BERKELEY – Freshman Elon Butler hit a pair of homers and drove in four runs as the California softball team rallied for a 5-4 win in the rubber match on Sunday to take the series from No. 24 Utah at Levine-Fricke Field.  

The Golden Bears (24-9-1, 6-5-1 Pac-12) got a solo home run from Sophie Medellin and Haylei Archer threw 3.1 shutout innings in relief to earn her eighth win of the season. Ellessa Bonstrom went 3-for-4 to pace the Utes (22-7, 6-3 Pac-12).

Reversing the trend from the first two games of the series, it was Cal which took the early lead after Utah had done so on Friday and Saturday. Mika Lee led off the third inning with a single and after a couple of outs and a walk, Butler stepped up to the plate and crushed her fifth long ball of the year, a 3-run shot that stayed just fair down the left field line to make it 3-0 Bears.

The Utes wouldn't go down without a fight as they used three doubles and a single in the fourth to put four runs on the board and force Cal to go to the bullpen for Anna Reimers and Archer in place of starter Annabel Teperson. Reimers gave up the fourth hit, a two-run double, but got the next two batters before Archer got the final out of the frame with a groundout.

Medellin had Cal's answer in the home half of the inning with a moonshot to dead center field for her eighth homer of the season, making it a 4-4 game after four. Archer worked around a couple of hits in the next two Utah innings before Butler blasted the game-winning no-doubt bomb to the bleachers in left field in the Bears' sixth.

Bonstrom recorded her third hit of the day with two down in the seventh but Archer got a flyout to right to end the game.

UP NEXT
Cal travels to Seattle for a three-game set with Washington April 6-8 at the Husky Softball Stadium.      

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