Cal Baseball: Struggles Continue as UCONN Extends Bears’ Losing Streak to Five

Huskies beat Golden Bears 9-3 in Berkeley as Bears commit 4 Errors

California falls to 13-8 after losing their fifth consecutive game, this time to the UCONN Huskies, who came into Berkeley with an 8-11 record after two of three in their last series against Portland. UCONN finished the 2025 season at 38-21 after winning the Big East Conference regular season under Jim Penders but were not included in the NCAA tournament.

Freshman Catcher Lawson Olmstead scored one of the three runs for Cal in last night’s game against UCONN (photo via Rob Hwang)

The Bears and Huskies last faced off in February of 2024 in Berkeley, when Cal swept UCONN and finished 34-18 while missing out on the NCAA tournament, but UCONN ended up at 35-26 and received a two-seed in the Gainesville Regional for their Big East season title. UCONN did go on to defeat Duke and Oklahoma in the regional before losing to FSU in the Tallahassee Super Regional.

Fast forward to last night in Berkeley, Trent Roach (1-1) was given the midweek start as per usual for the Bears this year, and Roach worked through the 1^st inning in just six pitches, before Cal took the first lead of the night in the bottom half of the inning against Charlie Hale - as Hideki Prather led off with his sixth home run of the season to give the Bears an instant 1-0 lead on just one pitch.

Trent Roach in his fourth start of the season for the Bears (photo via Rob Hwang)

The 1-0 lead for Cal was short-lived, as UCONN plated three across in the top half of the 2^nd with back-to-back one-out singles followed by Evan Menzel reaching on a catcher’s interference to load the bases for Bryce Detwiler. Detwiler grounded out to score a run and move two into scoring position for Chase Taylor, who hit a bloop single into center to allow both runners to score and make it a 3-1 game.

Jordy Lopez would replace Roach in the 3^rd after 2.0 IP, 3 H, 3 R, and 2 ER – and would hold the Huskies for an inning before UCONN knocked Lopez out of the game on a two-out double that brought Chase Taylor in from home to make it a 4-1 game for the Huskies. Cade Colombara would help the Bears get out of the 4^th but allow UCONN to bring another run across in the 5^th with a pair of doubles to Jackson Marshall and Camden Righi to make it 5-1. Cal was able to claw back at Hale as Olmstead led off the 5^th with a walk, as Hanson reached on an error to put runners on for Gannon Snyder, who doubled to right center field to allow Olmstead to score before Prather hit a SAC-RBI to bring in Hanson and make it 5-3.

3B Cade Campbell is second on the Cal roster in batting average at .354 in 79 ABs. (photo via Rob Hwang)

Those three runs for the Bears against Hale would be all Cal could get across against the Huskies, as UCONN would add three runs in the 6^th on back-to-back home runs from Tyler Minick and Jackson Marshall, and one last insurance run in the 7^th on a sloppy defensive play in center to make it 9-3 UCONN – a score they would leave Berkeley happily with as they advanced to 9-11 while defeating a Power 4 ACC baseball team on their west coast travel tour. California’s struggles continue, and their losing streak extends to five before heading to Chestnut Hill to take on the Boston College Eagles.

Cal committed four errors in last night’s game while only connecting for six hits.

Winner: UCONN. WP: Charlie Hale (3-0, 5.1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K) LP: Trent Roach (2.0 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 2 ER)