BERKELEY – A night after getting bottled up offensively, the Bears reversed their fortunes in a big way and left the field Friday night feeling pretty good about themselves.

Breaking out for season highs in runs and hits, the Cal baseball team pounded Saint Mary's 13-1 to even this four-game series at one apiece.

The Bears rapped out 16 hits total and sent 14 men to the plate during an eight-run fourth inning, and they hit four homers, including two from preseason All-American Andrew Vaughn.

That eased the sting of a 10-3 loss to the Gaels in their home opener Thursday, when the Bears struck out 13 times.

"We had a tough game yesterday," Cal head coach Mike Neu said. "Obviously we made some mistakes and just kind of let things snowball. For our guys to bounce back today and really do all three phases of the game well, that was big."

Vaughn, unsurprisingly, was the headliner. He jumped on the first pitch he saw from Saint Mary's left-hander Ken Waldichuk in the first and belted a two-run homer well over the wall in left-center. In the fifth he added another two-run shot, this one a liner to left that made it a 12-1 game.

Vaughn, fresh off Pac-12 Player of the Week honors, finished 4-for-5. The one out he made was a liner he stung to left that found the glove of the Gaels' Joe Vranesh.

But the first baseman was just one of the standouts for Cal (5-4).

Center fielder Brandon McIlwain showed impressive opposite-field power with a two-run homer to right center that accounted for his first home run in a Cal uniform. Before this season, McIlwain hadn't played baseball since 2016 when he was at South Carolina.

A tweak in the batting order also paid off, with left fielder Cameron Eden drawing his first start at leadoff and second baseman Darren Baker dropping down to the fifth spot. Neu said the goal was simply to mix things up and give Eden a chance to spark things with his on-base skills.

It paid off, with the junior hitting a two-run homer during the huge fourth-inning rally, just two batters after McIlwain went deep. Baker also did his part with a two-run single and reached base three times.

"Both came up big,obviously," Neu said.

Left-hander Arman Sabouri started on the mound as the opener and retired all six batters he faced over his two innings with four strikeouts. And for the second outing in a row, it was freshman Sam Stoutenborough coming up with a sterling effort in relief.

A week after throwing six scoreless innings at Cal Poly, Stoutenborough (2-1) held Saint Mary's (5-5) to one run over five innings to get the victory.

But so much of all that goes right for the Bears starts with Vaughn in the No. 2 spot. Three of his five homers have come in the first inning. In nine games overall, last year's Golden Spikes Award winner is batting an even .500 (15-for-30) with 13 RBI.

"He's one of the best, if not the best in the country," Neu said. "He's a Golden Spikes winner for a reason. He's a big-time hitter and proved it again today."
 
Cal will travel to Moraga to face the Gaels in 1 p.m. games both Saturday and Sunday.