March 18, 2012
Box Score
BERKELEY -
Senior center fielder Chad Bunting hit his third home run of the season and had two hits, but No. 18 Cal baseball (11-7, 0-3) lost its third conference game to No. 19 Oregon State, 13-5, Sunday (March 18) at Evans Diamond. The Golden Bears had fallen to the Beavers (14-5, 3-0) in a cold doubleheader on Saturday, 9-2 and 4-1.
Bunting finished with two hits on the day, as did junior second baseman Tony Renda and sophomore shortstop Derek Campbell, but sophomore left-hander Kyle Porter suffered his first loss of his college career (2-1, 2.0 innings, five hits, five runs, four earned runs, two walks, one strikeout). Porter, who won Cal's College World Series game versus Texas A&M in 2011 and was 6-0 as a freshman, started the 2012 campaign 2-0. He is now 8-1.
Oregon State scored a run in the top of the first inning when the Bears' sophomore first baseman Andrew Knapp dropped a popup with two outs. OSU then added four more runs in the top of the second inning on Jake Rodriguez's sacrifice fly, Tyler Smith's RBI single and Michael Conforto's two-run single to right field.
Cal battled back to get within, 4-3, with three runs in the bottom of the second inning when junior third baseman Mitch Delfino drew a walk off Beaver starter Jace Fry (1-0, 5.0 innings, seven hits, four runs, two earned runs, three walks, four strikeouts) and eventually scored on OSU third baseman Ryan Dunn's fielding error. Junior right fielder Vince Bruno added an RBI groundout, and sophomore left fielder Mike Reuvekamp had an RBI bunt single.
However, that would be as close as Cal would get as the Beavers tacked on a run in the fifth inning and four runs in the sixth inning. The Bears scored a run in the bottom of the fifth on Bunting's home run over the left field fence, and a run in the bottom of the sixth inning when Renda led off the inning with a single down the right field line and later scored on Delfino's single to right.
The Bears next travel to San Francisco on Tuesday, March 20 for a 2 p.m. game at Benedetti Diamond. Cal topped the Dons, 5-3, in an earlier contest Feb. 28 at Evans Diamond. The Bears then continue their streak of 12 straight road games when they visit Tempe, Ariz., March 23-25, for a three-game Pac-12 series at Arizona State. Cal doesn't play at Evans Diamond until hosting Bay Area rival Stanford on Monday, April 9 at 2:30 p.m.
