Cal Baseball: Spartans Walk-Off Against Golden Bears to Snap Cal's 11-Game Winning Streak

California drops their midweek matchup to the San Jose State Spartans on a bases loaded walk-off single.

The California Golden Bears traveled down to the South Bay on Tuesday night to take on the San Jose State Spartans and snapped their 11-game winning streak after fumbling a late lead to the struggling Mountain West team.

The Spartans entered the game at 4-11, having lost five straight, which included getting swept by Pittsburg at home at Excite Ballpark in San Jose. Cal came in looking to keep their 11-game win streak alive, and in doing so, Mike Neu turned back to Freshman righty Trent Roach to start against San Jose’s opener Jesse Gutierrez in a bullpen game for the Spartans.

The Spartans got on the board first against Roach with a leadoff home run in the bottom of the 1^st from Alex Fernandes, but Roach quickly settled in for the Bears and had another great game, going 4.0 IP and allowing just one run on two hits while striking out four.

Hideki Prather against USD on Sunday (via Darrell Lavin)

Gutierrez only opened the game for the Spartans and was relieved in the top of the 2^nd, and Cal finally tied up the game with a two-out double from Hideki Prather to bring in Olmstead from second to make it a 1-1 game. The Bears took a 2-1 lead against San Jose State in the top half of the 7^th on a SAC-Fly RBI from Jett Kenady to bring in Carl Schmidt, who has been seeing playing time since Kevin Jeon went down with a leg injury on Saturday against San Diego.

California would have added one more insurance run in the top of the 8^th, as Gannon Snyder reached on an error from SJSU’s shortstop Rocco Caballero and wound up at third with no outs after stealing second and advancing on an Olmstead base hit. Where Cal missed out on an opportunity to score was when Hideki Prather hit a deep line drive to right field, but Snyder did not tag from third on the play, with French and Murillo then both being sat down to end the inning with no damage.

Cal’s bullpen held it down for almost the entirety of the game, with Larson, Wright, and Mackowiak all earning a hold in last night’s game. Still, Cole Clark surrendered the tying run to Ramirez in the bottom half of the 8^th on a two-out double down the left field line that scored Peyton Rowles from first.

Cal went down in order in the top of the 9^th tied 2-2 while Take Kreis came in to relieve Clark. Kreis walked the first batter he faced after working a full count and then hit the next batter with a pitch to put two runners on for Giannini, who laid down a bunt in front of home plate to advance both runners into scoring position. Kreis was able to get an out by striking out Ricci to allow Fernandes to reach base via intentional walk and put a double-play scenario in play, but Rowles drove an inside pitch the other way over French at second, scoring the winning run from third and giving SJSU the 3-2 win.

SJSU wins on an RBI single from Peyton Rowles (via @SanJoseStateBSB)

California’s 11-game winning streak ends in San Jose after out-hitting the Spartans 10-6 and getting 13 base runners, and the Spartans snap their 5-game losing skid in walk-off fashion. Final Score: California 2 – San Jose State 3. WP: Caden Duke (2.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, K) LP: Take Kreis (.2 IP, H, ER, 2 BB, K)

Cal returns to Stu Gordon Stadium at Evans Diamond in Berkeley on Friday night to open ACC play against No. 15 North Carolina. Game one will be on Friday at 6:05 PM, while game two will be Saturday at 2:05 PM, and Sunday’s game will be at 1:05 PM.

All games will be streamed on ACCNX/ESPN+.