STANFORD – The California baseball team (12-10, 4-4 ACC) stayed red hot Saturday with a 13-4 victory over No. 14/23/14 Stanford (15-5, 5-3 ACC) at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond. The win clinched a Golden Bears' road series victory over the Cardinal for the first time since 2014, while Cal will be going for its' first three-game sweep of Stanford at any venue since taking three in a row in Berkeley during the 1992 campaign. The last time Cal has won the first two games of a series between the teams was in 2012. Cal has won four straight against Stanford dating back to the final two meetings of 2024.
Jacob French (4-4, 4 R, 2B, 2 3B, 2 RBI, HBP),
Dominic Smaldino (3-4, 2 R, 2B, HR, 4 RBI, 1 HBP),
Ryan Tayman (3-5, 3 R, 3B, HR, 2 RBI) and
Jarren Advincula (2-5, RBI) each had multiple-hit game and drove in at least one run apiece.
Seth Gwynn (1-3, R, 2B, 2 RBI, SH, SF) also drove in a pair.
Gavin Eddy (2-1) earned the win by scattering three runs (all earned) and six hits with two walks and a career-high eight strikeouts in a 6.2 inning outing that was the longest of his collegiate career. Eddy also threw a career-high 106 pitches.
Cole Clark (2.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 SO) got the final seven outs.
Cal never trailed in the contest and for the second straight game had a big second inning with four runs. Tayman tripled and scored on a fielding error to start the four-run inning. Smaldino delivered the key blow with a two-run double set up by
Seth Gwynn's sacrifice bunt and Advincula plated Smaldino with an RBI single.
The Bears added a pair of runs in the sixth to extend their lead to 6-0 when French was hit by a pitch to start the inning and moved to third on a Gwynn double before both runs scored when Cardinal third baseman Trevor Haskins made a fielding error and a throwing error on
Dominic Smaldino's groundball.
Stanford reached Eddy (2-1) for a run in the fourth inning on a bases loaded fielder's choice but the Cal starter got out of the jam by striking out Tatum Marsh with runners on the corners to end the threat.
Cal came back with three runs in the top of the fifth to go ahead 9-1 with French's first triple of the game driving in two runs and then French scoring on Gwynn's sacrifice fly.
Rintaro Sasaki hit a solo homer for the Cardinal in the bottom of the fifth before Cal came back with two more runs in the sixth on Tayman's 422-foot line drive blast to straight away centerfield to go ahead 11-2.
The Cardinal got its final two runs on solo homers by Haskins in the seventh and Jimmy Nati in the eighth.
Cal finished the scoring with two runs in the ninth when French tripled with one out and scored on Gwynn's RBI groundout before Smaldino outdid Tayman with a 428-foot solo bomb to end the game's scoring.
Charlie Saum (2-4, R) was the only Stanford player with more than one hit.
Stanford starter Christian Lim (2-3) took the loss, allowing nine runs (eight earned) on 10 hits and two hit by pitches.
The series concludes Sunday at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond with the first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m. PT. A live video stream will be available on ACCNX/ESPN+.
MORE NOTES
- Cal won its first ACC series and extended its season-long win streak to three in a row with Cal outscoring its opponents 39-14 in those games
- Cal has won each of its four games against Stanford dating back to the final two meetings of 2024
- Jacob French posted his second straight career-high-tying four-hit game and scored a career-high four runs
- Jacob French has reached base safely in each of his nine plate appearances in the first two games of the Stanford series
- Dominic Smaldino's three hits and four RBI were career highs
- Ryan Tayman's three hits and three runs scored each tied career highs
- Jarren Advincula extended his string of consecutive games reaching base to 17, his hit streak to eight and his multiple-hit games run to five
- Seth Gwynn had one sacrifice fly and one sacrifice hit on a bunt, and he leads the team on the season with six and three, respectively
