Cal Baseball Wins 3 and Drops 1 to Nevada
The University of California Takes the Series 3-1 Against the University of Nevada to Open the 2025 Season
The California Golden Bears came out hot against the neighboring state Nevada Wolfpack to open the 2025 Baseball season in Berkeley at Stu Gordon Stadium’s Evans Diamond. The two teams began the year under the lights on Friday night when the Golden Bears came out with the explosive bats that had us all on the edge of our bleacher seats last season, besting the Pack three games to one over the weekend.
Friday Night 2/14: Love was in the air, as Cal’s Austin Turkinton started on the mound and pitched 3.0 innings, giving up only one hit, two walks, and four strikeouts in his season debut, leaving the game up to the bullpen, who held it down with Texas-transfer David Shaw coming in the 4th, and struck out seven batters in 3.0 innings, giving up Nevada’s only run of the game to Junhyuk Kwon off of a home run in the top of the 6th inning. Spencer Dessart and Tucker Bougie closed the game out for the Golden Bears, giving the pitching staff a combined 15 strikeouts on five walks and four hits for the night.
The hitting was electric for the Golden Bears, as the team rallied 14 runs on 13 hits, even with surrendering 11 strikeouts at the plate. PJ Moutzouridis got it all started for Cal in the bottom of the 1st inning with a one-out home run to left field for his first of the season and ranked No. 4 second basemen in the nation (D1Baseball) Jarren Advincula’s RBI double in the bottom of the 5th was the two runs Cal needed to win, scoring once more in the bottom of the 6th on a Jacon French RBI double, only then… the epic bottom of the 7th rally was awaiting.
Cal would score eight runs in the 7th inning with a Cade Cambell three-run home run to cap off the huge rally. Another three runs scored in the 8th from Ethan Kodama’s triple, which would result in him scoring on an overthrow by the second baseman, giving Cal a 14-1 lead going into the 9th, then Bougie shut it down, retiring all five batters faced in his 1.2 innings pitched. Overall, it was an awesome start for this up-and-coming Cal team for what is about to be a challenging season.
Saturday Afternoon 2/15: Redshirt Freshman Gavin Eddy was given the start for the Bears on Saturday afternoon against the Wolfpack after not seeing any action in 2024. The Golden Bears came out hot once again with six hits in the bottom of the 1st, where the first five batters in the batting order all reached base safely, and the offense would collect seven runs to grab the large early lead. Nevada’s early run would come from multiple wild pitches from Eddy, who would inevitably find his groove and finish the afternoon with 4.0 innings, 2 Hits, 1 ER, 1 BB, and 4 Ks, as well as 1 HBP. He would be relieved by LA Valley College transfer Cole Clark, who would finish the game pitching the remaining 5.0 innings, giving up 2 ER, 1 BB, and 3 Ks, and getting his first NCAA D1 baseball Win.
Cade Cambell hit his second home run of the series and picked up 3 RBIs on the afternoon, leading Cal to back-to-back wins over Nevada to open up the season 2-0, on an 11-3 victory. Cal would also go back-to-back in games without committing an error!
Sunday Blues 2/16: Nevada’s starting pitcher Casey Burfield ended up being the kryptonite to the Bears’ superhuman bats, where the Pack’s pitcher retired 14 of the first 15 Cal batters faced and had a no-hitter going into the 5th inning until Cade Cambell broke it up with a two-out single. Burfield would finish the outing with just 60 pitches in 5.0 innings, having only one strikeout compared to the 14 outs from balls put in play.
Cal would inevitably get their first run of the afternoon off a base hit RBI from Cade Cambell in the bottom of the 7th, but that would be the only run for the Golden Bears, as Nevada would go on to plate 10 runs in the game. Oliver de la Torre’s first start of the season for the Golden Bears was solid through the first two innings, but with back-to-back walks, a sacrifice fly, an RBI single, and a three-run home run, the Wolfpack jumped to an early 4-0 lead in the top of the 3rd, creating an early bullpen game for Mike Neu’s pitching rotation.
Logan Piper came in relief, giving up a single to his first batter, but struck out Kwon to end the inning. He struggled in the top of the 4th, giving up a four-pitch walk to his second batter, then throwing a wild pitch, and giving up a two-run home run to Jack Metcho. Piper would go on to give up a single and HBP before recording his first out in the top of the 5th and was relieved by Saint Mary’s transfer Ryan Spalliero, who would walk his first batter and allow a run to score on another wild pitch before striking out the next two looking. Spalliero would also go on to struggle in the 6th, walking his first two batters, recording an out via infield fly rule, giving up an RBI single, and giving up another run from throwing ANOTHER wild pitch before walking his last batter for the day. Kaden Taque made his season debut via relief, striking out 4 in 1.2 innings, while Freshman Miles Tenscher made his collegiate debut out of the pen, finishing the last 2.0 innings for Cal, striking out two and giving up 1 ER.
Cal would finish with just four hits on the day after being so dominant at the plate the days prior and would look to Monday to close out the opening weekend with a series victory before hosting the Houston Cougars in Berkeley this weekend.
Monday 2/17: The California Golden Bears deserve praise this weekend for one thing more than anything else, and that is their defense. Cal’s defense had zero errors over the weekend while scoring runs off of crucial mistakes from Nevada. That is the kind of baseball that Cal will need to rely on when facing the heavy hitters of the ACC who rely on beating teams by 20 runs.
Cal’s Ethan Foley from the Bay Area’s Ohlone College started on Monday afternoon to close out the series and was dominant in his California debut. Foley pitched 4.0 innings, only giving up two hits and one walk while striking out 3.
Jarren Advincula went 2/5 at the plate with a stolen base, while Seth Gwynn and Max Handron picked up their first home runs of the season. Gwynn would finish with three RBIs for the evening and Handron with four as the Golden Bears scored eight runs on seven hits and eight walks at the plate. Jake Guardiancic would relieve Foley in the top of the 5th inning and go 1.2 innings, striking out two and giving up two HBP, while Sac-St/Baylor transfer Cole Tremain closed the series out, pitching the remaining 3.1 innings and striking out five of the eleven batters he faced to earn the save in the combined three-hit shutout.
Coming Up: Cal hosts the University of Houston Cougars, Friday, February 21st - 23rd, for a three-game home series before hosting CSU Bakersfield on Wednesday and splitting a home and away series against Santa Clara. ACC Conference play begins March 7th for the Golden Bears against the No. 17 Duke Blue Devils in Durham, NC.
Go Bears! Excellent article. Thanks for this thorough coverage.
Baseball is back! Just wish I could see the Bears in the LA area anymore.