BERKELEY – In the spring of 2015, Matt Ladrech stepped onto the field at Evans Diamond for his first games as a Cal baseball player and pitched his way to Freshman All-America status as an up-and-coming member of the Golden Bears starting staff.
 
On Friday, Ladrech took that same mound for the final time, setting aside the emotions that were surely present as he attempted to do what he has done time after time throughout his four years at Cal – give his team a chance to win.
 
Cal's senior left-hander did just that, showing the resolve that has become his calling card as he limited a dangerous Arizona lineup to just one run over five innings and gave the Bears an opportunity to break the game open late as they opened the final home series of 2018 with a 9-3 victory over the Wildcats.
 
Ladrech worked his way in and out of trouble throughout the evening, but each time he had an answer to whatever issue presented itself. In the second inning, that came in the form of a well-timed strikeout as he sat down back-to-back batters to escape a jam created by two Cal errors.
 
One inning later, he squashed a bases loaded situation with an inning-ending double play. And, with Arizona already having scored once, he escaped another bases loaded jam with yet another double play ball to end the fifth inning.
 
"You combine the emotion (of the night) and the way Mike (Neu) coaches us from a competitive standpoint and I just try to go out there and compete whether it's going well or it's a sticky situation," Ladrech said. "You get a little adrenaline with the emotion of the situation and you make a few pitches here and there and we got the win so that makes it as good as it gets."
 
Ladrech left the game with the lead thanks to several key contributions offensively. Cameron Eden drove in Cal's first two runs, doubling in a run in the second and bringing another in with a sacrifice fly in the fourth.
 
RBI singles by Sam Wezniak and Max Flower in the bottom of the fifth put Cal (27-19, 12-13 Pac-12) ahead 4-1 and, after Arizona scored once in the top of the sixth, Wezniak broke the game open with a three-run home run that made it 7-2. Tanner Dodson and Jonah Davis added RBI singles in the eighth to finish the scoring.
 
Dodson had a hand in the evening as well as, after Erik Martinez pitched the sixth, the junior from West Sacramento, Calif. finished the game to earn his own place in Cal history. The right-hander allowed one run over the final three innings to notch his 11^th save of the season and set the Bears' single-season save record. He broke the previous record of 10 held by Trevor Hildenberger and Jesse Ingram.
 
Ladrech finished with a stat line of five innings pitched, one run on nine hits, three walks and four strikeouts. With the win, the native of Lafayette, Calif. equaled his career-high for wins in a single season as he improved to 7-4 on the year.
 
"He did a great job. He wanted to go back out for the sixth inning but he was close to 100 pitches and had battled out of almost every inning," said head coach Mike Neu. "We didn't help him defensively, we didn't make every play for him, but we made the plays we needed to. It was a classic outing for him where the ball's going to be in play, he's going to get big outs when he needs to and he just did an amazing job. It's a win we obviously needed and you want a guy like that on the mound that you know is going to compete as hard as anybody on our team. And, we fed off that really. We did a good job all the way around and we fed off his energy."
 
Cal and Arizona renew acquaintances on Saturday at 6:05 p.m. for game two of their three-game series. Jared Horn will take the ball for the Bears while Michael Flynn toes the slab for the Wildcats. The series concludes Sunday with a 1:15 p.m. first pitch and the game will be preceded by the annual Senior Day ceremony in which Cal's six upperclassmen – Andrew Buckley, Kevin Flemer, Ladrech, Erik Martinez, Zayne Patino and Matt Ruff – will be honored.