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Cal junior pitcher Jared Horn is Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week
Although his season started a month late due to an appendectomy right at the start of the season, junior RHP Jared Horn has emerged as an ace for the surging Cal Baseball squad that desperately needed some pitching stability entering this season.
Horn is effectively the only tradition starting pitcher for the California Golden Bears, who got one much needed win over the weekend at UCLA to jump 20 spots in RPI to 44th in the country. Horn struck out a career best 10 batters in a dominant outing in that game.
Highly heralded out of high school, Jared Horn finally put up great numbers in his 3rd season. Horn was great for his past three starts, but finally earning the Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week honor after outdueling UCLA’s Ryan Garcia, the Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week honoree for the past two straight weeks. Horn downplayed his great outing in the postgame interview with the Pac-12 Networks last Friday.
Golden Bears routed Sacramento State on Tuesday night before hosting a good Oregon Ducks team (32nd in the RPI) this weekend at Evans Diamond. Jared Horn should be starting that middle game (Saturday) yet again with the Bears using “openers” for the 1st and 3rd games.
Cal Beach Volleyball duo senior Mia Merino and sophomore Alexia Inman are Pac-12 Pair of the Week
Head coach Meagan Owusu may have found something great when she paired senior Mia Merino (former Cal player on the top pair) with sophomore Alexia Inman (partner with Cal star Mima Mirkovic in the offseason) together for the first time this past weekend. The two players joined forces at Court 4 for the Bears in beating No.7 Cal Poly (21-17, 21-17 to help Cal win 3-2) and No.20 Stanford (21-16, 13-21, 15-7 to help Cal win 5-0).
Looks like Alexia Inman & Mia Merino need to play together more often.
— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) April 23, 2019
In their first time ever teaming up, the duo led @CalBeachVball to wins over the No. 7 and No. 20 teams in the nation.
Inman and Merino are this week's #Pac12BVB Pair of the Week. https://t.co/hFd8DzSeHS pic.twitter.com/kpaC5or8mX
Continuing to improve every season, Cal Beach Volleyball earned their best ranking in program history this week. Dig Magazine has the Bears as the 7th best team while the AVCA poll has the Bears at No.10.
ALL TIME HIGH RANKINGS!!! the Bears earned their best rankings in program history this week: #️⃣7️⃣ by @DiGmagazine and #️⃣1️⃣0️⃣ by @AVCAVolleyball. An historic accomplishment ahead of the Pac-12 Championships! #EarnIt #RollOnYouBears #CalBeachVBall pic.twitter.com/8KxY3l9F1H
— Cal Beach Volleyball (@CalBeachVball) April 22, 2019
Golden Bears earned the 3rd seed for the Pac-12 Tournament this weekend in Los Angeles. Bears will face ASU in the first round with a likely match against 2nd seed USC in the second round. The Pac-12 tournament will again be in the double elimination format.
The only teams to have won the NCAA Beach Volleyball championships are USC (twice) and UCLA. For the NCAA tournament, there are only two at-large bids in addition to the 6 automatic bids. Cal Bears would need a very strong showing at the Pac-12 Championships (likely the title) to advance to their first NCAA Beach Volleyball championship.
.@uclabeachvb looks to defend its #Pac12BVB title this week as the No. 1 seed in the Conference championship starting Thursday. @USCBeach is the No. 2 seed and @CalBeachVball is the No. 3 seed. Full seedings announced here: https://t.co/j2XdnIdf4r pic.twitter.com/0D0FH0HPx0
— Pac-12 Conference (@pac12) April 22, 2019
GO BEARS!