BERKELEY.— In a game where it trailed 4-0 with just one out recorded, the California baseball team crawled all the way back and twice brought the game-tying run within feet of home plate before ultimately falling to Stanford 7-6 Thursday at Stu Gordon Stadium.
The Golden Bears (27-25, 10-18 ACC) struggled to locate the strike zone to begin the night, issuing three walks and two hit-by-pitches which allowed the first six Cardinal to reach and four quick runs to score. Sophomore
Jordy Lopez entered with the bases loaded and no outs and limited the damage allowing just one of his inherited baserunners to score.
Cal answered right back with catcher
Hideki Prather hitting a lead-off single and later scoring on the first of three errors committed by Stanford to cut the lead to 4-1.
Stanford (26-23, 13-15 ACC) scored its fifth run of the night which effectively ended Lopez's night but not before he tossed a career-high four innings. The sophomore allowed just the one earned on four hits and three walks while striking out two.
The Bears canceled out that Cardinal run out in the bottom half with right fielder
Gannon Snyder and left fielder
Carl Schmidt collecting back-to-back singles to lead off the inning and second baseman
Brady Errecart driving one in on a ground ball.
Another left-hander,
Tanner Grove, replaced Lopez and had an impressive outing with no earned runs allowed in his 2.2 innings of work. The freshman scattered a pair of hits and walks with a pair of punchouts, although a pair of unearned runs did score under his watch to give the Cardinal a 7-2 lead.
In the bottom of the seventh the Bears put together a two-out rally and hung a crooked number to make it a one-run game. Eight and nine hitters
Ethan Kodama and Snyder led off with a pair of walks and
Daniel Murillo took a two-out, four-pitch walk to load the bases. In stepped
Cade Campbell who drilled the second pitch he saw to deep right center to clear the bases and on the very next pitch was driven in on a double by Schmidt.
Freshman
Lawson Olmstead singled in the next at-bat but Schmidt was thrown out at the plate to preserve Stanford's one-run lead.
Senior pitcher
Cole Clark took over in the eighth and was brilliant with four strikeouts in his scoreless 1.2 innings of work.
In the bottom of the ninth Prather led off with his second single of the night and was moved into scoring position on a walk by Murillo. With two outs it was all up to Schmidt and the left fielder delivered with his third hit of the night, a single to left field, that sent Prather home with hopes of scoring the game-tying run but the catcher was cut down at the plate to end the game.
The Bears and Cardinal are back at The Stu for Game 2 tomorrow at 6:05 p.m. PT on ACCNX.
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