Cal Baseball (3-1) upsets No.2 Stanford 8-4 to cap a successful opening weekend
Cal Softball improves to 9-2 despite missing two key players in second weekend
As a fan of diamond sports, it has been somewhat disappointing that neither Cal Baseball nor Cal Softball has made the NCAA tournament since 2019 and 2018, respectively. It has been even longer before Cal had long postseason runs in either sport to give me an excuse to visit either Omaha or Oklahoma City for the first time. In case you are wondering, that 2019 season with a short two-game postseason was the one with Golden Spikes winner Andrew Vaughn and 2022 World Series winner Korey Lee.
Unlike what is going on next door in Haas Pavilion for Basketball and Volleyball, Cal Baseball has actually managed to produce winning records on Evans Diamond, including roughly 0.500 records (15-15 and 14-16) in a very good Pac-12 conference, in 2021 and 2022 but still got left out of the field of 64. Cal head coach Mike Neu has also consistently uncovered gems by producing 1st-rounder Dylan Beavers and five other Draftees, including RHP Joseph King who will represent Great Britain in the World Baseball Classic next month, in the 2022 MLB Draft last summer.
The story is a little different for Cal Softball as the team struggled in 2021 after the sudden retirement of Diane Ninemire due to a health issue in 2020, just a week or two before the COVID shutdown. Former Cal Softball great Chelsea Spencer took over the program after the former pro gained some valuable coaching experience as an assistant for Texas Longhorns. Spencer’s 2022 squad also achieved what has traditionally been the threshold for Cal to make the 64-team postseason: a winning overall record despite only winning a third of the Pac-12 games (2018 Cal Softball only went 7-16), but that was not enough for the Cal Bears to dance.
Coming off two solid but not-quite-enough-for-NCAA seasons in 2022, what will Cal Baseball and Cal Softball do in 2023? One would think that just a slight improvement over last year will be enough to have these two programs back in the postseason, but they are in very different positions going into 2023.
Cal Baseball (3-1)
Prior to this weekend, I honestly do not know what to expect as a team for Cal Baseball. Cal lost not just the six juniors to the 2022 Draft last summer but also an atypically large senior class with five major contributors. In other words, Cal lost superstar RF Dylan Beavers, 1B Nathan Martorella, C Cole Elvis, 2B Hance Smith, SS Keshawn Ogans, Weekend starters RHP Josh White, RHP Steven Zobac, RHP Joseph King as well as relied upon relievers RHP Sam Stoutenborough, RHP Mitchell Scott, RHP Nick Proctor, and RHP Henrik Reinertsen.
Mike Neu did manage to retain C/INF Dom Souto as a fifth-year player as well as adding three fifth-year transfers in RHP Joe Williams (Pacific), LHP Daniel Colwell (UCLA), and OF Kade Kretzschmar (Dartmouth). Nonetheless, Cal will be relying on the blossoming of the large sophomore class, including a sophomore transfer from Long Beach State in Peyton Schulze who has been penciled in as the new No.3 hitter in the Cal lineup, to go with a large group of freshmen and Junior College transfers.
Then again, meteoric rises have been observed at Cal in recent years. Position players such as Andrew Vaughn and Dylan Beavers (after his COVID-shortened freshman year) were not highly recruited players who became superstar sluggers. Josh White was on his way to becoming a first or second-round pick after everything clicked in his sophomore season before an injury and its related ineffectiveness dropped his stock to a fifth-round pick.
We have some candidates for breakout players after one successful weekend of action.
Going in chronological inverse order:
Tuesday: Cal 8, No.2 Stanford 4
Cal Bears used a pair of timely long balls with guys on base to get a Big win at Stanford in this non-conference game on Tuesday night. Sophomore shortstop Carson Crawford crushed a grand slam off Stanford freshman Toran O’Harran in the first inning. While Stanford did get a couple of runs back against Cal freshman Austin Turkington in relief, Cal sophomore Caleb Lomavita homered for the second time this season to restore a 4-run lead. Christian Becerra, the most reliable/experienced of the four Cal pitchers used in this midweek game, closed out this game by going the last 2.2 innings.
Check out the highlight from Pac-12 Network below.
