April 11, 2008

Box Score

Berkeley - No. 22-ranked California played its longest game of the season on Friday - an 11 inning marathon that ended with a 3-2 victory over the visiting Oregon Ducks at Levine-Fricke Field.

Cal improved to 33-15, 2-5 in Pac-10 play. The Bears square off against Oregon State tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. As a side note to Cal fans, due to technical difficulties at Levine-Fricke Field, there will be no GameTracker available for the rest of the weekend.

Freshman Valerie Arioto supplied the heroics when she planted a one-out double to the left-center field wall to score Julie Meyer (who led off with a single) from second base.

Senior Erika Racklin was a perfect 5-for-5 from the dish and stole her 22nd base of the season in the first inning.

Sophomore Marissa Drewrey was once again stellar in the circle with a complete game 10-strikeout performance. It was the seventh time this season that Drewrey has fanned 10 or more batters in a game. She allowed just one earned run and scattered eight hits to improve to 21-9 on the year.

After Oregon took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first stanza, Cal scored two runs in the bottom half to take a 2-1 lead. Racklin and Arioto (who had back-to-back singles to lead off the inning) both scored on a fielding miscue by the second baseman for the runs.

The Ducks managed to knot the score at 2-2 in the top of the fourth when Neena Bryant notched a double to center field to score Sari Jenkins.

There were plenty of defensive gems by both sides that kept the score deadlocked over the next six innings, before Cal finally got some momentum in the bottom of the 11th.

Back-to-back singles by Meyer and Carrie Arth sparked the surge, as two batters later Arioto drilled the Melissa Rice offering to left-center field to bring home the winning run.