Season-Opening Weekend In SoCal
Peter Fukumae

SB2/8/2023 7:42 PM | By: Cal Athletics

Season-Opening Weekend In SoCal

Cal Starts 2023 Campaign With Six Games In Los Angeles And Fullerton

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BERKELEY -- California softball opens the 2023 softball season with a full slate of action, playing six games in three days on the campuses of Loyola Marymount and Cal State Fullerton this weekend.

The Bears have three neutral site games and three road games over the course of the weekend, beginning with the season-opener on Friday, Feb. 10 at 3:30 pm at Smith Field against San Diego, before closing opening day action against host Loyola Marymount at 6 pm.

Cal travels to Fullerton for the rest of the weekend with a tilt against the host Titans opening things up on Saturday, Feb. 11 at 12 noon at Anderson Family Field and finishing with a rematch against San Diego at 5 pm. Play wraps up on Sunday, Feb. 12 with the final two games of the opening weekend, a 9 am first pitch against Utah State and an 11:30 am date with Cal State Fullerton.    

WEEKEND LINEUP
  • Teams: Cal (0-0) vs. USD (0-0) LMU (0-0), CSUF (0-0) and Utah State (0-0)
  • Location: Smith Field, Los Angeles, California; Anderson Family Field, Fullerton, California
  • First pitch: Friday: 3:30 pm PT • 6 pm PT | Saturday: 12 pm PT • 5 pm PT | Sunday: 9 am PT • 11:30 am PT
 HOW TO FOLLOW  QUICK HITS
  • Cal returns four All-Conference players from the 2022 season in First Team honorees Makena Smith (C/INF) and Tatum Anzaldo (SS), Second Team selection Sona Halajian (P/DP) and All-Freshman Team infielder Acacia Anders.
  • Smith earned NFCA Third Team All-America recognition, the first Golden Bear to be named an All-American since 2016. She compiled a .412 batting average a year ago, the fourth-best in the Pac-12.
  • Anzaldo was a table setter at the top of the lineup all season, hitting .383 and leading the team with 74 hits, the second-most in the conference.
  • Halajian, a two-way star, recorded 18 wins in the circle (5th Pac-12) while also tying for the team lead in home runs with 13.
  • The Bears hit 57 home runs as a team in 2022, the third-most in program history and most since the 2013 season (64).
  • Cal's .291 team batting average last season was its seventh-best all-time with the Bears losing just one starter off of that squad.
  • Defensively, Cal was second in the Pac-12 with 20 double plays turned on the season.
  • Cal added four freshmen to the squad who are set to make an impact in their first year at the collegiate level. Tianna Bell (INF/Antioch, Calif.) led the Bears with a .674 batting average and a 1.65 OPS in the fall, followed closely by Elon Butler (INF/San Jose, Calif.), who boasted an average of .562 with a 1.65 OPS. The Bears also have pitcher Ashanti McDade (Denton, Texas) and utility player D'Auna Johnson (Mather, Calif.) added to the mix. 
 
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