As spring has come upon us, the Bears have continued their winning ways.
Cal took care of business over the weekend, sweeping Sacramento State in a three-game series and improving to 8-3. This marked its first sweep of the young season and furthered its win streak to six in a row.
“It has been awesome to be honest,” said starting pitcher Gavin Eddy. “Since the start of this year, our team has been really tight-knit. Everybody’s got each other’s backs, and we have been like that since day one. Everyone is happy, of course, because we are winning, but it’s a group of brothers, and that’s a special thing.”
The Bears started the series in dramatic fashion, stealing what initially seemed to be a Hornets win. By the end of the fourth inning, Sacramento State ballooned its lead to 4-0, and its pitching had only allowed three hits.
Cal responded quickly, with catcher Hideki Prather slamming a solo shot to left field, breaking the shutout. This seemed to wake up a sleeping bear, as three other Bears followed suit in the subsequent innings.
Graduate student Daniel Murillo slapped a solo home run in the sixth inning, with freshman Jett Kenady tacking on an RBI groundout to make the score 4-3. In the eighth inning, a third solo shot was witnessed at Stu Gordon Stadium, coming from senior Cade Campbell to even the score.
Sophomore Jordy Lopez decided to join in on the home run frenzy and did so at the perfect time, going yard in the bottom of the ninth to grant Cal the walkoff 5-4 win.
With the momentum of a walkoff win in mind, the Bears traveled to the state capital for the second game of the series. Cal’s energy on Friday clearly carried into Saturday’s game, as the Bears trounced the Hornets 8-2.
This effort was aided by strong performances from the mound and at the plate. Campbell added another home run and had a three-hit game to go along with three RBIs. Murillo and Jacob French also had three-hit outings, with Murillo providing two RBIs.
Starting pitcher Ethan Foley was granted the win, pitching six innings while allowing just two runs and no walks. Reliever Otto Espinoza was stretched for the remaining three innings, allowing no runs, two hits and striking out five.
Sunday’s affair was much quieter on the offensive end for both teams, with Cal edging out Sacramento State 3-2 to snatch the series sweep. For a second consecutive night, the pitching performance from Cal’s starter put the team in a phenomenal position to win.
Eddy started on the bump and made it clear through his play that he did not want to step off. He put on a clinic, throwing for seven innings and striking out five while allowing just one run and three total hits.
“Pitching on Sunday, I get an opportunity to sweep our first series of the year,” Eddy said. “It’s a pretty surreal feeling to do something for the team, the guys on the field and in the dugout. It changes the mindset from starting to get tired in the fifth, sixth, seventh inning to ‘We’re gonna go sweep.’”
The Bears will look to continue their hot streak this week, hosting CSU Bakersfield for a midweek match.
The Roadrunners have gotten off to a rollercoaster start and currently sit at 5-7. In their most recent series against Texas Tech, they got mercy ruled in the first two games, but avoided a sweep by driving in an astonishing 15 runs in the final bout.
CSU Bakersfield’s offense is no slouch, as Elgin Bennett, Evan Cloyd and Kanoa Morisaki are currently batting above .370 and have combined for nine home runs and 34 RBIs.
The blue and gold also faced off against the Roadrunners last season on a Wednesday, with the game going eleven innings and ending in a walkoff win for Cal.
The Bears will look for a similar result Wednesday, but hopefully in a quicker fashion.