BERKELEY – Trailing by five runs after just two and a half innings of a mid-week contest against visiting San Francisco, the Cal baseball team had a hunch it might need to produce some offensive fireworks to pull out a victory.
 
The Bears found the spark they needed and took advantage when opportunities presented themselves as they launched five home runs and scored the final run of the game on a passed ball in the eighth inning to pick up an 8-7 victory and finish off a season sweep of the Dons.
 
Down 5-0 heading to the bottom of the third, Cal (19-11) turned to the long ball to get the offense rolling. Andrew Vaughn provided the first big blast, sending a two-run shot off the scoreboard in left-center field to put the Bears on the scoreboard. Three pitches later, Jonah Davis followed with a massive opposite-field blast over the fence in left to make it 5-3 Dons.
 
San Francisco (20-13) got two runs back in the top of the fourth but Cal resumed its power surge in the sixth inning to cut into the deficit again. This time, Korey Lee did the honors, sending an opposite-field home run of his own to right for a two-run blast that made it 7-5.
 
Cal tied the score one inning later and again the home run ball featured prominently in the proceedings. Tyrus Greene sent the first pitch he saw over the fence in right and Tanner Dodson followed with a laser over the wall in left, tying the score at 7 with his first home run of the season.
 
The final run of the game came in less conventional fashion. With runners on first and second with two outs, a pitch by USF's Haydn King glanced off catcher Thomas McCarthy's glove and kicked to the backstop. With both runners in motion on the play, Lee never stopped as he got to third, dashing for home and ultimately scoring the go-ahead run.
 
"Our offense keeps us in the game all the time and it was a good win because we obviously could've easily rolled over with the way the game started," Cal head coach Mike Neu said. "We didn't, so that was good to see."
 
Five Cal pitchers saw mound time on Tuesday with Joey Matulovich doing the bulk of the heavy lifting. The right-hander didn't allow an earned run in four innings of relief and struck out six in the process. Arman Sabouri earned the win with 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief and Dodson earned his seventh save of the year by recording the final two outs.
 
A 10-hit night for the Bears came with the help of two-hit nights from Greene, Davis and Lee. Vaughn and Lee drove in two runs apiece.
 
Cal returns to Pac-12 action this weekend with a trip to Pullman, Wash. for three games against Washington State. Friday's series opener will begin at 5 p.m., Saturday's second game is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. and Sunday's finale will get rolling at 1 p.m. All three games will be streamed live by Washington State through its website. The Bears return to Evans Diamond next Tuesday for a 7:05 p.m. non-conference game against Santa Clara.