Cal Baseball: Road Trip Rundown
A Week in Review: The Golden Bears go 3-2 in their last five games with three wins at San Francisco, Sacramento State, and Louisville, but dropped two to the Cardinals.
The California Golden Bears wrapped up their nine-game road trip after sweeping Stanford with a short expedition across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco, a long flight to ACC’s Louisville, and an I-80 drive to Sacramento. They will return home on Friday to face off against the ACC’s Clemson Tigers, currently ranked at No. 6 in the NCAA’s DI Baseball rankings, sitting at 26-5, for a weekend series in Berkeley at Evans Diamond.
To recap Cal’s 3-2 week against the Dons, Cardinals, and Hornets, I’ll shoot some rapid-fire summaries to get us all back to speed!
March 24th, Bay Area Battle: Cal Bests San Francisco for East Bay Supremacy.
California took no days off after an eventful weekend in Silicon Valley, with a Monday afternoon away game against the San Francisco Dons at Benedetti Diamond. The Dons came into Monday afternoon at 12-12 while the Bears were 13-10 with a four-game winning streak as the Bay Area schools met for a nonconference contest.
The Bears’ offense got the scoring started in the top of the 3rd inning as Ryan Tayman hit a two-RBI double down the right field line to score Jarren Advincula and Dominic Smaldino. A couple of RBI singles by Schmidt and Campbell would add two more runs for Cal, as well as a two-run home run from Jarren Advincula, his third of the season.
Pitcher Ethan Foley got the start for the Golden Bears, earning his career high in strikeouts with 13 in 5.1 innings while allowing four runs and no walks. USF’s offense relied on the two-run home run combination to stay in the game, as Eddison Esquivel and Tyvon Moore would both hit one out with a runner on base in the bottom of the 6th inning to bring the Dons within two, and a Patrick Keighran two-run home run in the 7th would tie the game at 6-6.
The Bears and Dons could not get any runs across in the top and bottom halves of the 8th inning. Still, the Bears would get four runs across in the top of the 9th, as Schmidt (who would be pinch run for by Elijiah Clayton) and Advincula would reach base via base hits, and score on a fielder's choice and a Moutzouridis double that would clear the loaded bases.
The Bears would beat the crosstown Dons in the Bay Area showdown and improve to 14-10 on the season with a 7-3 record on the road and are 5-4 in the ACC before flying to Kentucky to face off against the Louisville Cardinals, who are ranked at No. 18 in the nation at 18-6 with a 4-3 record in the ACC.
March 28th, Cardinals Take Game One 11-10 in Walk-Off Fashion.
Austin Turkington got the start for the Bears, hitting the first two batters he faced in their first game against the Louisville Cardinals since March 10th, 2007, when the Cards defeated Cal 12-9. Patrick Forbes made his seventh start of the season for the Cards and came off a 6.0 inning loss against Virginia Tech in his last outing. Louisville got on the board first with three runs in the bottom of the 1st inning, while Seth Gwynn and Dominic Smaldino would get back-to-back RBI doubles to bring the Bears within one in the 2nd.
The Cardinals’ bats were hot, as they collected seven runs off seven hits in three innings off of Turkington, with six of those runs going unanswered by Cal to go ahead 9-2 in the 5th inning. The Bears got a rally going in the 7th with a leadoff single to center field by Advincula, followed by a four-pitch walk to Birge, and an RBI single by Handron to make it 9-3. A pitch would hit Ryan Tayman in the next at bat to load the bases, and a Jacob French double would score Handron and Birge, while Gwynn would reach on a fielder’s choice/error that would score Tayman and bring the Bears within three, and put the score at 9-6 Louisville going into the bottom half of the 7th.
Louisville would leave two runners stranded in the bottom of the 7th and 8th, as Cal would leave Birge stranded at second after his one-out double in the top of the 8th to keep the game at 6-9 heading into the 9th, where Jacob French reached base on a fielding error by Kamau Neighbors at second base, and Seth Gwynn followed with a base hit up the middle. Dominic Smaldino came to the plate with runners on first and second and crushed his fifth home run of the season over the center field wall to tie the game at 9-9, and the Bears did not stop there, as the comeback continued with a Schmidt single (Kodama came in to pinch run for him), an Advincula SAC bunt, a Birge intentional walk, and Handron singling Kodama home for Cal’s first lead of the night.
