BERKELEY – The Golden Bears will close the season in the same manner in which it began – on the road.
 
California (26-25, 4-16 Pac-12) concludes its regular-competition slate with four outings, beginning with a midweek at Santa Clara and then continuing on to Tempe for a Friday-Sunday series against Arizona State.
 
The Bears finished their final weekend at home 1-2 against No. 6/5 Arizona highlighted by its biggest upset of the year with a 1-0 victory in game 2 and celebrating the seniors and the program's final outings at Levine-Fricke Field.
 
Cal will play off-site for the 2020 season as renovations get underway for a new stadium. The Bears will return to Strawberry Canyon in 2021.
 
But currently, the team's focuses are on finishing things on a high note. Sitting in 63rd in the RPI rankings, Cal could change its postseason projections with a sweep over the Sun Devils, as long as they take care of business against the Broncos first. Cal moved up seven spots last week from 70 after becoming the first team this season to keep the Wildcats scoreless and clip a 21-game win streak.
 
The Bears are also the lone team to hold a top-ranked UCLA to one run this season.
 
Before Cal returns to Pac-12 play, it hopes to keep its longstanding undefeated streak with SCU intact. The Bears hold an 85-0 all-time record versus the Broncos, with their most recent win coming last season in a 9-1 run-rule.
 
The matchup holds notable moments for Cal's head coach Diane Ninemire, who earned her 100th and 200th-career wins against the Broncos.
 
Against the Sun Devils, the Bears lead the series 69-60, but have been bested in the last six series. Cal's last victory against ASU was in 2017 in a 3-0 upset, when the Sun Devils were ranked 22nd. The win helped propel the Bears into the playoffs and perhaps so will victories this weekend.
 
Cal takes on SCU at 6 p.m. Wednesday. The ASU series will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks with game 1 at 5 p.m., game 2 at 1 p.m. and game 3 at noon.
 
Bear Business

• Lindsay Rood's 73 hits leads the Pac-12 and ranks second in the nation. She also co-leads the conference with 16 doubles.
• Rood and teammate Destiny Blueford rank fourth in the Pac-12 with four triples, along with a pair from Stanford
• Rood, who was named Pac-12 Player of the Week on March 12 after going 11-for-17 (.647) in Honolulu, currently ranks fourth in the Pac-12 with a .403 batting average. She continues to top the league with 29 steals in as many attempts
• Mikayla Coelho leads the Bears with seven home runs and her 27 walks ties for fifth in conference
• Freshman Makena Smith's 30 RBI lead the Bears, while her .301 batting average is third for Cal
• Cal's wins over No. 22 James Madison (7-2) and No. 24 Notre Dame (7-6) mark the first time the Bears have downed two non-conference top-25 opponents since 2016 when they outlasted No. 18 Kentucky (5-1) and another 24th-ranked Fighting Irish squad (8-7)
• Cal made a historic run from March 1-9 winning seven consecutive five-inning games, believed to be a program record
• Senior ace Kamalani Dung (12-9) holds a 2.19 ERA which ranks eighth in the Pac-12 and has struck out 139 batters, seventh most in the league
• Dung threw a two-hitter shutout against No. 5 Arizona on April 27, throwing seven strikeouts, despite walking as many batters
• Zoe Conley pitched her first no-hitter in a Bear's uniform on March 8 against St. Bonaventure in Honolulu; a 12-0 shutout for the Bears
• Two of Cal's four victories in March came on game-winning yard balls from junior Destiny Blueford (8-7 vs Utah in eight) and sophomore Karlee Sparacino (3-1 vs Sac State in nine)
• The Bears picked up their first victory against the Ducks since 2016, in a 5-3 showing in Eugene on April 20
• In a 1-0, nine-inning victory, Cal ended a 21-game win streak for the then No. 5 Arizona Wildcats, the only team to shutout UA this season so far. It marked the program's first win against UA since 2016 and first shutout since 2012
• Cal's 4-1 win over OSU clipped a 10-game losing streak in conference play beginning on March 23-April 13
• Despite being swept by the No. 1 Bruins, Cal allowed just four runs in the first two games of the series, while UCLA went into the matchup averaging 7.15 runs per outing through the season
• Cal kept the top-ranked Bruins scoreless through 13 innings this series and held them 44 points (.304) under their season average (.348) heading into the weekend. The Bears are the only team to hold the Bruins to one run in a game
• The Bears have done some of their best offensive work under pressure, recording 64 two-out RBIs so far this season, resulting in more than a quarter of their runs

vs. Santa Clara

• The Broncos hold a 12-31 record and are 4-5 in the West Coast Conference
• Junior Eleni Spirakis leads the charge with a .352 batting average, 50 hits and 32 runs
• SCU is coming off a 2-1 series win against Pacific
• Sammy Needham has hit a team-high 13 doubles to go with 18 RBIs and a .307 average

 
vs. Arizona State

• The Sun Devils are 28-17 overall and 8-10 in the Pac-12 sitting in fifth place in the league
• ASU is unranked in the USA Today/NFCA Coaches poll, receiving votes in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll, ranked 25th by Softball America and sit in 27th in the RPI rankings
• Morgan Howe leads the team with a .403 hitting percentage 51 RBI and 22 walks
• ASU shelled out 76 home runs so far this season, compared to Cal's 29

 
For more information on Cal softball, follow the team on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @CalSB.