MALIBU, Calif. – Three home runs in a offense-laden fifth inning provided the fireworks and five pitchers combined to do the rest as the Cal baseball team opened a three-game series at Pepperdine with a decisive 12-7 victory.
 
Tied at 2 entering the middle innings, Cal (5-7) opened the floodgates in the fifth with a massive two-out rally. Sophomore Jonah Davis got the ball rolling, driving a Ryan Wilson offering high over the scoreboard in right field for a solo home run that gave the Bears a 3-2 lead.
 
Cal wasn't nearly done. Jeffrey Mitchell, Jr. walked to keep the inning alive, freshman Andrew Vaughn extended the opportunity with a line drive single to center and Denis Karas provided the day's biggest swing, skying Cal's second home run of the inning to left field to make the score 6-2.
 
While the Bears celebrated Karas' shot, Tyrus Greene kept the momentum going with a home run of his own, lining a shot over the wall in right-center to spark another round of high fives. By the time the inning came to an end, Cal owned a 7-2 lead.
 
The offense continued to come in bunches for the Bears over the next few innings. Karas added an RBI double and Cal added an unearned run to add two more runs in the seventh, then an RBI single by Vaughn and a two-run double by Ripken Reyes pushed the advantage to 12-3 in the eighth.
 
"I just thought that we executed a good approach," Karas said. "We were aggressive all day and we were able to get some pitches up in the zone and take advantage. We've got to take advantage when a guy is leaving pitches up and I thought we did that today."
 
Tanner Dodson got the ball in his customary Friday spot and helped turn Cal's offensive theatrics into his first win of the season. The sophomore from Elk Grove, Calif. worked five innings and allowed just two runs, scattering 10 hits, walking two and striking out three in the process. Zayne Patino, Andrew Buckley, Lorenzo Hampton, Jr. and Ian Lutz combined to work the rest of the game in relief.
 
Five Bears enjoyed a multiple-hit day, led by a three-hit performance from both Vaughn and Karas. Vaughn and Reyes each drove in a pair of runs while Karas' final line of 3 for 4, home run, double, two runs and four RBI stood out as the day's top performance at the plate.
 
"That's a pretty offensive Friday, even here at Pepperdine where I've seen a number of games," Cal head coach David Esquer said "I thought we had a couple big swings that relaxed us down. Jonah Davis' swing and then we go back-to-back with Denis Karas and Ty Greene. There were 20 hits in the game within the first five innings, which is unusual on a Friday. Good effort by us. I thought there were a few things we can clean up but I thought we came out and played offense well. We'd like to get Dodson's pitch count down in five innings to under 100 so he can get us into the sixth or seventh. That's going to be a big key, giving our bullpen less work on a Friday."
 
Cal and Pepperdine return to Eddy D. Field Stadium on Saturday for a 1 p.m. meeting in game two of the series. The Bears and Waves finish their three-game set on Sunday at 1 p.m. All three games in the series will be broadcast live through the Pepperdine website and TheW.tv. And, live updates can be found by following Cal Baseball on Twitter (@Cal_Baseball).