BERKELEY – The California baseball team (3-1) finished off a four-game series against Nevada (1-3) with an 8-0 victory on Monday at Stu Gordon Stadium. Three Cal pitchers – Ethan Foley, Jake Guardiancic and Cole Tremain – combined on a three-hit shutout that was Cal's first nine-inning blanking of an opponent since a 5-0 shutout of Stanford in a non-conference contest played in Berkeley on March 5, 2024.

Foley (1-0) was awarded with the victory in his Cal debut based on being the pitcher of record and the Bears' predetermining to use three or more pitchers in the contest. He threw four scoreless innings, allowing two hits and one walk while striking out three. Guardiancic pitched the next 1.2 frames and struck out two while hitting two before Tremain came on to get 10 of the 11 batters he faced including five strikeouts to earn a 3.1 inning save.

"Today was a great day to build on," Tremain said. "Getting our first shutout of the year, that's how we drew it up. We were attacking guys all day. Our motto as a staff is to be on offense while we are on the mound, be the aggressor and be attacking at all times. If we can stack good days and keep that mentality throughout the season I think we'll be alright."

Nevada put only one runner in scoring position in the sixth when Guardiancic hit a pair of batters, but Tremain came on to record the inning's final out.

Max Handron had his first grand slam at Cal in the bottom of the first inning and Seth Gwynn followed with a two-run long ball in the second to lead the Cal offense. The Golden Bears scored their final two runs in the eighth on a sacrifice fly from Gwynn and Jacob French's RBI single.

Jarren Advincula started Cal's bottom half of the first with a leadoff single then stole second. After back-to-back one out walks were issued to PJ Moutzouridis and Dominic Smaldino to load the bases, Handron drove a 2-0 offering from losing pitcher Jayce Dobie over the right field wall to give the Bears an early 4-0 lead.

Carl Schmidt would also walk to lead off the Cal second and scored two batters later when Gwynn homered over the left field wall to Nevada starter and losing pitcher Chase Dobie (0-1).

Neither team would score again until the bottom of the eighth when Ethan Kodama was hit by a pitch and Advincula had a ground-rule double that one-hopped the wall in right center field to put runners on second and third for Gwynn's sacrifice fly and French's RBI single.

Handron (4) and Gwynn (3) both tied their career highs for RBI and drove in seven of Cal's eight runs, while Advincula (2-5, 2B) and Gwynn (2-4, 2B, 3 RBI) recorded four of the Bears' seven hits.

"This was probably our best game of the weekend [series]," Cal head coach Mike Neu said. "We pitched really well, played clean defense and got out to a big lead."

Dominic Desch was the second of seven Nevada pitchers used and the most effective with seven strikeouts in 3.1 scoreless innings.

Cal continues a 10-game season-opening homestand that is its longest to open a campaign in recorded history with a three-game set against Houston (2-1) at Stu Gordon Stadium this Friday-Sunday, Feb. 21-23 (6/2/12 p.m. PT). The first post-game autograph session of the season is scheduled following Saturday's contest, while Sunday is Cal Kids' Day and this year's initial post-game run of the bases. The weather forecast is calling for partly cloudy skies and highs in the mid to upper 60's all three days.

Tickets for all 2025 Cal baseball home games are on sale at CalBears.com.
 
ADDITIONAL NOTES

• Cal played errorless baseball for the fourth consecutive contest to open the 2025 campaign
• Foley, Carl Schmidt and Tremain were each playing in their first game at Cal
• Matthew Thomas picked up his first hit of the 2025 season with a one-out double in the bottom third

 
STAY POSTED
For coverage of Cal baseball, please follow the Bears on X (@CalBaseball) and Instagram (@CalBaseball).