BERKELEY – The California baseball team (16-15, 6-9 ACC) battled No. 6 Clemson (30-5, 9-3 ACC) down to the wire Sunday before the Tigers prevailed with a 4-3 victory at Stu Gordon Stadium to complete a three-game ACC series sweep of the Golden Bears.

Cal trailed 3-1 before scoring twice in the bottom of fhe sixth inning on a wild pitch and an RBI single from Max Handron that plated Jacob French to tie the score at 3-3 but Clemson answered with a run in the top of the seventh on Luke Gaffney's sacrifice fly and kept the Bears off the scoreboard over the final three innings.

Handron also led off the bottom of the ninth with an infield single and pinch-runner Elijah Clayton moved to second on pinch-hitter Ethan Kodama's sacrifice bunt to give the Bears a runner at second base with one out.
Lucas Mahlstedt struck out Seth Gwynn on a 3-2 pitch for the second out before Jarren Advincula drew a walk to put the winning run on first but Mahlstedt closed out his 11th save of the season by getting Alex Birge to pop out to shortstop Andrew Ciufo on the second pitch for the game's final out.

Handron (2-4, RBI) and Cade Campbell (2-4, 2B) had two hits each for the Bears and were the only players for either team with multiple-hit games, while Birge hit a solo shot in the first inning for his eighth homer of the season to share the team lead.

Tristan Bissetta had a two-run homer as a pinch-hitter to get the Tigers on the board in fourth, while Clemson also scored once in the fifth when Cam Cannarella drew a two-out walk, stole second and scored on Gaffney's RBI single.

Drew Titsworth (1.2 IP, 2 H, 3 SO, 1 WP) was credited with the victory as the first of three Tigers who pitched in relief of starter B.J. Bailey (5.1 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 SO). Reed Garris (1.0 IP, 1 H, 1 SO) pitched a scoreless eighth before Mahlstedt (1.0 IP, 1 BB, 1 SO) worked the ninth.

Cole Tremain (2.1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO, 2 HBP) took the loss as the first of three Cal pitchers to relieve starter Oliver de la Torre (5.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, career-high-tying 8 SO, 1 WP). Tremain entered the game to start the top of the sixth with Cal trailing 3-1 and left with the Bears down 4-3 with one out in the top of the eighth. Tremain allowed a pair of base runners in the sixth before getting out of the inning without allowing a run then gave up the eventual winning run in the seventh without the Tigers getting a hit. Jarren Purify was hit by a pitch, stole second, moved to third on a groundout and scored on a sacrifice fly by Gaffney.

The Bears were swept in a three-game series for fhe first time in just shy of a calendar year when Arizona took all three games of a Pac-12 series in Berkeley (April 5-7, 2024).

Cal returns to Stu Gordon Stadium for a non-conference game against Pacific on Monday (6 pm PT). A live stream will be available on ACCNX/ESPN+.

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