Cal Golden Bears (15-10, 4-2) vs. USC Trojans (9-15, 2-4)
Where: Evans Diamond (Berkeley, CA)
When: 7 PM PT (First home night game in program history)
Radio: KALX (free), Cal All-Access (subscription), USC Feed
Live Stats: Gametracker
In case you haven't seen it, cool video about Cal Baseball history and what having lights at Evans Diamond means to the program:
In addition to the light stands, there will be a new video scoreboard coming to Berkeley, in the coming weeks.
Full CalBears.com press release can be found here.
"These facility improvements mean so much to our baseball family and community," said Cal baseball coach David Esquer, who led the Bears to the College World Series and was named the National Coach of the Year in 2011. "We look forward to night baseball at Evans Diamond giving more families a chance to experience Cal baseball. The persistence and will of our foundation, led by Stu Gordon, have made this possible, along with the cooperation of the campus and athletic department. We couldn't be more thankful."
Eight 90-foot light poles have been erected around Evans Diamond that will support nighttime television broadcasts, team practice and training. Additional lighting will be added to assist with fan access and safety around the stadium.
A modern electronic scoreboard, measuring 38 feet wide by 31 feet high, will also be installed in left-center field in the coming weeks, replacing the outdated structure that currently resides in right field. The new scoreboard will offer scoring, game information, as well as fixed advertising and a full color video board measuring 24 feet wide by 14 feet high.
"This is a dream come true and is almost unbelievable after well over 100 years that at long last we will be getting lights and a new video scoreboard at Evans Diamond," said Gordon, chairman of the Cal Baseball Foundation and a former pitcher for the Bears (1961-62). "We have tried hard for years to make this dream a reality and now it is about to happen so that our first Pac-12 game this year against USC will be played under the lights. I can't tell you how excited I am on the prospect of having this finally become a reality. Thanks to everyone involved for helping to make this happen."
USC are coming off a 1-2 trip to Washington. Similar to the Bears against UCLA, they managed to take the first game of the road series before dropping the next two. Cal will likely go with freshman ace, Ryan Mason in this one. USC junior lefty Bob Wheatley was the "Friday starter" last week, so the prime candidate for this Thursday night showdown.
By the way, the Bears are a perfect 7-0 at home so far this year.
Bears will continue this series on Friday at 6 PM PT, follow by a Pac-12 Networks televised contest at 12 PM PT on Saturday.
GO BEARS!