After routing UW, Cal needs to beat Arizona (7 PM, P12N) to advance to Pac-12 semifinal

Top-seed Arizona has already clinched a semifinal berth so this game is meaningless for them

May 23, 2024

Cal Baseball’s Tuesday night Pac-12 Tournament opener went as well as possibly expected. Taking care of business against a Washington Huskies team that the Cal Golden Bears just swept over the weekend - although two games went to extra innings, Cal won 12-0 in 7 inning due to run rule. RHP Andres Galan was brilliant in pitching 6.1 shutout innings while allowing merely two hits and two walks to go with seven strikeouts. Galan’s effort means that every other pitcher will be available for tonight’s game against Arizona and if Cal wins, tomorrow’s Pac-12 semifinal.

Andres Galan during a rare moment when he allowed a runner on base. (Photo Credit: J. J. Digos/Pac-12 Conference via CalBears.com)

Cal (35-18, 17-13 in Pac-12) has been on a roll of late, winning 19 of their last 23 games - an impressive feat even if some of the Bears' scheduled opponents have bad records. Against Washington, who are now responsible for the last four of Cal’s current five-game winning streak, it was a balanced offensive attack from the Bears.

Cal broke the game open with three runs in 3rd, four runs in 5th, and five runs in 6th inning. The entire Cal lineup impressed the scouts present at Scottsdale, Arizona. Max Handron went 3 for 4 with three RBIs. Caleb Lomavita went 2 for 3 with a triple and double. Six different Cal Bears had multiple hits and six Bears drove in a run.

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It is a moot point since this is the final Pac-12 Tournament, but I am not sure they have optimized the format despite changes since the inaugural one in 2022. With the seed earned in the regular season as the tiebreaker and a reseeding for the semifinal round, Arizona’s 6-5 win over Washington (Huskies scored two runs late to make it interesting) on Wednesday night meant that the Wildcats have already clinched a semifinal berth for Friday. Arizona will play 8th-seed Stanford who defeated ASU and Oregon State to hope to prolong their season with an improbable Pac-12 title. Thursday night’s game has absolutely zero meaning for Arizona, but it also means everything for a Cal Bears team that is still sitting on the NCAA bubble.

Of course, Arizona will not be sitting their regulars in their lineup, but one has got to figure that they will go with their typical midweek starter for this game while saving their aces for tomorrow and Saturday, if necessary. Depending on the result of the first game on Thursday between Oregon State and Arizona State, Arizona can benefit from keeping a strong Oregon State (the best RPI in the Pac who were only edged by Arizona for the regular season title on the last day via a walk-off loss) out of the knockout round if Cal beat them on Thursday night.

With all that said, a strong start may be more important than ever for the Cal Bears. A big inning can force Arizona to punt this meaningless-for-them game early. For the computer ranking, this could nonetheless be a very solid win over a good team. The second game of Thursday between USC and Oregon will determine who might face Cal, if they win, in the semifinal tomorrow.

The best result, and a somewhat realistic one, this week is for Cal to win the Pac-12 automatic bid. If anyone other than Arizona or Oregon wins it, that is one less at-large spot available to a bubble team like Cal. It would be great if another Cal starting pitcher could step up like Galan did on Tuesday.

Finally, a scoop from D1Baseball’s Kendall Rogers is that Cal head coach Mike Neu is about to get an extension. This year’s successful season (even if it somehow ends tonight) is certainly a good justification for this move.