BERKELEY – Freshman pinch runner
Elijah Clayton raced home on a wild pitch in the bottom of the 10th inning to score the game-winning run and give the California baseball team its' second walk-off win of the series and third of the season in a 4-3 victory Saturday over Boston College on Senior Day at Stu Gordon Stadium. The victory in the series rubber match was also the Golden Bears' final home and regular-season game of the 2025 campaign. Cal (22-30, 9-21 ACC) is the No. 16 seed in the 2025 ACC Baseball Championship and will play No. 9 Miami (31-23, 15-14 ACC) in the first game of event Tuesday at 6 a.m. PT on ACC Network.
Alex Birge started Cal's game-winning rally Saturday by leading off the bottom of the 10th with a double down the right field line before Clayton replaced him as a pinch runner. Clayton then moved to third on
Ethan Kodama's sacrifice bunt before
Jarren Advincula was intentionally walked to put Bears on the corners with one out. Reliever JD Ogden uncorked the wild pitch on a 2-0 count to
PJ Moutzouridis. Boston College catcher Gunnar Johnson was able to get a glove on the pitch but the ball went all the way to the backstop and Clayton scored easily.
Most of Saturday's contest was dominated by strong pitching and the game was without much drama other than errors on both teams that contributed to Cal's 3-1 lead after seven. Both teams scored in just a single inning through the first seven frames with Boston College's single run in the top of the third answered by Cal's three in the bottom of the fifth.
Max Handron and
Carl Schmidt started Cal's three-run fifth with back-to-back singles before both coming around to score on the next play when
Nico Button bunted for a sacrifice to move the runners up to second and third and a throwing error on Eagles' starting pitcher Jacob Burnham allowed both runners to score. Kodama's bunt single moved Button to third before Advincula brought him home with an RBI groundout.
Most of the drama started in the top of the eighth when
Cole Tremain hit back-to-back batters with two outs before Vince Cimini singled up the middle to score pinch-runner Nathaniel Frederking to get the Eagles back within a single run before
Logan Piper came on get pinch-hitter Beck Milner on a comebacker to end the threat.
Throwing errors in the ninth by Cal's
Dominic Smaldino and
Logan Piper contributed to the game-tying run that sent the Golden Bears to extra innings for only the third time this season with victories in each of the two previous contests.
Kodama (2-3, SAC) and Moutzouridis (2-4) combined to collect half of Cal's eight hits, while Ragsdale (3-4, R, BB) had three of Boston College's seven hits, all singles.
Cal used six pitchers with Bougie followed by
Jordy Lopez (1.0 IP, 2 H, 1 WP),
Jake Guardiancic (2.1 IP, 2 BB),
Cole Tremain (1.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 SO), Piper (2.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R) and Alaniz (0.1 IP). Alaniz recorded his first college win.
The Bears took two of three in the series with Boston College a 10-9 winner on Friday evening following Cal's 8-6 walk-off victory on Thursday.
