BERKELEY – Trailing 8-1 in the seventh inning, California's bats awoke with six runs over the final three frames before ultimately falling short to No. 9 Stanford, 8-7, at Stu Gordon Stadium on Thursday.

Cal (12-13, 3-10 Pac-12) finished the series opener with nine hits, three of which were home runs by Carson Crawford, Caleb Lomavita and Tucker Bougie in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, respectively.

The late comeback was made possible by a tremendous pitching effort by freshman Robert Aivazian, who threw a career-best five innings in relief to keep Cal in the contest. The Cardinal (19-7, 8-2), which also finished with nine hits, jumped ahead 5-0 in the top of the second inning with a trio of home runs against Cal starter Daniel Colwell (1-3). Stanford starter Quinn Matthews (4-2) was dominant, striking out a career-high 13 batters while holding the Golden Bears to five hits over seven frames.
 
The drama began with a solo home run by Crawford off of Matthews in the seventh. Two more runs came off the bat of Lomavita's sixth home run of the season. In the top of the ninth, Cal still trailed 8-4. Crawford led off the inning by drawing a walk, the third time he reached safely on Thursday. Nico Button slapped a ball away the defensive shift to put two on for Bougie with no outs. Bougie fell behind 1-2 before smashing a ball the opposite way for his first career home run, a three-run blast off of reliever Brandt Pencer.
 
With no one out, Rodney Green Jr. reached safely on an error by Cardinal first baseman Carter Graham. Green Jr. then stole second base, his 17th of the year, to move into scoring position. Dom Souto struck out swinging to bring up Lomavita who was walked intentionally. Peyton Schulze drew a walk to load the bases after falling behind for Kade Kretzschmar. That's where the rally ended, as Kretschmar hit a laser right at the second baseman for a 4-6-3 game-ending double play.
 
Aivazian went five complete, allowing four hits, three runs, a walk, and four strikeouts in his best outing of the season. Tyler Stasiowski also had a quality outing coming out of the bullpen, tossing two complete, while allowing just one walk while striking out three.
 
Lomavita went 3-for-4 with two runs scored, a double, and two RBI. Schulze also had an RBI. Crawford extended his reached safely streak to 17 games.
 
UP NEXT
Game two of the three-game series is slated for a 7:05 PM first pitch on Friday. The contest will be televised on Pac-12 Bay Area with Guy Haberman on the call.
 
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