May 11, 2012
Box Score
BERKELEY -
In a tight Pac-12 Conference contest against No. 10-ranked Arizona, walks ended up hurting the Cal baseball team as the Golden Bears fell, 3-1, Friday afternoon (May 11) at Evans Diamond. Cal pitchers Michael Theofanopoulos and Michael Lowden yielded five walks which provided the Wildcats with scoring opportunities, but the Bears kept the game close by turning two double plays (by freshman shortstop Brenden Farney and junior second baseman Tony Renda), and were only out-hit by Arizona, 6-5.
Cal dropped to 25-20 overall and 9-13 in the Pac-12. The Wildcats, paced by Kurt Heyer's complete game (9.0 innings, five hits, one unearned run, one walk, nine strikeouts) and a two-out solo home run from Robert Refsnyder in the eighth inning, improved to 31-15 and 14-8 in league play.
The Bears scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the first inning off of Heyer (9-2). Senior left fielder Danny Oh was hit by a Heyer pitch, stole second base and advanced to third base on Arizona catcher Riley Moore's throwing error. Then after Renda was walked, Delfino knocked in his 32nd RBI of the season with a sacrifice fly to right field.
But that was Cal's only run off of Heyer. The Wildcats tied the game, 1-1, with a run in the third inning off of Theofanopoulos (3-5, 4.1 innings, three hits, two runs, three walks, two strikeouts) on Alex Mejia's RBI groundout to shortstop. Arizona took a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning when Lowden walked Mejia with the bases loaded.
The Wildcats tacked on their final run in the eighth inning on Refsnyder's two-out homer off of Cal's freshman left-hander Chris Muse-Fisher. Muse-Fisher (3.2 innings, two hits, one run, no walks, two strikeouts) had done a nice job of relieving Lowden in the fifth inning.
Junior center fielder Darrel Matthews finished with two hits; while Oh, sophomore right fielder Andrew Knapp and junior designated hitter Vince Bruno had the Bears' other hits.
Cal next plays Arizona in the second game of the three-game Pac-12 series, Saturday, May 12 at 1 p.m. at Evans Diamond. KNEW 960 AM, part of the IMG Sports Network, and Cal's student radio, KALX 90.7 FM, will be broadcasting Saturday and Sunday's contests.
