Cal Baseball Week In Review (April 18, 2013)

The much needed turnaround did not happen last week for Cal Baseball as the Bears lost all 3 games to the visiting No.7 Oregon Ducks (who jumped up two spots from No.9 behind the sweep of the Bears) and then lost another mid-wekk game to the University of San Francisco. All four games were at home. Here was what happened.

April 12, 2013: Cal 2, Oregon 3

Oregon jumped out with a run in the top of the first against Cal ace righty Ryan Mason. The inning could have been worse as the 3rd out was an Oregon Ducks being thrown out at home as he tried to score from first on a double. The Bears tied things up in the bottom of the first as CF Devin Pearson reached on a bunt single and then proceeded to move to 3rd with one out on a bad pickoff attempt by the Oregon starter. Oregon took the lead in the 5th with two runs off Mason on 3 hits. All that the Bears could do the rest of the way was score one run in the 6th, thanks to Mike Reuvekamp's leadoff double. After that, the Bears was only able to get one runner on in the 7th and nothing more. Trevor Hildenberger pitched a scoreless and hitless 4 innings in relief of Mason. 577 attended this Friday night game and saw the Bears committing no fielding errors.

April 13, 2013: Cal 4, Oregon 10

Things went bad fast as the Bears gave up 5 in the 1st and 3 more in the 2nd. Starter Keaton Siomkin started his bad week by going just one inning while giving up 5 runs on 5 hits and a walk. The Ducks scored 3 more in the 2nd off Collin Monsour. Former starter Justin Jones gave up 2 runs in 3.1 innings in relief. Jacob Wark had a two run single for the Bears in the bottom of the 2nd and Devin Pearson hit a solo homer to provide some offensive sparks for the Bears in front of a crowd of 1003 on a Saturday night. Oregon hit 4 homers in this one, including two by the Ducks RF Scott Heineman.

April 14, 2013: Cal 4, Oregon 5

For the 3rd consecutive game, the Ducks jumped out to a lead in the top of the first with two runs off Cal starter Dylan Nelson. Nelson lasted until the 6th, when he gave up a solo homer to the Ducks' Scott Heineman before departing. Logan Scott gave up two more runs in the 7th before the Bears tried to comeback with 3 runs in the bottom of the 8th on Catcher Andrew Knapp's 3 run homer. Down one run in the 9th, Jacob Wark lead off with a single. Pinch runner was stranded at 3rd when Devin Pearson fouled out to end the game. The attendance for this Sunday afternoon game was 1234.

Ducks's RF Scott Heineman concluded his weekend with a total of 3 doubles and 3 homers (only 3 homers of the season, surprisingly). For his effort, he was named the Pac-12 player of the week.

April 16, 2013: Cal 5, USF 11

Same bad recipe for the Bears as they allowed 4 runs in the first to the Dons. Keaton Siomkin gave up the four runs in the first inning. Pearson, Farney, Knapp, Diede, and Reuvekamp all had 2 hits each for the Bears but the Bears trailed the entire way.

Batter of the Week:

Not only did both CF Devin Pearson and C Andrew Knapp homer for the Bears this past week, they both had pretty good average as well. Pearson went 4 for 12 with 4 runs scored, leading off. Knapps went 6 for 15 with 4 runs scored as well batting cleanup.

PItcher of the Week:

This is a tough one as all Cal pitchers with significant work gave up some runs. Based on his 4 scoreless inning on Friday, Trevor Hildenberger wins the award this week by default. Hildenberger gave up two hit and a run while recording no outs in his Tuesday outing.

Pac-12 Baseball Standings:

The Bears continue their slide down the conference standings. 8 game losing streak tends to do that.

Other Cal Baseball Related News:

Former Cal Bears, Conor Jackson has decided to retire from baseball. The 30 year old had a 7 year career playing for mostly Arizona (where he at one time formed a hitting duo with former Furdie and current Dodgers villan Carlos Quentin) but also Oakland and Red Sox. He finished his MLB career with a slash line of .271/.351/.407. As a contemporary of mine in college, I do recall him using the Outkast's Ms Jackson as his walk up song (or maybe it was picked for him?).

A Conor Jackson fan apparently made this tribute video

Coming up this week:

The Bears (16-20, 5-10) entertain the Washington State Cougers (18-16, 5-7) in Berkeley this weekend. The Sunday game will again be televised on the Pac-12 Networks. Needless to say, the Bears need a quick turnaround now to salvage the season. The Bears' pitching need to step up.

GO BEARS!