The Bears went to Cole Clark to close out the Friday night opener in Louisville, Kentucky, with a 10-9 lead in the bottom of the 9th, but disaster struck quickly for Cal as Tagger Tyson reached base on a Moutzouridis error at short and was moved to second by a Neighbors SAC bunt, putting him in scoring position for a Lucas Moore RBI double to tie the game at 10-10 and gave Cole a blown save from an unearned run. After Moore’s double, Alex Alicea was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second base, with both runners stealing and now in scoring position. Garret Pike walked to load the bases with only one out, only now Cal was in a double play opportunity- but Jake Munroe’s single through the right side of the infield was “all she wrote” as the Cards took game one 11-10 in walk-off fashion, and improved to 19-6, 4-3 ACC while Cal dropped to 14-11, 5-5 ACC heading into Saturday afternoon’s game.
Tucker Biven (2-0) was credited with the win after giving up four runs to the Bears in 1.2 innings, and Patrick Forbes struck 13 in 6.0 innings. Cal finished with 14 hits as Smaldino went 3-5 with a double, home run, and four RBIs to tie his career high.
March 29th, Bears Even The Series Against No. 18 Louisville.
The Bears and Cards got game two of their first series as ACC opponents underway on Saturday afternoon in front of 2,600 fans at Patterson Stadium, with Louisville’s Brennyn Cutts making his ninth appearance and first start pitching this season, and Cal’s Gavin Eddy making his seventh start of the season, coming off a 6.2 inning win against Stanford last weekend where he struck out a season high eight Cardinal batters.
The Bears jumped out ahead early in the top of the 1st inning as Alex Birge reached base on a one-out walk and scored on a Smaldino double to left center field. Smaldino would score on a PJ Moutzouridis to right, as the Bears would gain a 2-0 lead in their first chances at the plate against Cutts. The Cards would get one back immediately as Lucas Moore led off the bottom of the 1st inning with a solo shot home run to right field, but Cal would get two runs back on a Handron base hit and Jarren Advincula two-run home run to put the Golden Bears ahead 4-1 early in the game in top of the 2nd inning.
Eddy would struggle in the 2nd as Jake Munroe would lead off with a base hit to center and Tague Davis would follow with a two-run shot to left center field to bring the Cards back within one, with Eddie King Jr. walking and advancing twice on a couple of wild pitches to score and end Eddy’s day with the game tied at 4-4. David Shaw would come in to pitch for the Bears, but would hit the first two batters he faced and would give up a two-RBI double to Zion Rose and a SAC-Fly RBI to Garret Pike that would give Louisville a 7-4 lead as Tague Davis would strike out to end the inning with six runs across for the Cards in the bottom half of the 2nd. Louisville would add one more insurance run in the 3rd on a Sac-fly RBI by Bayram Hot, that would score Eddie King Jr. after he led off the inning with a double to center and advanced on a SAC bunt.
Cal would get three back in the top of the 4th against the Cards’ Ethan Eberle, as Gwynn would lead off the inning with a walk, and Handron followed with a single to put two runners on for Advincula to hit his second home run of the game, this time a three-run shot that brought the Bears back within one and put the score at 7-8. This home run would not go unanswered, as Zion Rose would hit a solo shot of his own to left to give Louisville a 9-7 lead, and end Shaw’s evening to bring in de la Torre for what would be his best appearance this season thus far. de la Torre would give up a home run to Tague Davis in the bottom of the 5th, and this would be the Cards’ only run and one of two hits against de la Torre for the afternoon, as they would try to hold on to their 10-7 as their offense stagnated from there on out, with de la Torre finishing out the game with 5.2 innings pitched, two hits, one run, and eight strikeouts.
California got some offense going in the top of the 6th with Handron getting on base by getting hit by the second pitch of his leadoff at bat, but Carl Schmidt would ground into a double play to give Louisville two quick outs. Advincula kept the Bears alive with a triple and Birge followed with another walk to put runners on the corners, and a passed ball (catcher missed the pitch) would score Advincula from third and bring the Bears within two.
Cal came back out in the top of the 7th with Moutzouridis getting on second with a one-out double, and Gwynn getting on first after being hit by a pitch. Handron would double to bring both runners home and tie the game at 10-10, with Carl Schmidt singling up the middle while Handron started running on contact, scoring from second and giving Cal their first lead since the 2nd inning. Advincula would follow with a pop-up to Munroe at third base, but he would drop the ball, resulting in Schmidt scoring and giving the Bears a 12-10 lead.
Handron and Schmidt would add two more insurance runs on back-to-back homers in the top of the 9th, as the Bears would close game two out with a 14-10 win over the No. 18 Louisville Cardinals, and look to win the series in the Sunday rubber match as Cal improved to 15-11, with a 6-5 record in the ACC and Louisville drops to 19-7, while going 4-4 in the ACC.
Jarren Advincula finished the day going 3-6 with three runs, two home runs, a triple, and five RBIs as he extended his on-base streak to 21 games with a 12-game active hit streak, while Alex Birge walked three times, bringing his season total to 22 in 23 games.
March 30th, Cardinals Take The Series With 13-6 Win Over Golden Bears.
