BERKELEY – The conversations were brief between Jared Horn and his coaches in the dugout as Saturday night's game unfolded.

There wasn't much need for discussion with the way the Cal right-hander was dealing.

Horn turned in the best start by a Bears pitcher in 2019, firing eight innings of one-run ball and leading Cal to a 6-1 victory over Washington State.

That makes five wins in a row for a team that bashed out four more homers Saturday but, increasingly, has to be feeling good about its pitching as well.

Horn is a big part of that. After missing the first month of the season recovering from an appendectomy, he's posted a 1.96 ERA over five starts since returning. The junior has increased his innings in each of those outings.

It culminated with Saturday's effort, when he surrendered Dillon Plew's homer to lead off the game but then allowed just two base runners as  far as third base after that. He scattered six hits, walked one and struck out two over his career-high eight innings.

"After that first inning, I was just trying to get ahead of guys," Horn said. "I threw my changeup first pitch to a lot of lefties. (Early) contact was probably the reason I went so deep in this game."

Cal's general pitching plan has been to use an "opener" for a short start before handing things over to the bullpen. But Horn, the team's most experienced returning starter, is the one guy Cal's coaching staff rides for as long as he can go in a start.

In Sunday's 1:05 p.m. series finale, the Bears (16-11, 4-4 Pac-12) will go for their second consecutive sweep. They'll send to the mound freshman Grant Holman, who will make his first start since March 9 after being sidelined by a strained lat muscle.

His return, combined with Horn's steady progress, provides a nice boost to Cal's pitching depth.

"We know if we're gonna do what we need to do, we need to pitch well," Bears head coach Mike Neu said. "If we can get him and Grant both going pretty well toward (the end) of the year, we feel good about that."

Cal took the lead for good with two runs in the third, and did the Cougars (7-22, 0-8) in with its power. Andrew Vaughn connected for his team-high 10^th homer, a monster blast that cleared the tall concrete facing well beyond the left field wall. Quentin Selma, Max Flower and Sam Wezniak also went deep.

That was plenty of offense for Horn. And seeing the right-hander succeed on the field means so much to his teammates because of what he's faced off of it. He lost four family members in a tragic car accident in November 2017, casting a pall over his sophomore season.

Before this season even got started for him, he came down with appendicitis the day before the season opener. He's back now, gradually becoming a major factor in Cal's success to this point.

"It means everything to the team. We're all behind him," catcher Korey Lee said. "I've known him for three years, known his family. It's just a great family and  he's a great guy. Just seeing him succeed is a great thing."