Golden Diamonds: Bears hit more long balls but need to pitch/field better

Quick Hits

Pac-12 play started last weekend for both Cal Baseball and Cal Softball, both against the Oregon State Beavers.

Cal Baseball hosted No.1 Oregon State Beavers from the friendly confines of Evans Diamond. Unfortunately, the previously undefeated at home Golden Bears dropped all three games.

Cal Baseball Bears (12-7, 0-3 in Pac-12 play) lost 3-4, 4-10, 4-6 to the top ranked Oregon State Beavers last weekend. Bears’ defense let them down as 5 of the 20 runs scored by the Beavers were unearned.

No.20 (down 4 spots from last week) Cal Softball Bears (24-5, 1-2 in Pac-12 play) managed to only take the middle game against the Oregon State Beavers from Corvallis. Bears lost 5-10, dominated via a 12-0 run rule result, before dropping the rubber match 3-8.

Diamond Gems

Golden Bears certainly scored enough runs to win in both baseball and softball this past week.

For Softball, sophomore Bradie Fillmore hit 3 homers in the first two games of the series. Her 3-run bomb on Saturday was instrumental for the Cal victory.

More from the Saturday game from the highlight below:

Cal Softball’s Kamalani Dung remain a perfect 14-0 on the year for going the distance in the Saturday game. Dung did allow the Sunday game to get away from the Bears though but more on that later.

In addition to Fillmore’s long ball, Cal senior Jazmyn Jackson was 8 for 13 on the series. Lindsay Rood was 5 for 10.

On the Baseball side, sophomore first baseman Andrew Vaughn continues to smash. Vaughn hit his college baseball leading 11th homer on Saturday. While Bear Territory’s Ryan Gorcey and I disagree on whether Vaughn can get to 35 homers (I’m more optimistic, Gorcey thinks that teams will stop pitching to Vaughn soon), there is little doubt that Vaughn remains one of the top hitter across collegiate baseball at this point. Vaughn went 5 for 7 on Friday/Saturday with that homer before an 0 for 4 outing on Sunday. After a scare in the midweek USF game, Jonah Davis was back and went 3 for 8 on the weekend.

Bloopers

Unfortunately, defensive woes continued for Cal Baseball last weekend which they could not afford against the top ranked team in the country that is Oregon State. On Friday, Bears had a throwing error while trying to cut down a runner at home that lead to two early unearned run. Cal ace Jared Horn otherwise had a quality outing (6 IP, only 2 earned run but 4 allowed, 8 K’s) but the Bears also could not get a late clutch hit to lose 4-3 to Oregon State’s Luke Heimlich and closer Mulholland.

The Saturday game was close until the Bears’ bullpen collapsed late (8th and 9th inning allowing 6 runs). Cal starter Aaron Shortridge had a quality start (6 IP, 2 runs allowed) but the Bears lacked the pitching depth behind him to keep the Beavers in check in the 10-4 loss. 3 different OSU players hit a homer in this one.

On the Sunday finale, senior Matt Ladrech could not make it out of the 4th inning after more Cal errors allowed two unearned runs. Ladrech did allow his 3rd homers of the year in this one. Bears’ bats were kept in check before a Jeffrey Mitchell 9th inning two-run homer that made the final result of 6-4 loss look more respectable.

As for Cal Softball, Zoe Conley struggled on Friday by allowing 2 homers, 12 hits, and 9 runs (8 earned) in 5 innings; Oregon State was able to win 10-5 easily despite two homers from Bradie Fillmore. After Dung dominated the Beavers on Saturday’s 12-0 win where the Bears also took advantage of 4 OSU errors, she was brought in on Sunday with the game tied in the 5th inning but runners on. Dung was unable to throw strike with the bases loaded and allowed 1 hit and 4 walks without getting an out. Conley had to come back in to stop the bleeding but by then, the Beavers have already had an 8-3 lead (which was the final margin). OSU ace Mariah Mazon, who had struggled on Saturday, was able to keep the Cal bats in check. Beavers’ Hope Brandner smashed two homers in this series, both pivotal to their victories on Friday and Sunday.

On Deck

Cal Baseball will visit the Oregon Ducks (12-7, 0-3 in Pac-12) this weekend. KALX will have coverage of the games, but there will also be free live streams. The games times are 6 pm PT on Friday, 2 pm PT on Saturday, and 12 pm PT on Sunday. Ducks are coming off a 3 game sweep by Arizona State on the road last week. Ducks will move their closer Yovan to the starting rotation this weekend; Kenyon Yovan, who has collected lots of K’s but also allowed a ton of walks, will start the Saturday game. As a team, the Ducks haven’t hit well. Jacob Goldfarb is their leading hitter with 0.328 batting average and a team high 4 homers.

No.20 Cal Softball will host No.12 Arizona State (24-4, 1-1 in Pac-12) from the Bear Territory that is Levine-Fricke Field this weekend. Pac-12 Networks will have the action all weekend long with the games at 3 pm PT on Friday, 3:30 ppm PT on Saturday, and 3 pm PT on Sunday. The Sun Devils split two games against the top ranked Washington Huskies last weekend; they gave UW their first loss on the year. G. Juarez is the ace for the Sun Devils with a record of 11-1 and an ERA of 0.84. Danielle Gibson leads them with 0.414 batting average to go with 10 homers and 27 RBI.

GO BEARS!