Cal Baseball at the Pac-12 Tournament preview (Tue 7PM vs. Washington, Thu 7PM vs. Arizona)
Bears are probably just out of the NCAA Field of 64 if selection is happening right now
In year 2 and the final Pac-12 Baseball Tournament, Cal Baseball (34-18, 17-13 in Pac-12) again has plenty of play for in Scottsdale, Arizona.
With an RPI of 65, Cal is projected by D1Baseball as one of the “First Four Out”. Pac-12 Tournament will be both an opportunity to improve Cal’s postseason resume and also the chance to take the Pac-12 automatic bid outright. This will also be the final Pac-12 Championship ever. The winners will get to turn off the lights on their way out.
As the 6th seed, Cal will play 9th-seed Washington on Tuesday night (7 PM PT) and top-seed Arizona on Thursday night (7 PM PT) in Pool A. The winner of each of the three groups and the next best wild card will advance to the Pac-12 Championship Round with the semifinals on Friday and the championship final on Saturday.
With a relatively low seed, which is the tiebreaker, Cal needs to win both of their pool games to advance. Then again, Cal only needs to look at last year when the six-seed Oregon won the Pac-12 Tournament and the conference automatic bid. Oregon came from behind in their opening game to beat 9th-seed Cal to open the 2023 Pac-12 Baseball Tournament.
Cal Baseball is seeking a return to the NCAA postseason for the first time since 2019. The Golden Bears have enough offense to scare any team in any given game. Inconsistency in pitching also means that no lead is ever comfortable, leading to the “Cardiac Cal Bear” moniker.
Any team in this field can go 4-0 this week to win the Pac-12 championship. Cal Bears might have a good enough resume to earn an at-large bid by making the Pac-12 title game. Pitching will be a war of attrition for whichever teams that can make it to the weekend.
https://x.com/CalBaseball/status/1791932678696222916
Just this past weekend, Cal completed a sweep of the Washington Huskies (19-29-1, 10-20 in Pac-12). Two of those games went into extra innings and the Cal Bears completed their home schedule with eight walk-off wins. Playing with the knowledge that they probably cannot afford a loss to Washington, Cal rallied to win those Friday and Saturday games. Cal will again need to take care of business against Washington tonight to make Thursday’s game meaningful.
1B Peyton Schulze hit a walk-off homer on Friday and OF Seth Gwynn got the walk-off single on Saturday. Gwynn has become an offensive force in the last month to add length to the Cal lineup that features two stars in C Caleb Lomavita and OF Rodney Green Jr, both with 14 homers apiece. Schulze has already hit 21 doubles on the season - a number that could approach Cal’s all-time record of 28 by Xavier Nady in 1998 IF Cal can have a long postseason run.
Arizona (33-20, 19-7 in Pac-12) won the Pac-12 regular season title on the final day of the regular season when they took the finale against Oregon State in dramatic fashion via a walk-off. The Wildcats did sweep Cal in Berkeley this year, but they have less to play for this week.
It looks like junior RHP Andres Galan will get the start for the Bears today, but one expects head coach Mike Neu to ride whichever pitcher is effective for as long as possible. Let’s hope that the Cal offense will show up to make Mike Neu’s job much easier today.
Pac-12 Baseball Tournament: Pool Play
No.6 Cal vs. No.9 Washington
Where: Scottsdale Stadium (Scottsdale, AZ)
When: 7:05 PM PT
TV: Pac-12 Network
ROLL ON YOU BEARS!
As the PAC12 announcer Wes Clemens (a former MLB player/coach and PAC star player) repeatedly said “This Cal team is NOT a bubble team. They deserve a #2 or 3 seed in a regional”. He understands the historical bias against the PAC and in favor of SEC and ACC teams.
12-0 over the Huskies! An excellent start.