BERKELEY – With an early wake-up call intended to beat the imminent threat of rain and then a steady drizzle throughout the contest, Cal baseball junior Matt Ladrech wasn't much in the mood to take his time on the mound during Sunday's series finale against Cal Poly.
 
That approach worked just fine for the Bears' Sunday starter as the southpaw scattered eight hits, allowed just one run over seven and a third innings and the offense picked up steam as the day went along to help Cal earn a series win over the Mustangs with an 8-1 victory at Evans Diamond.
 
Cal Poly (1-2) struck first Sunday as a double by Nick Meyer to lead off the second set the Mustangs up for a little situational baseball that produced the first run of the day. A pair of ground balls, the second a grounder to shortstop by Kyle Marinconz, brought Meyer home to plate a run.
 
Cal (2-1) responded with less situational hitting and more an at-bat of the clutch variety in the third. After singles by freshmen Anthony Walters and Korey Lee to get the Bears started, a strikeout and ground out looked like they might get Cal Poly starter Jared Zill off the hook.
 
Jeffrey Mitchell, Jr. wouldn't let the opportunity slip away though, firing a 1-0 pitch through the right side of the infield to score Walters easily from third. Lee slid in and kicked the throw away from the catcher, putting the Bears ahead 2-1 through three innings.
 
As the rain intensified, so did Cal's efforts on offense. Ripken Reyes added to the lead with an RBI single in the fifth and one batter later Mitchell made another contribution, driving an opposite-field home run, the first of his Cal career, over the right field fence to make it 5-1.
 
An RBI single by Walters and run-scoring grounder by Korey Lee put Cal up 7-1 in the sixth and Cameron Eden finished the run parade with an RBI single in the eighth. Cal finished the day with 12 hits as a team, led by three from Mitchell, two from Dodson and two from Walters. Mitchell also finished with four RBI. And, by the end of the weekend, the Bears' hit total stood at an impressive 35 over three games.
 
"Really it's such a learning process. We're learning as we go and we're pretty green," Cal head coach David Esquer said. "I tell you, I've been around a lot of teams and if you play a doubleheader and you come back and play at 10 in the morning, whether they're old and experienced or young, that's a tough win and against a quality opponent. I told them before the game started that today will was going to be as big as skill, and are you going to be tired? Is it going to be too cold and rainy? Are you going to expect the game to be over after 5? I thought our guys did a good job."
 
In order for the offense to take its turn, Ladrech had to set the tone and that was apparent from the very start. Working both sides of the plate and mixing both speeds and pitches, the lefty pitched to contact and let his defense work for him. That kept Cal's defense on its toes on a day in which it would've been easy to focus more on weather than baseball and put the Bears in position to earn the series win.
 
"It feels great. Especially with a group of young guys, it's great confidence-wise," Ladrech said. "That's a great team (Cal Poly), it's not a secret they pitch, they hit. It's great for us to compete, yet alone take two games. I couldn't be more proud of our guys."
 
Junior Zayne Patino made his Cal debut in relief of Ladrech and worked a perfect 1 and two-thirds innings of relief to shut the door. He struck out three, including the first two batters he faced.
 
Cal hits the road later this week for its first road trip of the season as the Bears head to Lubbock, Texas to take on nationally ranked Texas Tech. The first game of the series is set for a noon (PT) start while Saturday features a pair of games with starts scheduled for 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Sunday's finale is scheduled for 11 a.m. The Bears return to Berkeley next week to host a four-game weekend series against Gonzaga.