BERKELEY – A terrific pitching performance went by the wayside for the Cal baseball team Saturday afternoon.

The Bears held USC to just four hits but couldn't take advantage in falling 1-0 on a sun-drenched day at Evans Diamond.

Cal mustered just three hits of its own in being shut out for the first time this season, and the team will come out Sunday looking to avoid a sweep on the opening weekend of Pac-12 play.

USC left-hander Isaac Esqueda (2-0) allowed just two hits over six innings, walking  three and striking out four to get the victory. He and two Trojans relievers weren't dominating, striking out just four, but they successfully kept the Bears (8-8, 0-2 Pac-12) from squaring up balls for hard contact. Cal advanced just one runner as far as third base.

Jared Horn, a junior who missed the season's first month after an appendectomy, made his second start of the season and held USC (7-10, 2-0) to one hit over three innings. The only run of the game came in the third, when Ben Ramirez led the inning off with a double off Horn down the left field line and eventually scored on Blake Sabol's sacrifice fly.

Fellow right-hander Rogelio Reyes relieved Horn to start the fourth and was excellent over 5 1/3 scoreless innings, surrendering just three hits and striking out three. Ian Villers recorded the final two outs of the ninth, and the trio of pitchers combined to equal Cal's season-low in hits allowed (four).

Max Flower, Grant Holman and Hance Smith recorded the three hits for Cal, with Smith's third-inning double the only one that went for extra bases.

Holman is scheduled to take the mound Sunday afternoon for Cal when it concludes this three-game series against USC with a 1:05 p.m. first pitch.