Salt Lake City, Utah -- The No. 17 Golden Bears rallied in the seventh inning, sending the potential tying run to the plate, but fell short and suffered an 8-6 defeat to Utah in game one of their three-game series.

Senior Cheyenne Cordes and freshman Taurie Pogue led the Bears with a combined five hits on the afternoon. Freshman Kobie Pettis added two RBIs and scored two runs as well.

The Utes opened the scoring in the bottom half of the first inning when Bridget Castro singled to center to bring in Hannah Flippen. The next batter, Kristen Stewart, hit a long sacrifice fly to left field to score Katie Dickman and give her team the 2-0 lead.

After Cordes and senior Danielle Henderson reached base in the top of the second, sophomore Bailey O'Mara moved them to second and third with a ground ball to first. Pettis then roped a single to right field that Marissa Mendenhall couldn't handle. The ball rolled all the way to the wall and Pettis circled the bases to put the Bears ahead 3-2.

Utah came right back in the bottom half to score two runs and take a 4-3 lead heading into the third inning. Dickman collected her second hit of the day with a single to right to bring in Anissa Urtez for the go-ahead run.

Cal came right back in the third inning, scoring a run off a ground out by Henderson to tie the game. 

Utah took the 7-4 lead in the bottom of the third. The Utes went ahead with an RBI single by Heather Bowen. A sacrifice fly to center by Maddy Woodard gave Utah their sixth run and a single by Flippen put them up 7-4. 

The Bears and Utes both added one run apiece in the fourth to make it 8-5 heading into the fifth.

With Cal down three runs entering the seventh, Cordes lined a double down the left field line and Henderson followed things up with a single to put runners on the corners with no outs. Cordes raced home from third on a wild pitch to cut it to 8-6 but Henderson was left stranded and Cal's rally fell short.

Sophomore Katie Sutherland-Finch (10-5) took the loss for Cal, allowing five earned runs on seven hits in two innings. Stephanie Trzcinski came in to pitch in the third inning and allowed just one run the rest of the way. The sophomore gave up five hits in four innings, while striking out two.

Katie Donovan (10-5) got the win for Utah, throwing four innings and giving up one run on four hits. Miranda Viramontes started the game for the Utes, throwing three innings and giving up five runs.

On Deck

The Bears return to Utah Softball Stadium on Friday for the second game of the series against the Utes. The game is set for 3 p.m. PT and will be televised live on Pac-12 Networks.