Cal Baseball: Bears Roll Over Roadrunners, 15-6

California defeats CSU Bakersfield to improve to 9-3 and extend their winning streak to seven

The California Golden Bears continued their seven-game homestand right where they left off on Sunday with a commanding victory over the CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners. Cal entered the game at 8-3 on a six-game winning streak that included a series win over UC Irvine, a mid-week victory over UC Davis, and a weekend sweep over Sacramento State – while the Roadrunners traveled up to NorCal with a 5-7 record after dropping their weekend series to Texas Tech and a mid-week game to Saint Mary’s.

On the mound starting for the Golden Bears was Freshman Trent Roach, who earned his third consecutive start in a weekday game for California. At the same time, Bakersfield’s Ethan Myers made his fifth appearance for the Roadrunners and third start in his freshman season.

21 hits for California as they defeat CSU Bakersfield (via @CalBaseball on X)

California got on the board early in the bottom of the 1^st with a quick 2-0 lead on a two-run home run from Daniel Murillo for his 2^nd of the season to end Myers’ night, and Joshua Hanson then hit a two-run home run of his own in the bottom of the 2^nd over the RSF Building for his first of the year (and career) to put the Bears ahead 4-0. Hideki Prather kept the rally alive with a two-out double to left and advanced to third on a wild pitch from Minaker. Jacob French followed by reaching on a slow roller to first that brought in Prather, and Minaker’s night in Berkeley was over after just .2 innings of relief.

The Roadrunners were able to get a run across in the top half of the 3^rd against Trent Roach. Still, Cal came out swinging again, this time against CSU Bakersfield’s’ Alex Navarrete as Cade Campbell led off the inning with a base hit to left (12-game hitting streak), Kevin Jeon reached on an error putting both runners in scoring position, Jett Kenady walked to load the bases for Joshua Hanson to bring home Campbell with a SAC-fly to right, and Ethan Kodama followed with an RBI-single to right to make it 7-1 Bears.

Navarrete’s night ended after just .2 IP as Jeter Schuerman came in to relieve him in the 3^rd and got himself into a bases-loaded jam with two outs, where Jacob French hit a 2-RBI base hit to left to make it a 9-1 ball game. Daniel Murillo followed with a two-run double, making it an 11-1 game over the Roadrunners before Campbell and Jeon came to the plate for the second time around in the inning.

Roach’s night ended after 11 runs of support from the offense and going the furthest in a start thus far this season, tossing 4.0 IP, allowing 3 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, and 4 K before Tanner Grove made his third appearance of the season. Cal added an insurance run in the 4^th and 5^th to make it a mercy-rule set game that could end in 7-innings, but the Roadrunners would not go down without showing some fight, as Bakersfield had two runners reach base via walk in the 6^th to knock Grove out of the game and bring Ryan Spalliero in to pitch. Spalliero immediately hit Lewis Barnum with the first pitch of the at-bat to load the bases, and then surrendered a bases-clearing double to Evan Cloyd before Matt Dobson brought Cloyd home on an RBI-single to make it 13-6 on a five-run inning for the Roadrunners.

The Bears would continue the theme of adding two runs back at a time in the bottom half of the 6^th against CSUB reliever Gethse Ulloa, with Hideki Prather and Jacob French both picking up RBI-singles to put Cal ahead 15-6 and bring the lead back to nine runs. Cal had the chance to send the Roadrunners home via mercy rule once again in the bottom of the 7^th after Kenady led off the inning with a double to left, Hanson walked, and they both advanced into scoring position on a wild pitch, but CSUB pitcher Joe Tootle got out of the inning by retiring Kodama and Olmstead with back-to-back strike outs and Jacob May made an incredible diving play in right field to prevent Hideki Prather from ending the game early.

Duncan Russell would close the game out for California after allowing two runners on base due to an error on a Kenady-turned infield hit and a walk, before putting the Roadrunners away and sending California into the weekend with another win. WP: Trent Roach (4.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K) LP: Ethan Myers (1.0 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 1 K). Jacob French went 4-6 with 4 RBIs, while Daniel Murillo went 5-6 with 4 RBIs to improve his batting average to .415 on the season. Cade Campbell also extended his hitting streak to 12 games - every game of the season thus far.

Mike Neu and the Golden Bears take on the San Diego Torreros this weekend in Berkeley for a four-game series. San Diego is 7-4 and are coming off a series loss to the Michigan Wolverines. Game one will be on Friday at 6:05 PM, while games two and three will be a doubleheader on Saturday at 1:05 PM and 5:05 PM. Sunday’s game will be at 1:05 PM, with all four games at Evans Diamond and streaming on ACCNX/ESPN+.