BERKELEY – The California baseball team wraps up its season-long seven-game road trip this weekend when it travels to Southern California for a three-game series against USC. All three games will be played at Great Park in Irvine, and will be live streamed.
 
Cal (26-16, 12-12 Pac-12) wrapped up an impressive April with an overall record of 11-6, including a 7-5 mark in conference play. The Golden Bears are 2-2 in their current road trip after defeating Stanford 7-4 in the series finale last Sunday on the Farm.
 
USC (21-23, 11-9) is coming off a series loss at the hands of Arizona State in Tempe last weekend. The Trojans took the finale in convincing fashion, 11-6, scoring six runs early. The Trojans are 12-8 at home this year – which  has been all over the Los Angeles area, as USC is remodeling Dedeaux Field this season.
 
HOW TO FOLLOW

• Friday, May 3, 6:30 p.m.: USC Live Stream | CalBears.com
• Saturday, May 4, 2 p.m.: USC Live Stream | CalBears.com
• Sunday, May 5, 12 p.m.: USC Live Stream | CalBears.com

 
QUICK HITS
 

• Cal is 2-2 on the current road trip and 8-7 on the road overall. The Bears are hitting .312 and averaging 8.1 runs per game on the road. Jarren Advincula leads the team with a .391 average (25 for 64) in road games. Cal has turned to Andres Galan (0.96 ERA), Tyler Stasiowski (2.16), Austin Turkington (2.45) and Oliver Boone (2.57) – all of which have an ERA under 3.00 in road games – as regular pitchers.
• The Bears had three of the Pac-12's hottest hitters during the month of April. Peyton Schulze and Jarren Advincula both ranked in the conference's top 15 of batting average, with Rodney Green Jr. just outside the top 15. Schulze led the team with a .378 average, while Advincula hit .370. Green Jr. saw his overall batting average climb to .260 after hitting .322 in April.
• The Bears' three-game sweep over then No. 5-ranked Oregon State continues to be a bright spot. Through April 30th, Cal's 5-2 mark against Quad 1 of the latest RPI tops the Pac-12. Only Arizona (5-7) and USC (5-6) have as many wins against Quad 1 opponents as the Bears.
• The Bears are 11-14 against teams in the top 100 of the RPI and have a chance to reach .500 this weekend when they face USC, which is ranked 93 in the latest RPI.
• Freshman pitcher Trey Newmann extended his impressive run with a win over Stanford last Sunday. Newmann is 3-0 over his last three appearances with wins over Washington State, Oregon State and Stanford. During that stretch he has a 4.02 ERA in 15.2 innings pitched, he has struck out 23 to just four walks and has held opponents to a .193 average.
• Freshman 50: Freshman middle infielders Jarren Advincula and PJ Moutzouridis are two of the top-hitting freshman in the country with 57 and 51 hits, respectively The next closest Pac-12 freshman is UCLA's Roch Cholowsky with 45.
  • Advincula is three hits shy of cracking Cal's top 10 for hits in a single season by a freshman. Tenth is currently held by Lance Blakenship and Jeff Kobermus, with 60.
  • Moutzouridis is second on the team with 17 mulit-hit games – he has 11 2-hit games and six 3-hit games.
• Advincula has struck out just 14 times this season. He leads the Pac-12 and is 24^th in the nation as the toughest player to strikeout, doing so only every 11.6 at bats.
• In the win over the Cardinal on Sunday, Peyton Schulze slugged the Bears' 65th home run of the season. The 65 home runs are tied for 10^th most in a single season in program history. Under Mike Neu, the Bears have finished in the program's top-10 for home runs four times.
  • 2023 – 85 -second
  • 2019 – 81 – third
  • 2022 – 75 – tied for fifth
  • 2024 – 65 – tied for 10^th

 
SERIES HISTORY
 

• Friday will be the 396th time the Bears and Trojans have squared off. The series dates back to 1923 with USC owning a 238-154-2 advantage. USC took two of three from the Bears last season on a rainy weekend at Stu Gordon Stadium. After Cal won game two, 8-7, in 10 innings, the Trojans took the rubber match, 6-3. Connor Sullivan took the rubber-match loss despite tossing 5.1 strong innings, while Max Handron went 2-for-3 with an RBI. 

 
UP NEXT 

• The Bears wrap up the 2024 regular season with a season-long seven-game home stand, beginning with a three-game nonconference series against South Bay rival San Jose State that starts on May 10 at 6:05 p.m. All three games against the Spartans will be televised on Pac-12 Bay Area.

 
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