Cal Softball starts NCAA Regional play on Friday morning in Baton Rouge, LA
Cal Baseball remains on the NCAA bubble in last weekend of conference play
Cal Softball in the NCAA Regional hosted by No.9 LSU (May 17-19)
By the time you read this, Cal Softball may have already played their first game in the Baton Rouge Regional. Inclement weather concerns moved up the start time between Cal and Southern Illinois to 9 AM PT. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.
Cal Softball (36-17) earned an NCAA postseason berth for the second consecutive. Unlike last year when the Golden Bears had the tough luck of being placed in the same region as the eventual champion Oklahoma, Cal has a much more reasonable path to not only advance out of the Baton Rouge Regional but possibly even make it back to the College World Series. Cal is in the same region as No.9 LSU. A potential win out of the Baton Rouge Regional could set up a “Big” Super Regional matchup at No.8 Stanford. Sure, the about 20-something-ranked Cal Bears are the underdogs against either LSU or Stanford (who ended Cal’s Pac-12 tournament run), but the difference between them is certainly surmountable.
In the Baton Rouge Regional, Cal will face No.9 LSU (40-15), MVC champ Southern Illinois (42-9), and SWAC champ Jackson State (33-17) in the double-elimination format. Everyone will only play one game each on Friday but could play up to two games on Saturday. Depending on who wins the first Sunday game, a second Sunday game may be necessary. ESPN+ and possibly one of the many ESPN channels will have the games this weekend.
The offense is Cal’s calling card in 2024. Golden Bears have two players tied for the Paac-12 home run crown with 16 long balls each in freshman Lagi Quiroga and sophomore Elon Butler. As a team, the Bears hit 77 homers to lead the Pac and placed 11th nationally. Depending on the length of this postseason run, Cal could threaten the program’s all-time single-season home run record of 84, set in 2012. The Bears are among the top three in the Pac-12 in several other offensive categories, including runs (281, 3rd), hits (431, 3rd), doubles (83, 1st), RBI (254, 3rd), and extra-base hits (164, 1st). As a team, Cal is slashing 0.306/0.381/0.534 (batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage) on the year.
Cal has a nice blend of talented freshmen with seasoned upperclassmen. Supplementing the young power of Quiroga and Butler is senior Tatum Anzaldo and her table-setting skill, particularly of late. Anzaldo has hit 0.489 in the last 25 games and reached base in 46 of the 51 games played. Anzaldo (0.408/0.482/0.556) is one of three Cal Bears to wear a “C” on her jersey. Junior infielder Acacia Anders, who leads the Pac with 18 doubles, is a co-captain. Anders is slashing 0.364/0.434/0.642 on the season. Anzaldo and Anders are joined by Elon Butler (0.361/0.444/0.771) and Lagi Quiroga (0.311/0.361/0.675) as well as another sophomore Tianna Bell (0.310/0.404/0.600) as players with OPS above 1.000.
The last of Cal’s captains is pitcher Haylei Archer. Archer (2.86 ERA and 1.42 WHIP) is the co-ace along with freshman lefty Randi Roelling (3.41 ERA and 1.42 WHIP). Roelling had a great start to her collegiate career but it is Archer who has been relied upon as the primary starter for the Bears in the second half of Pac-12 play. Unlike the mid-2000s when one ace could carry the entire team to the championship, the NCAA Softball tournament in 2024 requires a team to have two reliable pitchers. Sophomore Ryann Orange has also seen much more usage in the last month when compared to the other Cal pitchers Ashanti McDade, Anna Reimers, and Annabel Teperson. Cal defense has certainly helped the pitching staff out on several occasions by turning 30 double plays on the year.
https://x.com/CalSB/status/1790483612695163234/
Cal fans may or may not recall the eventful start of the season for Cal Softball also in the state of Louisiana. At the tournament hosted by Louisiana, some of the Cal team drew the ire of the local fans for kneeling during the national anthem. Things escalated two days later when Cal was forced to continue play during a sudden monsoon where Cal pitcher Randi Roelling had two wild pitches due to not being able to properly grip the ball. Somehow the complaint between a Cal assistant coach and the umpire turned into an argument between Cal and Louisiana players. Right or wrong, Cal Softball players showed that they will not back down from anyone. It is precisely that attitude or swagger that has led to the season’s successes thus far, including winning the game against then-No.21 Louisiana after the wild pitches tied the game.
