BERKELEY – California will face UCLA in its first game at the inaugural Pac-12 Baseball Tournament on Wednesday night in Scottsdale, Arizona.
 
As the fourth and final game of the tournament's opening day, first pitch will be 45 minutes following the conclusion of the Washington-Oregon State matchup, which begins at 4:45 p.m. PT. Each tournament game leading up to the championship will be televised on the Pac-12 Network; the title game will be on ESPN2. All contests will be played at Scottsdale Stadium, the Spring Training home of the San Francisco Giants.
 
Sixth-seeded Cal (28-25, 14-16 Pac-12) enters the d­ouble-elimination tournament with a season-best six-game winning streak. The Golden Bears played their way into the tournament picture with a series sweep of Utah on the final weekend of the regular season.
 
WHAT TO KNOW

• Matchup: No. 6 Cal (28-25 14-16 Pac-12) vs. No. 3 UCLA (35-20, 19-11 Pac-12)
• Location: Scottsdale Stadium | Scottsdale, Ariz.
• First Pitch: TBD, approx. 45 minutes following the conclusion of game 3
• Watch: Pac-12 Network (PxP: Roxy Bernstein | Analyst: Kevin Stocker)
• Live Stats: StatBroadcast
• Probable Pitchers: RHP Josh White vs. LHP Josh Hahn

 
QUICK HITS

• Cal is 4-3 in seven games played in Arizona this season, including a 3-1 mark in neutral-site contests. The Bears swept the field – Houston, TCU and San Diego State – at the season-opening MLB4 Tournament at Salt River Fields.
• The Bears lost two of three games in their head-to-head series with UCLA on April 22-24 in Berkeley, but showed how potent their offense can be with nine total home runs. Nathan Martorella and Hance Smith slugged three apiece while Dylan Beavers hit a pair.
• Cal is 6-6 in games played against UCLA under head coach Mike Neu since 2018.
• Cal has outscored its opponents 82-16 during its six-game winning streak. The Bears are batting .388 (88-for-227) as a team in that span and have totaled 67 strikeouts to just 14 walks allowed in 54 innings pitched on the mound.
• Josh White will make his first start on the mound since April 1 in Wednesday's first-round contest against UCLA. White tallied 83 strikeouts during the regular season – good for the fifth most among Pac-12 pitchers – and is 26th nationally with 12.31 strikeouts per nine innings.
• Nathan Martorella is batting .423 (30-for-71) with seven home runs, 21 RBIs and 19 runs scored during his 18-game hitting streak. The streak tied for the longest by a Bear since Lucas Erceg reached 18 consecutive games in 2015. The junior first baseman led all Pac-12 players with a .388 batting average and 47 hits during conference play.
• Dylan Beavers and Keshawn Ogans have reached base safely in 48 and 45 of Cal's 53 games played this season, respectively.
• Steven Zobac has been dominant in his past two starts on the mound, striking out 23 batters across 13 shutout innings. The right-hander is limiting opposing batters to a .228 average against and owns a 3.95 ERA in 57 innings pitched.
• The Bears hit 71 total home runs this season, tied for the second most among Pac-12 teams. Cal was one of four conference teams with three different players to hit at least nine home runs, joining Stanford (4), Oregon (3) and Arizona State (3).

 
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