BERKELEY – The California baseball team (9-9, 2-3 ACC) gave up eight runs in the top of the ninth inning in a heartbreaking 10-8 loss to No. 23/19/14 Virginia (11-6, 2-3 ACC) in the second contest of a three-game series Saturday afternoon at Stu Gordon Stadium. Virginia scored six times with two outs in the top of the ninth inning, but the Golden Bears were within one strike of a victory before a hit batsmen and back-to-back two-RBI doubles by Chone James and Walker Buchanan. Both were hitting as pinch hitters for the second time in the inning as the Cavaliers sent 12 batters the plate in the frame.
Cal picked up a run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth when
Jarren Advincula doubled down the left field after
Alex Birge and pinch-hitter
Jeff Hoffman had drawn earlier back-to-back walks. The play was originally ruled a foul ball but changed after a review to put Golden Bears on second and third, but Matt Lanzendorfer ended the Bears' hopes by retiring
Seth Gwynn on a foul out to first baseman Henry Ford to end the game.
Cal's offense dominated most of the contest and finished with a season-high-tying 17 hits as six Cal players had multiple-hit games led by Advincula (3-6, 2B, 2 RBI),
Cade Campbell (3-5, 2 R, 2B) and
Ryan Tayman (3-5, R) with three hits each.
Carl Schmidt (2-2, R),
Alex Birge (2-4, 3 R, 2 2B, RBI) and
PJ Moutzouridis (2-5, 2B, SB) added a pair of hits apiece.
Virginia received two-hit games from James (2-2, 2 R, 2B, 2 RBI), Buchanan (2-2, R, 2B, 2 RBI) and Ford (2-4, R, HR, 3 RBI).
Virginia reliever Drew Koenen picked up the win to improve to 3-0. Koenen allowed two hits in 1.1 innings of scoreless work.
California's first two pitchers –
Gavin Eddy (5.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 HBP) and
Cole Clark (3.0 IP, 1 H, 2 BB, 2 SO) – combined for 8.0 innings and allowed just two runs and five hits before three Bear relievers gave up eight runs, six hits, one walk and two hit batsmen in the top of the ninth. The Cavaliers' rally in the ninth started with three consecutive singles off
Oliver de la Torre by James, Buchanan and Luke Hanson. Losing pitcher
David Shaw (0-2) then entered the game and allowed his first two inherited runners to score on a hit batsmen and a walk with the bases loaded. Shaw struck out pinch hitter Trey Wells for the first out before Eric Becker's RBI infield single cut Cal's lead to 7-5. The Cavaliers got their deficit down to 7-6 on an RBI groundout from Ford before Shaw hit James Nunnallee on a 2-2 pitch to load the bases. James and Buchanan followed with their back-to-back two-run doubles to the almost identical spot in the right center field gap.
Cole Tremain relieved Shaw and got Hanson to line out to
Ethan Kodama in left field for the final out.
PJ Moutzouridis drove in each of Cal's first two runs on a two-out single in the first and a run-scoring groundout in the third before Ford tied the game at 2-2 with a two-run homer in the Cavaliers' fourth.
Cal retook a 3-2 lead with a run in its half of the fourth on a throwing error by Becker at shortstop then added two more runs in both the sixth and seventh frames to stake itself to a 7-2 advantage.
The Golden Bears scored their first run in the sixth on a throwing error by Virginia backup second baseman Jackson Sirois, who had entered the game to begin the bottom of the fourth following an apparent injury the previous inning to starter Henry Godbout. Advincula's RBI single plated the second run.
Birge and
Ethan Kodama accounted for Cal's runs in the seventh on back-to-back one-out RBI doubles.
The three-game series will conclude Sunday on Kids' Day and there will also be a St. Patrick's Day celebration with first pitch for the rubber game beginning at 1 pm PT. A live video stream will be available on ACCNX/ESPN+.
STAY POSTED
For coverage of Cal baseball, please follow the Bears on X (
@CalBaseball) and Instagram (
@CalBaseball).
MORE NOTES