College baseball teams prioritize the weekend games over these midweek ones. Cal and Stanford had traditionally always played some non-conference games at the team who did not get to host the Pac-12 series. Over time (back when I was a student, Cal beating then No.1 Stanford in a non-conference game in 2001 was the first Cal win over Stanford in any sport that I got to witness in person), the non-conference weekend series became replaced with a few (or sometimes just one) midweeks games. So the best pitchers are often no longer utilized in these games. Consequently, one has got to take this win with a grain of salt (like saying how Cal should be ranked above Stanford).
Stanford started a true freshman while Cal gave the ball to graduate transfer Joe Williams, who got the final out on Saturday for the save. Williams was able to go two scoreless and pick up the win (because midweek college baseball games do not have that 5 IP minimum rule). What had plagued Cal over the last two seasons was that Mike Neu barely had enough trusted pitchers to cover the entire weekend. One could argue that some of the blown leads last year was due to tired or over-exposed guys by the series finale. The midweek game turned into a crapshoot and Cal picked up some “bad losses” against the lesser Bay Area teams than Stanford that sank Cal in the RPI.
It is difficult to know where Cal will be by the end of the long season, but this early Tuesday win may be a gift in both galvanizing this young Cal squad and lifting them in the computer rankings.
Sunday: Cal 6, Houston 8
The Sunday game was full of offense from both teams. Bears had leads of 2-0, 3-2, and 5-4 through 6 innings, but could not hold on. In retrospect, the 13 men left on base really presented an opportunity lost on an impressive road sweep to open the year.
Caleb Lomavita with 4 for 6, Rodney Green Jr. went 3 for 5, and Carson Crawford went 2 for 3. Tucker Bougie, another young Cal arm counted on to make a seamless leap from a quality reliever in 2022 to a staff workhorse in 2023, labored in this game (3.2 IP, 4 R, 3 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 1 K) partly due to two early errors by Carson Crawford. Most impressively though was how Bougie pulled an Ohtani and actually led the Bears with 3 RBI (1 for 4 as the cleanup hitter).
Chris Stamos and Andres Galan could not hold the late leads, but at least made the Houston Cougars earned it with contacts.
Saturday: Cal 5, Houston 3
After Houston had tied the game in B8, both Carson Crawford and Tucker Bougie got key RBI hits in T9 to clinch Cal’s first series win. Most of the scoring came late in this game as Connor Sullivan (4.1 IP in relief) for Cal and Kyle Lacalameto (5.2 IP) each gave up just one run.
Crawford went 3 for 4 with 3 RBI. Caleb Lomavita went 1 for 5 with 2 runs scored atop the lineup. Bears played a lot of close games in 2022, including many where they needed late heroics after blown leads. It is good to see that team mental toughness is still there, as much as one would love to win easily every game.
Friday: Cal 7, Houston 0
Cal sophomore Ian May technically had started 8 games in 2022, but he was really used as a lefty opener. While I was not surprised to see (and for full disclosure, this was the only game of the weekend that I saw the majority of the game) May got the start, I was very pleasantly surprised to see Ian May go 8 shutout innings, scattering just 3 hits and 1 walk to go with 7 K’s. I know this is just one start, but Ian May appeared to be the latest Cal Baseball to make a major leap during the offseason.
Offensively, Cal got great production from the top of the lineup C Caleb Lomavita moved up from batting 3rd in his freshman year to 1st and went 1 for 3 with 2 walks in the opener. The speedy Rodney Green Jr. went 4 for 5 with 4 RBI and 2 Runs scored.
Thoughts about the 2023 season:
Coming into this season, Caleb Lomavita was one of two sure things in the lineup. Lomavita slashed 0.272/0.345/0.414 with 7 homers as a freshman to become the first Cal freshman to earn all-conference first-team honor since Andrew Vaughn. In four games, Lomavita is slashing 0.421/0.476/0.737 with two dingers. It is premature to say that Cal has another Golden Spikes, but I just typed that out and will leave that in.
Rodney Green Jr. did not start his freshman year in the lineup like Lomavita, but he earned his way to become a regular and produced a solid 0.293/0.394/0.536 season in limited action (140 AB). Green is currently slashing 0.421/0.450/0.684 with a homer in four games.
The leading candidates for the most improved players are LHP Ian May and SS Carson Crawford. Crawford was given the chance to start as the main third baseman as a freshman but struggled. Crawford slashed 0.210/0.356/0.383 which mainly showed promise via the 15 walks. Crawford has got to be steadier defensively but that’s a great opening weekend in hitting 0.429/0.556/0.857.
