his second in the inning. Alex Hernandez and Kent Schmidt followed with back-to-back walks to bring in run number nine of the inning before Trent Roach replaced Spalliero after he gave up 2 ER on 2 H while walking two and striking out one. Roach got the Bears out of the inning by striking out Ryan Zuckerman in his second AB of the inning, but the damage was done as the Yellow Jackets led 9-0 before the Bears even got in the batters’ box.
GT added three more runs on two hits and another error in the 3rd as Advincula tripled in two runs before scoring on a fielder’s choice to make it 12-0, as the Bears fell further and further behind with the Yellow Jackets adding five more runs in the next two innings. Cal was able to get two runs on the board once McKee was taken out after the 4th, but an RBI-infield single from Freshman Midseason All-American (PerfectGame) Jett Kenady and an RBI base hit to center from the veteran transfer Murillo would be all the runs the Bears would score in this game as Georgia Tech would shift/pull their starters and cruise to a 17-2 blowout victory in a shortened 7-inning win over California. 395 fans at Evans Diamond at Stu Gordon Stadium witnessed a murder. Game 1: Georgia Tech. WP: Tate Mckee (5-0, 4.0 IP, 3 H, BB, 4 K) LP: Otto Espinoza (1-1, .1 IP, 4 H, 7 R, 5 ER, 2 BB)
Game 2, Friday 4/3/2026: California 2 - Georgia Tech 7
California and Georgia Tech went right back to action the next night at Stu Gordon stadium under the lights in Berkeley while in front of a crowd of nearly 1,000 fans for the first time this season. As Cal has shown in their last season and the first go at this season’s ACC play, they are not up to par with this level of competition quite yet.
Georgia Tech jumped on the board immediately against the Bears’ Friday night starting pitcher, Oliver de la Torre, who has been the starter for Cal on the losing end of each of his last four starts, even with games he exited with the lead (BC and Wake Forest). De la Torre faced off against the heart of the Yellow Jacket’s lineup in the top of the 1st and GT kept the ball rolling from the night prior as they plated across four runs on fielder’s choice RBI and three-run home run from Ryan Zuckerman to put the Bears behind early.
Advincula continued his homecoming display of dominance with a leadoff double to right in the top of the 3rd that began a chain of extra base hits as Alex Hernandez followed with a two-run shot to right, and Kent Schmidt went back-to-back with a solo home run to deep left to make it a 7-0 ball game in just the 3rd inning. Cal would get one run across in the bottom half of the 4th on a wild pitch that would bring home Murillo, but the seven earned runs from de la Torre in 5.0 IP would be all the Yellow Jackets would need to hold onto an inevitable 7-2 victory over California to extend their ACC winning streak to six games as the Bears continue to crumble.
Cal was only able to generate two runs in back-to-back nights, this time on just five hits (one less than Thursday’s game) against the top team in the ACC. Porter Buursema went 4.0 innings and allowed just two hits while striking out six in first career start in the East Bay. With the lack of midweek games to build up a resume for a NCAA tournament case, Cal’s chances at postseason action beyond a pity-invite to the ACC tournament is looking bleak at its best. Game 2: Georgia Tech. WP: Brett Barfield (2-0, 1.0 IP, H, 3 K) LP: Oliver de la Torre (1-4, 5.0 IP, 6 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 3 BB, 5 K).
Game 3, Saturday 4/4/2026: California 3 - Georgia Tech 9
One on hand, Cal scored more than three runs and put together more than six hits! On the other hand, Cal scored three runs compared to Georgia Tech’s nine and only strung together seven hits while the Yellow Jackets put up double digits in hits for 12 against Gavin Eddy and the Bears’ bullpen to leave Berkeley with one of the cleanest and easiest sweeps in James Ramsey’s first season as head coach.
The Bears looked to avoid the sweep behind R-Sophomore Gavin Eddy, who has been a shining light in this dark pit of ACC baseball in Berkeley this season, as Eddy entered Saturday’s game at 4-1 with a season ERA of 2.50 after pitching 6.1 innings against Wake Forest in a crucial game that broke the losing streak and got Cal in the win column in the conference standings. Eddy was matched up against GT’s Jackson Blakely, who allowed just four hits to NC State last weekend in a 7.0 inning performance that allowed the Yellow Jackets to cruise to a series sweep and 10-0 victory.
The Jackets got on the board in the 1st once again, this time with Drew Burress leading off the game with a solo shot to left to give Tech a 1-0 lead. Burress would also lead off the 3rd with a base hit that would start a chain of back-to-back-to-back hits from Vahn and Advincula to make it a 2-0 ball game, and from there, Georgia Tech just grounded into a couple of fielder’s choices in the inning to allow two more runs to score as Cal fell behind 0-4 very quickly.
The game remained extremely quiet from there, but Georgia Tech’s bats reawaked in the top half of the 6th when Quinn Larson came in to relieve Eddy. Larson struck out his first two batters before allowing the next four batters to reach base (single, walk, single, and another single) which would allow two more runs to score. Larson was then swapped for Cole Clark who surrendered a familiar triple to Advincula down the right field line, and an RBI-single to Alex Hernandez to make it a 9-0 game for the Yellow Jackets before Cal got anything beyond one single hit from Buster Posey award watchlist Catcher Hideki Prather.
Cal was able to avoid the shutout by scoring three runs in the bottom half of the 8th on a pair of infield singles/RBIs from Murillo and Olmstead before Campbell doubled in the third run, but that would be all Cal could muscle up as far as offense goes, as an Ethan Kodama two-out double in the 9th would go to waste as Tyler LeRoy would strikeout looking to end the game and hand Georgia Tech one of the easiest series sweeps they have ever had in the ACC.
California falls to 14-16 overall and 1-11 in conference-play, with Mike Neu now holding an ACC record of 10-31 before Cal heads to Pittsburgh this weekend. The Bears sit dead last in the ACC once again and their schedule ahead includes Louisville, Miami, Virginia, and Stanford. Game 3: Georgia Tech. WP: Jackson Blakely (4-1, 5.1 IP, 2 H, 6 K) LP Gavin Eddy (4-2, 5.0 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 K).
California returns to action tonight with an OCC game against San Francisco at Dante Benedetti Diamond at Max Ulrich Field. Cal returns to ACC action this weekend against Pittsburgh with all games being streamed on ACCNX/ESPN+.
Well, at least they are getting a good education