Bears Hit The Road To Take On USC

BERKELEY - After a two-week stretch of games in the Bay Area, the Cal baseball team hits the road to resume Pac-12 play with a three-game series at USC. Action begins Friday at 6 p.m., continues Saturday at 2 p.m. and concludes with a 1 p.m. first pitch on Sunday. The series will be streamed through the USC website (USCTrojans.com) and live updates can be accessed by following Cal Baseball on Twitter (@CalBaseball).

Winners of four of their last five Pac-12 series, the Bears head to Los Angeles looking to get back on the right side of the ledger after taking one win in three tries at No. 2 Stanford last week. A 4-3 win on Thursday came courtesy of a great team effort, led by the trio of Matt Ladrech, Zayne Patino and Tanner Dodson on the mound. Andrew Vaughn and Jonah Davis each homered and Dodson drove in the eventual game-winning run with an RBI single in the seventh inning.

Cal returned to action on Tuesday and rode a strong performance by six pitchers to a 1-0 victory over BYU in the final mid-week game of the 2018 season. Max Flower's walk-off double in the bottom of the ninth inning provided the offense and the Bears improved to 18-8 at home on the season. Cal returns to Evans Diamond next weekend for its final home series of the season when the Bears welcome Arizona for three games beginning on Friday.

PROBABLE STARTERS
Friday, 6 p.m.
Cal: LHP Matt Ladrech (6-3, 4.37 ERA)
USC: RHP Kyle Hurt (3-4, 4.85)

Saturday, 2 p.m.
Cal: RHP Jared Horn (5-5, 6.21)
USC: LHP Quentin Longrie (4-4, 3.69)

Sunday, 1 p.m.
Cal: RHP Aaron Shortridge (2-2, 2.91)
USC: RHP Solomon Bates (3-2, 3.67)

SCOUTING THE TROJANS
Last Meeting: USC's trip to Berkeley in 2017 turned into the Andrew Vaughn show as the then-freshman hit two walk-off home runs, one a grand slam, to help lead Cal to a three-game sweep. Vaughn received his first National Player of the Week award after a series in which he went 6 for 1 with three home runs, three runs scored and 10 RBIs.

USC's 2018 Record: 19-21, 7-14 Pac-12

The Trojans return to Dedeaux Field after a trip to Oregon resulted in one win out of three tries. USC owns conference series wins over Utah and Arizona State, the latter coming April 6-8 in Phoenix.
USC owns a .243 team batting average entering the weekend, led by Kaleb Murphy at .317. Dillon Paulson has emerged as the Trojans' leader when it comes to run production as he leads the team with six home runs and 29 RBIs.
On the mound, USC enters the Cal series with a 5.32 team ERA. The Trojans' starting trio of Kyle Hurt, Quentin Longrie and Solomon Bates owns solid numbers though as Hurt ranks 10th in the conference in strikeouts (54) and Bates ranks eighth in opposing batting average (.227). Connor Lunn is USC's top option at the back of the bullpen and ranks fourth in the Pac-12 in saves with eight.

LAST TIME OUT
Pitching Leads Way To Mid-Week Win

Six Cal pitchers combined to throw Cal's first shutout of the season and Max Flower drove in the game-winning run with an RBI double in the bottom of the ninth inning as the Bears beat BYU 1-0 in the final mid-week game of the season. Joey Matulovich, Arman Sabouri, Erik Martinez, Carson Olson, Andrew Buckley and Tanner Dodson yielded just six hits, walked only one and struck out seven in a strong effort on the mound.
A 1-3 week for the Bears last week saw its highlight come on Thursday as Matt Ladrech, Zayne Patino and Tanner Dodson combined on the mound to stymie the Cardinal. Andrew Vaughn and Jonah Davis each homered and Dodson delivered the eventual game-winning hit with an RBI single in the seventh inning.
The Bears got good contributions from the bullpen throughout the week, led by a pair of scoreless outings for both Arman Sabouri and Erik Martinez. Sabouri struck out seven and allowed just one base runner in 5 2/3 innings while Martinez worked five innings and struck out nine in his two appearances.
Davis helped lead the Bears at the plate during Cal's trip to Stanford, homering twice to push his season total to 11.
In saving his 10th game of the season on Thursday, Dodson made Cal history as he tied Jesse Ingram (2004) and Trevor Hildenberger (2014) for the most saves in a single-season by a Golden Bear pitcher.

NEXT UP
Cal returns to Evans Diamond next weekend to wrap up the 2018 home schedule with three games against Arizona. The Bears and Wildcats will kick off their series at 7:05 p.m. on Friday, continue with game two at 6:05 p.m. on Saturday and wrap up the weekend on Sunday beginning at 1:05 p.m. Sunday's game will alsos feature Cal's annual Senior Day ceremonies and the Bears' five upperclassmen will be honored before the contest.

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