Outside of these three guys, the rest of the lineup actually did not hit despite Cal winning. Neu has opted to give ABs to players with experience, even if new to the program like Schulze (sophomore transfer from Long Beach State) and Kretzschmar (graduate transfer from Dartmouth). Sophomores 2B Jack Johnson and DH/P Tucker Bougie are also getting the early ABs. Graduate student Dom Souto had a slowish start but he led Cal in batting last year while slashing 0.336/0.375/0.504.
On the mound, Cal obviously needs more reliable innings than from just one guy. The early standouts with track records are May, Sullivan, and Becerra. Bougie and Chris Stamos may be able to improve their numbers. Mike Neu also gave innings to newcomers Joe Williams (graduate transfer), Tyler Stasiowski (JuCo transfer), and Daniel Colwell (graduate transfer). The only freshman to get some early action on the mound is Austin Turkington in the midweek game.
An educated guess is that the freshmen will be slowly worked into high-leverage at-bats and relief situations. Nonetheless, Cal will need to solidify a number of roles in the lineup and pitching rotation to sustain this opening weekend’s success.
Cal will host the Cal Baseball Classic this weekend with games against Cal Poly and UConn. Frisco Classic in Texas next weekend will pit Cal against Oklahoma, Ohio State, and Mississippi State. Due to an uneven number of Pac-12 teams (Colorado does not have baseball), Cal will play a weekend series this year at Pittsburgh.
Cal Softball (9-2)
Cal returned to Southern California (Long Beach this time) for the second weekend of action. For reasons unknown to me, Cal played this entire weekend with Ace/DP Sona Halajian and 1B Tatum Anzaldo. The two sluggers usually anchored the middle of the Cal lineup.
Despite being short-handed, Golden Bears went 4-1 on the weekend to improve their season record to 9-2.
Friday:
Cal 4, Louisiana-Monroe 5
Cal 8, Long Beach State 4
Makena Smith hit a homer in each game of the Friday doubleheader to lead the Cal offense. Anna Reimers struggled in her start against ULM. Haylei Archer continued her solid pitching against Long Beach State. Cal also got solid innings of relief from Annabel Teperson in both games.
Saturday:
Cal 3, UC Davis 1
Cal 6, Long Beach State 1
Anna Reimers had a stronger start on Saturday, pitching a complete game against UC Davis. Makena Smith got the timely two-run double in B4 to put the Bears ahead. Haylei Archer improved to 4-0 on the season with her complete game in the 2nd game. Bears had to rally late in T6 to turn a 0-1 deficit into a 4-1 lead, taking advantage of host Long Beach State’s miscues that include a bases-loaded HBP of freshman Tianna Bell to score the go-ahead run.
Sunday:
Cal 4, Louisiana-Monroe 0
Annabel Teperson pitched a shutout. Hope Alley had 2 RBI from the bottom of the order to lead the Cal offense.
On the season, Makena Smith (0.382/0.475/0.794 with 4 homers) and Kacey Zobac (0.423/0.600/0.731) are the top hitters. As a whole, Cal Bears are slashing a very good 0.298/0.419/0.516 as reflected by their 9-2 record.
Hopefully, Cal will be back to full strength soon. Golden Bears will next visit the Palm Springs area for the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic. Cal will face a combination of winnable games (San Diego again, Utah Valley, Cal Poly) and Power Five opponents (Iowa and Texas Tech).
ROLL ON YOU BEARS!
Yup the season hinges on that sophomore class and whether Neu can work some bullpen magic
College baseball teams have to sort of prioritize the weekend games, due to only having so much pitching depth, but otherwise no longer "not really try" in mid-week games by not playing to win at every other position in difference to getting playing time for reserves, unless there is a legit search for who should play regularly. The reality is because they often are the differentiating factor in separating a couple of comparable conference finishing teams, they are in some cases even more important than conference games come selection and seeding time, and impact conference relative standing (think Net and RPI impacts in hoops). The non-conference games between conference teams the Pac plays complicate things, because its a conference win and loss no matter what happens.
All that said, any win against any ranked opponent is a very good win (for Cal in this case), and any loss by a ranked, especially a top 5-10, team to an unranked opponent, especially at home, is not trivial (for Stanford in this case). Reading very much into the result of any one baseball game at any level is foolhardy, but this could prove to be an important win for Cal if the Bears take care of business more often than not over the next 3 months.