Cal Baseball Week in Review May 17, 2013

With the nearly impossible task of having to sweep their last 7 games to finish above 0.500, the Bears got the win on Friday only to lose a heartbreaker on Saturday. With only pride to play for, Bears actually showed great resilience in coming back from big deficits in both Saturday and Sunday before losing those games.

Friday, May 10, 2013, Cal 3, ASU 1

With a late 8th inning rally and a clutch two out two run RBI by Devon Rodriguez, Bears came from behind for the first time this weekend. Bears held on to win to beat ASU 3-1 with Dylan Nelson getting the final out for the save. Ryan Mason was solid in 6.1 innings, giving up only one run via a sacrifice fly. The late rally made a winner of Logan Scott who pitched a scoreless 1.2 innings.

Saturday, May 11, 2013, Cal 9, ASU 10

Down 6-0 by the middle of the 3rd (thanks to some bad fielding to give up 4 unearned runs), the Bears put up a huge equalizer in the bottom of the 3rd.

California 3rd - Pearson hit by pitch (0-0). Farney singled down the lf
line (0-0); Pearson advanced to second. Knapp doubled down the lf line, RBI
(0-1 K); Farney advanced to third; Pearson scored. Rodriguez singled to right
field, RBI (1-0 B); Knapp advanced to third; Farney scored. Kranson singled to
right center, RBI (3-2 FFBBB); Rodriguez advanced to second; Knapp scored. Paul
out at first 1b to 2b, SAC (0-0); Kranson advanced to second; Rodriguez
advanced to third. Halamandaris flied out to rf, SF, RBI (0-0); Kranson
advanced to third on an error by rf; Rodriguez scored. Dutto walked (3-1
BBBKB). Celsi singled to left field, RBI (1-0 B); Dutto advanced to second;
Kranson scored. Melbostad, E to p for Kellogg, R.. Pearson singled to right
center, RBI (2-1 BBK); Celsi advanced to second; Dutto scored. Farney grounded
out to 2b (2-0 BB). 6 runs, 6 hits, 1 error, 2 LOB.

California 4th - Blackford to p for Melbostad, E. Knapp walked (3-2
BKBBSFB). Rodriguez singled to right field (1-0 B); Knapp advanced to second.
Kranson reached on an error by p, SAC (1-1 FB); Rodriguez advanced to second;
Knapp advanced to third. Kranson advanced to second; Rodriguez advanced to
third; Knapp scored on a wild pitch. Paul singled to center field, RBI (3-2
BFKBB); Kranson advanced to third; Rodriguez scored. McCreery, A. to p for
Blackford. Paul advanced to second on a wild pitch. Halamandaris struck out,
out at first c to 1b (1-2 FBF). Dutto reached on a fielder's choice, advanced
to second (2-1 BSB); Paul advanced to third; Kranson out at home 1b to c. Dutto
advanced to third; Paul scored on a wild pitch, unearned. Celsi walked (3-2
BBKKBB). Pearson grounded out to 3b (1-1 KB). 3 runs, 2 hits, 1 error, 2
LOB.

Bears then took the lead with 3 more runs in the 4th and things were looking great until the 8th. ASU got an two out three run homer to knot things up. ASU got the go ahead run against Logan Scott in the 9th to claim a 10-9 win.

Sunday, May 12, 2013, Cal 7, ASU 10

Similar to Saturday's game, the Bears fell behind by 4 right away but then fought back to eventually tie things up at 5 in the 4th and at 6 in the 5th. A grandslam by ASU in the 8th gave them a big lead and the Bears wear only able to get one back in the 9th despite getting the first two men on and the middle of the lineup coming up.

Cal Hitter of the Week:

While RBI is not a good stat to determine how good of a hitter one is, Devon Rodriguez led the Bears with 6 RBIs for the weekend, including the key RBIs in game 1. He made the most of this 4 hits (including a homer) in 14 at bats.

Honorable Mention: Andrew Knapp went 4 for 11, Brendan Farney went 5 for 12, Devin Pearson went an impressive 6 for 11 to set the table in his return to the top of the lineup in game 2 and 3.

Cal Pitcher of the Week:

Friday ace Ryan Mason set the tone for this series with his solid 6.1 innings of work on Friday to get the nod.

Cal Baseball News:

CalBears.com has a video feature of two sports (baseball and football) threat Jacob Wark and an article on the emergence of pitcher Trevor Hildenberger.

GO BEARS!