CORVALLIS, Ore. – A grand slam by Denis Karas gave the Cal baseball team late-inning life but No. 1 Oregon State responded with three runs in the bottom of the seventh and a back and forth battle turned against the Bears as they dropped an 11-10 decision in game two of three at Goss Stadium.
 
Cal (21-23, 12-11 Pac-12) turned to the home run ball to keep pace with the top-ranked Beavers on a sunny Saturday in Corvallis. The power surge started in the third inning when Cameron Eden answered a pair of first-inning Oregon State runs by launching a solo shot over the fence in left field to cut the deficit to 2-1.
 
The home run display continued for the Bears in the fourth. After Oregon State (37-4, 20-3) put up two more runs in the bottom of the third to make it 4-1, Cal pulled even thanks to a pair of big flies. The first came off the bat of Karas as the junior bashed a two-run shot to left-center to bring the Bears within one.
 
Two pitches later, Tanner Dodson followed suit, clearing the bleachers in right field with a ball that ended up crossing both the street and the train tracks outside of Goss Stadium. The blast tied the score and kept Cal right in the ballgame. A grand slam by Steven Kwan gave the momentum as well as the lead right back to Oregon State in the bottom of the sixth but Karas had more heroics in mind.
 
Batting with two outs and the bases loaded against Beavers fireballer Drew Rasmussen, Cal's third baseman launched a high fly ball that narrowly eluded a leaping attempt at the wall and landed just over the fence in right for a grand slam of his own. The drive tied the game again at 8 and left the outcome very much hanging in the balance.
 
Oregon State countered in the bottom of the seventh with three more runs, plating one on a fielder's choice and two more on RBI singles to take an 11-8 lead. Again Cal responded as a two-run single by Jeffrey Mitchell, Jr. made it 11-10 but that was as close as the Bears got as Rasmussen went the rest of the way to close out the game for the Beavers.
 
"We're making that key mistake at the wrong time and you just can't do that against teams that are considered the No. 1 team in the country," head coach David Esquer said. "Like I told them, we're capable of playing at this level against the very best and it's not if we can do it, it's when will we do it. All negativity aside, I hope they're inspired by today in the sense that there is some work to be done, it's right out in front of them, it's out in plain sight and it's just about getting to work and being able to overcome whatever mistakes they're making. It's not ability. It's just being able to do it when it counts."
 
Cal out-hit Oregon State 13-8 with Karas going 3 for 5 with two runs and six RBI. Preston Grand Pre, Mitchell, Eden and Max Flower also had two hits apiece. Cal used six pitchers in the game with Dodson working an effective 1 2/3 scoreless to close out the game.
 
The Bears and Beavers return to Goss Stadium on Sunday to wrap up their series. First pitch is set for 12:05 p.m. Cal returns to Evans Diamond next weekend to host Stanford in a Saturday-Monday series and TCU visits the following week for a Thursday-Saturday series that will be Cal's final home set of the 2017 campaign.