LOUISVILLE – No. 18 Louisville (20-7, 5-4 ACC) was a 13-6 winner over the California baseball team (15-12, 6-6 ACC) on Sunday in the rubber match of a three-game ACC series at Jim Patterson Stadium. The Golden Bears never led in the contest but did get the tying run to the plate with two outs in the top of the eighth before Dominic Smaldino grounded out to Cardinals' second baseman Kamau Neighbors to leave the bases full of Bears.

Smaldino (2-5, HR, 2 RBI) hit his sixth home run of the season with a two-run shot in the fifth and was one of four Cal players with two or more hits. Alex Birge (2-3, R, 2B, 2 RBI, 2 BB), Jacob French (2-4, 2 R, HR, RBI, BB) and Jarren Advincula (2-4, R, BB) were the others.

Advincula extended both his season-best reaching base safely (21) and hitting (12) streaks.

Tagger Tyson (3-5, R, HR, 4 RBI), Garret Pike (3-4, 2 R, 2B, 3 RBI), Eddie King Jr. (2-3, 2 R, HR, 2 RBI) and Lucas Moore (2-4, 2 R, BB, SB) had multiple-hit games for the Cardinals with Tyson and King Jr. going deep.

Reliever Ty Starke (1.1 IP, 2 H, 2 K, 1 WP) was credited with the win as the most effective of seven Cardinals' pitchers for his first decision of the season, while Cal starter Ethan Foley (3.0 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO, 1 HBP) suffered the loss to fall to 2-2.

Louisville started the scoring in the bottom of the first inning with a single run on a sacrifice fly by Pike before Cal pulled even for the only time at 1-1 when Birge singled home Advincula in the top of the third.

Louisville took the lead for good by answering with a pair of runs in the bottom of the third on a Zion Rose sacrifice fly and an RBI single from Pike.

Cal got one run back on a solo homer by French in the top of the fourth but fell behind 7-2 when the Cardinals answered with four runs in their half of the fourth an RBI double from Tague Davis and a three-run long ball from Tyson.

Both teams scored twice in the fifth with Smaldino's two-run blast accounting for both Bears' runs and the Cardinals getting both of their runs on a two-run homer by King Jr.

Louisville added a run in the bottom of the seventh on a two-out RBI single by Tyson before the Bears' had their best chance in the top of the eighth when they loaded the bases with one on a French single, a Seth Gwynn hit by pitch and a Max Handron walk. French would score on a wild pitch and the Bears got another run to get within 10-6 after Advincula and Birge drew back-to-back walks before Louisville reliever Brandin Crawford came on to retire Smaldino.

The Cardinals tacked on three insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth with the first on an RBI double from Pike before the final two runs scored on a balk and an RBI groundout.

The Bears could muster only a two-out walk by French in the top of the ninth before the three-hour and 58-minute game came to a close.

Cal concludes its current season-long nine game road trip with a nonconference contest at Sacramento State on Tuesday (6 pm PT) before welcoming No. 6/4/7 Clemson to Stu Gordon Stadium in Berkeley for a three-game ACC series next Friday-Sunday (6/2/1 pm). The road game against the Hornets will be streamed live on ESPN+, while live streams of all three home contests against the Tigers will be available on ACCNX/ESPN+.
 
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