BERKELEY – Cal scored three runs in the seventh to tie the game at four apiece before No. 23 Oregon pulled away for good, scoring on a throwing error in the eighth to win game one 5-4 on Friday night at Stu Gordon Stadium.
 
Cal (17-17, 5-14 Pac-12) finished the evening with four runs on seven hits and two errors. The last error proved to be costly. Max Handron and Nathan Manning both finished with multiple hits on the evening. Handron was 2-for-4 with an RBI. Manning was 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles, a run scored, and an RBI. Peyton Schulze, Carson Crawford and Dom Souto had the other hits for the Golden Bears.
 
Oregon (25-11, 10-6 Pac-12) scored five runs on eight hits. Colby Shade was 2-for-5 with two runs scored and two runs driven in. He had two legs of the cycle, hitting a triple in the third and a home run in the fifth. Tanner Smith also had a solo home run. Drew Cowley was 2for=4 with a run scored and an RBI.
 
The difference this evening was two-out at-bats. Cal was 2-for-10 with two outs, the Ducks were 4-for-14, with three of their five runs coming with two outs on the board.
 
In the top of the eighth, Tyler Stasiowski (0-1) came in to pitch for the Bears. After getting a fly out to begin the frame, the Ducks got two runners aboard. Austin Turkington came in to pitch in relief of Stasiowski with two on and one away. He quickly got the second out of the inning, striking Smith. With two outs, a ground ball back up the middle was fielded by Crawford, but the throw pulled Schulze off the bag, Cowley scored from second on the play to give the Ducks a 5-4 advantage.
 
Josh Mollerus, who entered the game in the eighth, closed out the game getting Caleb Lomavita to strike out. It was the seventh save of the year or Mollerus.  The win went to Matt Dallas (5-1) who came into the game in the top of the seventh and got the final two outs of the inning for the Ducks.
 
Oregon starter Jace Stoffal was in total control until the seventh inning. After giving up two hits and a run in the bottom of the second he stymied the Bears for four innings, pitching around a trio of walks. The wheels came off in the bottom of the seventh when the Bears roughed him up for three runs on four hits. His final line was 6.1 innings, allowing six hits, and four runs (all earned), with three walks and five strikeouts.
 
Crawford led off the three-run seventh with a single through the left side. Manning doubled down the right field line to score Crawford all the way from first. Souto singled through the left side on a hard-hit ground ball to score Manning. Handron followed that up with a single the other way, which allowed Souto to score all the way from second to briefly tie the game.
 
In the bottom of the second inning, the Bears broke a scoreless tie.  Schulze reached with an infield single with one out. Manning was inches away from hitting a two-run home run the opposite way. A great play by Oregon's left fielder Tanner Smith brought the ball back over the fence but could not complete the catch giving Manning a standup RBI double.
 
A trio of two-out hits in the third gave the Ducks the lead. With two strikes, Rikuu Nishida started the rally with a single to left field. He came around to score on the RBI triple by Shade. Shade scored the go-ahead run on a single by Cowley.
 
Christian Becerra got the start for the Bears on Friday evening. He battled through six innings, allowing seven hits, four runs, with no walks and four strikeouts.
 
UP NEXT
Game two of this three-game series will resume tomorrow afternoon at 2:05 p.m. Saturday's game between the Bears and Ducks will be streamed on Cal Livestream-2.
 
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