March 17, 2012
Game 1 Box Score |
Box Score
BERKELEY -
No. 18 Cal baseball (11-6, 0-2) struggled in its beginning of Pac-12 play, dropping a doubleheader to No. 19 Oregon State, 9-2 and 4-1, Saturday (March 17) at Evans Diamond. The Golden Bears only lead of the day came when senior center fielder Chad Bunting and junior third baseman Mitch Delfino had RBI singles in the bottom of the first inning in game one to give Cal a 2-1 lead over the Beavers (13-5, 2-0).
Junior left-hander Justin Jones (2-2) suffered the loss in game one, throwing 5.0 innings with seven hits, four earned runs, two walks and three strikeouts, while the Bears' defense committed four errors. In game two, senior right-hander Matt Flemer (2-2) threw 7.0 innings or more for the fifth straight time this season, going 7.0 innings with three hits, three runs, only one earned run, no walks and six strikeouts. Junior second baseman Tony Renda had the only extra base hit on the day for Cal, hitting a double to lead off the ninth inning in game two.
The two teams are scheduled to play the third game of the conference series, Sunday, March 18 at 12 p.m. at Evans Diamond.
Defense was a problem for the Bears in both games. OSU scored a run in the first game in the top of the first inning when Max Gordon scored on a Delfino fielding error. Cal came back to take a 2-1 lead on Bunting's and Delfino's RBI singles off of Beaver starter Ben Wetzler, who improved his record to 4-0 by throwing 8.0 innings with six hits, two runs, two walks and four strikeouts.
After the Bears' 2-1 lead in game one, OSU went on to score two runs in the fourth, a run in the fifth and two runs in both the seventh and eighth innings for the 9-2 win. Tyler Smith went 3-for-4 with two RBI for the Beavers, and Delfino was 2-for-4 with an RBI for Cal.
It was a tighter contest in game two behind the pitching of Flemer. Still, defense faltered for the Bears as they had two errors that led to two runs for Oregon State in the top of the first inning when Flemer could not field a sacrifice bunt and senior catcher Chadd Krist had a throwing error in an attempt to throw out a runner at third base.
OSU added a run in the fourth inning on a Ryan Dunn solo home run. Cal produced its only run in game two in the bottom of the fifth inning on Delfino's RBI single to right field, scoring Bunting. The Beavers ended up with an insurance run in the ninth inning when Jake Rodriguez had an RBI groundout for the final 4-1 margin.
