Cal Baseball vs. Utah Utes Saturday Open Thread

California Golden Bears (12-12, 1-3) vs. Utah Utes (9-15, 0-7)

When: 7 pm

Where: Evans Diamond

TV: Pac-12 Networks (regional coverage)

Radio: KALX (90.7 FM in Berkeley)

Bears got their 1st Pac-12 victory of the season last night, thanks to a two-run base hit from catcher Mitchell Kranson who had been ran over just a half an inning earlier (a freak play that resulted in Utah scoring two game tying runs). Bears won 4-2 on Friday night behind solid pitching from freshman righty starter Daulton Jefferies and good relief from Trevor Hildenberger. Two RBI singles from Brian Celsi scored the other two runs. Senior lefty Kyle Porter will start for the Bears today.

Cal Tentative Line-Up
No. Pos. Player 2014 Stats
27 CF Devin Pearson, So. .188, 9 RBI, 0 HR
22 LF Vince Bruno, Sr. .254, 6 RBI, 1 HR
33 DH Devon Rodriguez, Sr. .244, 10 RBI, 1 HR
2 SS Derek Campbell, Jr. .250, 11 RBI, 4 HR
19 1B Nick Halamandaris, So. .286, 8 RBI, 1 HR
6 3B Chris Paul, Jr. .309, 1 RBI, 0 HR
21 2B Brenden Farney, Jr. .375, 12 RBI, 0 HR
30 C Mitchell Kranson, So. .149, 5 RBI, 0 HR
25 RF Brian Celsi, So. .200, 2 RBI, 0 HR
16 LHP Kyle Porter, Sr. (Sat.) 3-1, 2.35 ERA
TBA (Sun.)

Andrew Knapp (younger brother of former Cal All American, Andrew Knapp) started in LF yesterday. Not sure if Coach David Esquer will use a new lineup or stick with the one from yesterday (not the one listed above).

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From the open thread yesterday:

Bears followed up a Pac-12 opening weekend sweep at home by the UCLA Bruins with a loss at Fresno State midweek. Then off to SLO to play No.6 Cal Poly, the Bears' bat finally woke up. Sadly, the Golden Bears were only able to take the Saturday game in a 4 game series against the Mustangs. The last loss on Monday includes the Bears blowing a 8-2 lead in the 2nd inning thanks to some a string of bloopers from the Mustangs.

Nevertheless, that series got the Bears a mention in ESPN's weekly College Baseball rankings:

2. Cal Poly (20-4)

Trending:

Last week: 6

Of note: Looks like the Year of the Mustang out west, especially with a 3-1 series win over a good Cal team. Monday's finale saw Poly overcome an 8-2 deficit with a 13-run second inning on the way to a 16-8 win.

Okay, that ranking is clearly about Cal Poly but they do use the adjective "good" to describe Cal.

Given a very tough schedule, should the Bears be able to finish the regular season above 0.500, which would likely require a Pac-12 record close to 0.500, there is a decent chance that that would be sufficient for the Bears to qualify for a postseason. For the Bears to achieve that, they would need to take care of business at home this weekend against the visiting Utah Utes.

GO BEARS!