One should not be surprised if Cal Softball can find a way to beat the tough LSU team at their home this weekend. LSU was ranked as highly as No.2 in the country this year (comparably, Cal was ranked No.9 at one point this year). The Tigers have a strong pitching with 2.28 team ERA and 13 shutouts including one no-hitter. Pitcher Sydney Berzon is 18-8 with 1.64 ERA and 169 strikeouts. Fellow pitcher Kelley Lynch has five complete game shutouts, including a no-hitter against a SEC foe. Raelin Chaffin is another quality pitcher for LSU with 2.95 ERA and two shutouts. LSU pitching vs. Cal lineup will be an interesting matchup should the two Power Five teams end up playing each other for the Regional crown on Sunday (if not also on Saturday).
Before LSU, Cal will open against Southern Illinois, owner of a dominant 1.58 ERA as a team, good for 4th best in the country. Pitcher Maddia Groff is 29-3 with a 0.81 ERA and 239 K in 206.1 innings. Of course, SIU does not regularly face teams as good as Cal, but the Bears vs. Salukis game could be very interesting.
Cal Baseball (32-18, 15-13 in Pac-12) started the final home series with a 10-3 win over Washington on Thursday
With an RPI in the high 60s, Cal Baseball is probably on the outside looking in as a “next four out” team if the NCAA postseason field of 64 is announced right now. Fortunately for the Bears, they will have the opportunity to boost their resume at the Pac-12 Tournament next weekend. Before we get there though, Cal will need to avoid a bad home loss to the lowly Washington Huskies (19-27, 10-18 in Pac-12) this weekend in Berkeley.
Cal, behind their strong lineup, won game 1 relatively easily via a 10-3 final on Thursday. Bears scored 5 runs before making an out. Transfer lefty starter Luke Short was solid for 7 innings outside of giving up a three-run homer in the top of the 3rd. Cal fans can check out the highlight below.
The inconsistency of the Cal pitching means that even with the Golden Bears’ ability to score plenty of runs, they might not necessarily get the much-needed sweep of UW. The Bears need the wins to maintain their current RPI. A loss will drop them by nearly double-digit places. Last weekend (including this past Monday), Cal dropped a bit in the RPI by going 3-1 against San Jose State and Stanford (all with RPI over 100).
On the season, Cal Baseball has a decent resume with good results (5-2) against teams in Quad 1 (home games vs 1-25, neutral site games vs 1-40, away games vs 1-60), of the RPI but the Bears only got a 7-8 record against Quad 2 (home vs 26-50, neutral vs 41-80, away vs 61-120) in RPI and a bad 5-7 against Quad 3 (home vs 51-100, neutral vs 81-161, away vs 121-240) in RPI. With an RPI of 150, this weekend’s home games vs. Washington are considered Quad 4 games where Cal is 15-1.
Should the Bears avoid a disastrous game this weekend, then we can dream about Cal earning a few good wins in the Pac-12 Baseball Tournament in Scottsdale, Arizona next week. The format there means two guaranteed games against two other teams with the winner of the group and one possible runner-up advancing to the knockout stage. A few more baseball games still need to be played to decide which two teams will be grouped with Cal.
If Cal does lose a game or even two this weekend, at least the Bears will have a shot of winning their way out of the Pac-12 Tournament.
Cal Baseball is seeking its first postseason since 2019, the season just before Andrew Vaughn and Korey Lee (now teammates on the Chicago White Sox) became 1st-round picks of that year’s MLB Draft.
GO BEARS!
Cal softball was sadly eliminated this weekend. Two one-run losses to Southern Illinois, a bit of a stunner.
Softball walked a bunch of batters in the second inning and the Salukis prevailed. Baseball came all the way back from 5-0 to walk off the Huskies in the eleventh on a Payton Shulze oppo taco liner that just cleared the fence. Bears have now won 17 of their last 21!!