The Bears and Cards looked to wrap up their 2025 ACC matchup with Sunday’s rubber match of a three-game series at Jim Patterson Stadium in Louisville, Kentucky. Mike Neu and the Golden Bears went to day three starter Ethan Foley to try and close out the series with a win, as the Cardinals relied on Peter Michael, a transfer from Northwestern, to try and send the Bears back to California with a series loss and send Louisville to their next matchup in Bloomington, Indiana with a series win.
The Cardinals got on the board first with Lucas Moore leading off the bottom of the 1st with a base hit to the right side of the infield, and would advance to third after Alex Alicea would be hit by a pitch and Zion Rose grounded out to Foley. Garret Pike would bring Moore in on a SAC-Fly to center, giving the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.
The Bears would claw back in the top half of the 3rd as Schmidt singled to left and reached second base while Rose struggled to come up with the ball, allowing Advincula to single through the right side of the infield to keep his on-base streak alive at 22 games and his hitting streak at 13, but Schmidt would be thrown out at home trying to score, and an Alex Birge base hit would only score Advincula as Cal would tie the game 1-1. The Cardinals would immediately get two runs back in the bottom of the 3rd, as Lucas Moore and Alex Alicea would hit back-to-back base hits for Zion Rose to bring Moore in via a sacrifice fly, and Garret Pike would follow with an RBI-single of his own to score Alicea before being tagged out at second to end the inning after trying to extend his base hit into a double. A Jacob French homer in the top of the 4th would give Cal a run and put the score at 3-2 Louisville heading into the bottom of the 4th.
Foley would come back out for the Bears in the bottom of the 4th to face Munroe, Davis, and King Jr.- but would allow all three to reach base as Munroe walked, Davis doubled him home, and King Jr. singled to end Foley’s afternoon and bring Cole Clark in to pitch in relief for Cal. With two runners on base, Clark would give up a three-run home run to the first batter he faced, as Tagger Tyson would crush Clark’s second pitch over the left field wall to put the Cards up 7-2.
Cal would get two back in the top of the 5th as Birge doubled down the right field line and Smaldino crushed his sixth home run of the season to bring the Bears back within three and end Michael’s afternoon, but that would be all Cal could get across as Tayman would follow with a double and be stranded at second as Moutzouridis flied out to right field to end the inning. Louisville got those two runs right back against Clark as Tague Davis walked after working a 3-2 count, with Eddie King Jr. smashing a two-run home run to left to put the Cards ahead 9-4 and end Clark’s day, putting Logan Piper on the mound to close out the bottom half of the inning.
The game would remain quiet until the bottom half of the 7th when Tagger Tyson would connect for his second hit of the ballgame, this time on a 3-0 count that brought Garret Pike in to score from second base to make it a 10-4 game, but the Bears would strike back in the top of the 8th as French singled to right and Gwynn followed with getting hit by a pitch to put runners on base for Handron. Handron walked to load the bases for Schmidt, who would strike out swinging, but French would score on a wild pitch, and back-to-back walks to Advincula and Birge would bring Gwynn home to bring the Bears within four and put the score at 10-6 Louisville heading into the bottom of the 8th.
No good runs go unpunished, as Alicea walked on four pitches and Rose reached on an error by Handron at third for Pike to double to right center field and end Piper’s day with the Cardinals now up 11-6. Miles Tenscher came in for the Bears in his eighth appearance out of the pen this season. Tenscher balked during his first at-bat faced, which caused Rose to score, but got Munroe to ground out to Advincula at second while Pike scored (unearned) and the Cards went ahead 13-6 as Davis and King Jr. both walked while only seeing one strike between the two of them. Tenscher’s day was quickly over as Kaden Taque recorded the final out of the inning, but the Bears got nothing across in the top of the 9th after Jacob French reached via a walk, dropping game three 13-6 and losing the series two games to one.
Foley (2-2) gets the loss for the game as Cal moves to 15-12 with a 6-6 record in the ACC, while Louisville picked up its 20th win of the season and improved to 20-7 and 5-4 in the ACC. The Cards’ next ACC matchup is against the Boston College Eagles at home in Louisville, while the Bears host the No. 6 Clemson Tigers in Berkeley after wrapping up their road trip in Sacramento.
April 1st, Bears End Road Trip With 6-5 Win Over Hornets in I-80 Showdown.
To wrap up their nine-game road trip, the University of California Men’s baseball team traveled eastbound on I-80 towards John Smith Field in Sacramento to face off against the Western Athletic Conference’s Sac State Hornets for an out-of-conference weekday matchup before the Clemson Tigers come to town.
The Hornets came into the matchup at 15-12 and a recent series loss against Tarleton State, as the Golden Bears came off a series loss of their own against No. 18 Louisville, and looked to bounce back as they kept their travel at a minimum with local away games against fellow NorCal programs.
