California Golden Bears Athletics

BERKELEY, Calif. – The Blue team showed its mettle on Sunday afternoon in the Blue and Gold series, grabbing an impressive 2-0 win, despite dropping the Blue and Gold Series 19-9 to the Gold team, who won the first two of the three game set at Evans Diamond. Senior outfielder Sean Peters hit a long solo home run to left field in the sixth inning, which ended up being the game-winner. Blue was buoyed by stellar pitching; from junior starter Daulton Jefferies (three scoreless innings with two strikeouts in which he didn't allow a hit) and the bullpen, who combined to throw five spotless innings in relief. The Gold team's pitching staff was exceptional as well, as senior righty Ryan Mason tossed three perfect innings with three strikeouts, and the pen allowed just the two runs.

“I think the whole weekend we threw the ball pretty well for the most part,” Blue team head coach Thomas Eager said following the win. “It was fun to see that pitching success for both the Blue and Gold teams. For us today, We kind of stacked our staff for today, once we knew how things were going on Friday (an 11-3 defeat), I saved Jesse Kay for three, had Keaton (Siomkin) for two and Daulton for three. That gave us our best chance to win today and those guys executed.”

Though the series winner was never in doubt, especially after Friday's 11-3 win by the Gold team, both teams fought hard for the duration of Sunday's finale. Both starters were fantastic, as Jefferies and Mason traded outs throughout the first three innings. Defensively the Bears were sharp as well, consistently making difficult plays appear routine. Redshirt senior Brenden Farney helped turn a spectacular 4-6-3 inning-ending double play in the top of the sixth, darting to his right and making the backhand stab and flip to Preston Grand Pre at short in one motion.

Peters connected on a 3-2 pitch in the bottom half of the sixth with two outs to break the scoreless deadlock, sending a bomb deep over the left field wall to stake the Blue team to its first lead of the series.

“It was a good battle against E-Mar (sophomore right-hander Erik Martinez),” Peters said of the homer. “I just got a 3-2 pitch and I got a pitch in, turned on it and it got out of here.”

Grand Pre added an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh with a sacrifice fly to the warning track in left and the bullpen did the rest. After Jefferies solid starting outing, redshirt senior Keaton Siomkin worked two more scoreless innings with two strikeouts (threw two scoreless with three strikeouts in Thursday's opener) and senior Jesse Kay spun three shutout innings to close game three out.

“It was fun watching these guys grow over the fall,” Eager added. “These guys are extremely competitive and I think that's the coolest thing about being a part of this staff. These guys compete with each other day in and day out and push each other. At the same time, none of them are high-maintenance. They're always willing to do whatever we as coaches need them to do and it makes it a lot easier to coach. They are each very talented and selfless; which really shows what the true character of this program is.”

The Gold team saw another strong performance from sophomore infielder Denis Karas, who finished the Blue and Gold series batting five-for-nine with three runs scored, a home run, a double, four RBI, a stolen base and was solid defensively at first base. He was two-for-four on Sunday in the 2-0 loss.

The Bears now break fall camp and will return to practice in January, ahead of the 2016 season. Fans can follow full coverage leading up to the season @Cal_Baseball on Twitter and Instagram, as well as on Facebook and CalBears.com.