PHOENIX – The California baseball team came within 90 feet of erasing a five-run, ninth-inning deficit but ultimately fell to Arizona State 10-9 on Friday night at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.

Trailing 10-5 heading into the ninth inning, the Golden Bears (15-9, 5-6 Pac-12) struck quickly on a walk to Jarren Advincula, a double by Caleb Lomavita and  a three-run home run from Rodney Green Jr., his sixth of the season. Suddenly, Cal was within 10-8 with still nobody out.

The Sun Devils were able to retire the next two batters to reduce the Bears down to their final out, but Max Handron and Jag Burden registered singles and Seth Gwynn followed with a double to left center to score pinch runner Jack Johnson and move Burden to third. But PJ Moutzouridis grounded out to end the game.

Gwynn and Lomavita each finished with four-hit games. Gwynn launched a two-run homer in the fourth that put Cal up 3-2 while Lomavita had three doubles and raised his batting average for the season to .382.

Both teams scored a run in the first inning and after Arizona State went out in front 2-1 in the bottom of the third, Cal immediately answered when Gwynn followed a walk to Alec Ritch with a blast over the left center field wall. The Bears extended their lead to 4-2 in the fifth when Lomavita doubled, Green Jr. was hit by a pitch, the runners advanced a base on a balk and Peyton Schulze followed with a sacrifice fly.

The Sun Devils quickly went back in front but not before Cal right-hander Tyler Stasiowski almost pulled off a memorable relief performance. He entered the game in the bottom of the fifth with the bases loaded and nobody out and promptly struck out the first two batters he faced to keep the baserunners at bay. He then got to a 1-2 count against ASU's Mario Demera, who golfed one over the left field wall for a grand slam.

Schulze's second sacrifice fly of the game cut the deficit to 6-5 in the top of the seventh but the Sun Devils put up four more in the bottom of the frame to establish their 10-5 advantage.

Cal will look to salvage the final game of the three-game series with Arizona State on Sunday at 1 p.m. PT.