Cal Baseball at Oregon State Friday Gamethread

California Golden Bears (21-23, 9-12) at Oregon State Beavers (34-8, 14-4)

Time: 5:35 PM PT

Online Video: Pac-12 Digital (FREE)

Audio: KALX

Live Stat: Gametracker

Probable Starters: OSU LHP Matt Boyd (8-2, 1.96) vs. CAL RHP Ryan Mason (5-2, 3.38)

After a successful 3-1 week (read my week in review here, find out who won my hitter and pitcher of the week award + links to articles about Devon Rodriguez and Andrew Knapp), the Bears face a really tall order in the 5th NCBWA/6th Baseball America ranked OSU Beavers this weekend.

Oregon State has been dominating in the conference so far based on the strength of their pitching:

Oregon State's starting pitching staff, consisting of Matt Boyd, Andrew Moore and Ben Wetzler, have been dominant in Pac-12 Conference play thus far. The trio has combined to go 12-3 with a 1.74 earned run average in 124 innings. OSU has played 159 innings in league play thus far, meaning the starters have worked 78 percent of the possible innings. Opponents are hitting just .198 against them.

For the Bears to be eligible for post-season play, they need to finish 7-3 in the final 10 games to have a winning record (I'm not entirely sure that 0.500 record is not deemed post season eligible but the wording that I can find says "above .500 record"). The road to >0.500 is not easy with Oregon State, ASU (next weekend at home), Furd (two weekends from now at home), and Gonzaga (one game to close out the season) all quality teams that are ranked (Gonzaga is right at the cusp of being ranked).

But you know the common cliche, you have got to take it "one game at a time", so here is to the Bears pulling off this amazing upset and up their current win streak to 4. With the insertion of Brian Celsi (Devin Pearson has been dropped to the 5th spot) to the top of the lineup for the last two games, the Bears offense has been jumpstarted. It would be amazing if the Bears' bat can stay hot against the tough Beaver pitching.

GO BEARS!