Jarren Advincula got it started for the Bears with a leadoff single to keep his on-base and hitting streak alive against Sac State’s Colin Hunter, who came in for his seventh game pitching at 1-1 and a 5.49 ERA, with Smaldino homering to left to bring him home and put Cal up 2-0 in the top of the 1st. Smaldino’s two-run shot was measured at 363 ft with an exit velocity of 109 MPH- which is awesome that the Hornets track these statistics like a minor/major league club!
David Shaw got the start for the Bears in the bottom of the 1st, but could not make it out of the inning as he walked Ryan Christiansen, gave up a base hit to JP Smith, and an RBI-single to Jakob Poturnak before hitting Jameson Mullin with his first pitch of his at bat, and thus ending his afternoon early for Lucas Alaniz to get out of the bases loaded jam.
In the top of the 3rd, Cal got into two quick outs as Peter Caldera came in to pitch and gave up a lead-off walk to Smaldino, but Jacob French lined out right to first base for the unassisted double play. Moutzouridis followed with a single to left field and a stolen base to put him on second for Max Handron, who hit a 383 ft two-run home run to left to give Cal a 4-1 lead. The Hornets responded with one run back of their own in the bottom of the 3rd, as Cameron Sewell bounced one over the center field wall for a ground-rule double to extend his hitting streak to 10 games, with Poturnak singling through the left side to move him to to third so he could score on a Jameson Mullin ground out to Handron at third, to bring the score to 4-2 Cal.
A similar situation in the bottom of the 4th happened, as Michael Perazzo led off the inning with a double to right for Sacramento and Christiansen singled down the left field line to move him over to third for JP Smith to bring him home on a groundball to third base. Jordy Lopez would relieve Alaniz, and Cal would get out of the inning with a 4-3 lead, but that would last for only one inning, as the Hornets would add one more in the 5th to tie the game as Walton singled to short with two outs, followed by Beasley getting hit by pitch, and Perazzo doubling a run home before Tyler White grounded out to third to end the inning and two-out rally.
Cal could not get anything across in the top of the 6th after Seth Gwynn and Jarren Advincula both reached base with back-to-back singles, but the Bears would leave them stranded, as the Hornets would come to the plate and lead off the bottom half of the 6th with a Christiansen double, and a Smith SAC-fly to put him at third for Sac State’s first opportunity to take the lead in the ballgame. After a brief mounvisit to allow Cole Tremain more time to get loose in the Cal bullpen, Cameron Sewell came to the plate and singled through the left side of the infield passed Moutzouridis and Handron, scoring Christiansen, ending Lopez’s afternoon, and giving the Hornets a 5-4 lead heading into the 7th.
The game remained quiet from there, as the bats stagnated and both teams came into the 9th looking to find a way to win. Cal was looking to replicate the comeback magic Louisville had against them, while Sacramento just needed to hold on to their one-run lead. Seth Gwynn led off with a fly out to right field to get a quick out for the Hornets, but Advincula ripped a single to left that new left fielder Luis Pimentel-Guerrero could not come up with, resulting in Jarren advancing to third on the play. Alex Birge followed with an RBI-single up the middle to tie the game for the Bears, with Smaldino walking and French getting a base hit to bring Birge home and allow Cal to take their first lead since the 5th inning. Moutzouridis followed by grounding into a double play to end the inning, but Cole Tremain was now in a win situation for the Golden Bears heading into the last half of the 9th.
The Hornets started with a lead-off base hit by Poturnak after going down 0-2 in the count and brought in Jacob Cortez to pinch run for him at first, as Christian Perez came to the plate for Jameson Mullin, and grounded into a fielder’s choice. Pimentel-Guerrero walked to put two runners on, but Kligman’s fly-out and Perazzo’s strikeout would be all she wrote, as California would take this game 6-5 over Sacramento.
The California Golden Bears improved to 16-12 while Sacramento dropped to 15-13. Cal will host Clemson in Berkeley tonight (Friday) at 6:00 PM, Saturday at 2:00 PM, and Sunday at 1:00 PM before they host the University of the Pacific at home on Monday night. All games will be available to stream on ESPN+ with the ACC Network subscription.
Thank you for bearing with me and taking the time to read this rapid-fire rundown of Cal Baseball’s eventful week. Some personal emergencies needed my attention and took me away from my writing, but Write For California’s Baseball coverage will return to its normal schedule this weekend. - Justin
Ethan Foley was dominant at the Top of the Hill vs. the Dons well into the middle innings. I had the pleasure of witnessing in person the Bears’ stirring victory after losing the lead in the late innings. Unfortunately the Bears’ inconsistency has really cost them this year in conference play.