May 23, 2009

Box Score

BERKELEY, CALIF. - The Cal baseball team fell behind to USC, 6-0, after the top of the first inning and was never able to catch up, falling to the Trojans, 14-4, Saturday at Evans Diamond. The Golden Bears, who had lost to USC, 4-2, on Friday, dropped to 23-29 overall and 8-18 in the Pac-10. The Trojans upped their record to 28-27 and 13-13 in league. A highlight for Cal was the hitting of freshman left fielder Danny Oh, who went 2-for-4 with a fielder's choice RBI in the first inning and a solo home run in the fourth inning. Juniors Brett Jackson and Blake Smith had the other RBI for the Bears.

The winning pitcher for USC was right-hander Brad Boxberger, who improved to 6-3 by throwing 6.0 innings with seven hits, four runs, three walks and four strikeouts. Sophomore right-hander Kevin Miller (2-3) suffered the loss for Cal when he was only able to get the lead-off batter out in the top of the first inning (five hits, six runs, one walk). The Trojans scored six runs in the first on seven hits.

The Bears were able to get within, 6-2, with two runs in the bottom of the first inning on Smith's RBI single and Oh's fielder choice RBI. USC tacked on a run in the fourth inning when Brandon Garcia doubled off of Cal reliever Brian Diemer (4.2 innings, six hits, two runs, three walks, two strikeouts) and scored on Alex Sherrod's RBI single for a 7-2 advantage.

Cal was able to tally a run in the fourth inning on Oh's one-out homer to right field, and a run in the fifth inning on Jackson's sacrifice fly to center field to make to score, 7-4. But, three runs was close as the Bears would get as the Trojans ran away with the contest with two runs in the sixth, three runs in the seventh and two runs in the eighth inning.

Sharrod went 4-for-5 with a double and two RBI for USC, while Jeff Kobernus, Mark Canha, Michael Brady and Austin Booker also had hits for Cal.

The Bears next host USC in the third game of its final Pac-10 series, Sunday, May 24 at 1 p.m. at Evans Diamond.

Home Runs:

USC: None.

Cal: Oh, solo home run in the fourth inning.