STOCKTON – The California baseball team returned from a five-day break to record a 13-3 victory over Pacific (18-31, 6-12 WCC) on Tuesday evening at Klein Family Field in a run-rule shortened seven innings in the Golden Bears' final regular-season road game and nonconference contest.
Kalen Applefield and
Max Handron both homered and combined to drive in six runs with Applefield's four RBI a career best and his three-run homer in the bottom of the fourth inning his fourth in his first 15 official collegiate at bats. Handron went deep for the third consecutive contest with a two-run shot in the third.
Dominic Smaldino (3-4, 3 R, 2B, BB, 2 RBI),
Carl Schmidt (3-4, 2 R, RBI, BB) and
Jacob French (3-5, 2 R, 2B, RBI) combined for nine of the Bears' 14 hits, while
Alex Birge (2-4, R, 2B, 3B) had two knocks including his first triple of the season and
Cade Campbell (1-4, 2B, 2 RBI) doubled and drove in a pair.
Ryan Spalliero (1-0) was credited with his first collegiate victory. Spalliero was the second of four Cal pitchers and allowed one run in 2.0 innings of work, scattering four hits and striking out two. He pitched the bottom of the second and third innings. Cal trailed 3-2 after two innings before scoring the final 11 runs of the contest including four in the third and five in the fourth while Spalliero was still on the mound, before one in each the fifth and seventh.
Pacific started the scoring Monday with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning. John-Howard Bobo started the Tigers' first with a leadoff double and scored on a throwing error by Cal starting pitcher
Cole Tremain two batters later. Jake Tandy had an RBI single later in the inning.
Smaldino doubled to lead off the Cal second before Applefield drew a walk to give the Bears runners on first and second with no outs. Both scored two batters later when Campbell smashed a ball off the left field fence just below the yellow home run line.
The Tigers would score their final run of the game to retake a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the second when Diego Davis led off with a single against Spalliero, moved to second on Kordell Brown's sacrifice bunt and scored on Brian McClellin's two-out RBI single.
Cal would answer with its four-run third off losing pitcher Nathen Nino (1-3). French started the inning with a leadoff double and moved to third on a wild pitch. Nino would walk Schmidt to put Bears on the corners before Smaldino singled home French two batters later for the Bears' first run of the inning. Applefield then brought Schmidt home with a sacrifice fly before Handron's two-run shot to the opposite field on an 0-2 pitch capped the rally.
Cal would turn a three-run lead after three innings into an 11-3 advantage with its five-run fourth. The first two runs scored on RBI singles from Schmidt and Smaldino before Applefield's high fly ball just cleared the right field wall and was also just inside the foul pole down the right field line for a three-run homer to cap the rally and end Nino's outing.
Cal finished the game's scoring with its single runs in the fifth and seventh innings. Birge tripled with one out and scored on
PJ Moutzouridis' sacrifice fly in the fifth before
Elijah Clayton walked, stole second and scored on French's RBI single in the seventh.
While Cal was scoring runs, a trio of Bears' relief pitchers were also taking care of business with Spalliero retiring the Tigers in order in the third thanks to a double play to finish his outing before
Gavin Eddy (2.0 IP, 3 H, 1 BB, 1 SO, 1 WP) and
David Shaw (2.0 IP, 1 H, 3 SO) each pitched a pair of scoreless frames.
Tandy (2-3, RBI) was the only Pacific player with more than one of the Tigers' 10 hits.
Cal (19-27, 6-18 ACC) hosts No. 2 Florida State (34-10, 14-7 ACC) in a three-game ACC series at Stu Gordon Stadium this Friday-Sunday (6/2/1 p.m. PT). The Seminoles will be the highest ranked team to play in Berkeley since Mar. 16-18, 2018, when a No. 1 Oregon State squad swept Cal in a three-game Pac-12 series. A live stream of all three contests will be available on ACCNX/ESPN+.
