The California baseball team will begin its 2026 season on Friday with the opener of a four-game home-and-home series with Santa Clara. Friday and Saturday's games will be played at the Golden Bears' Stu Gordon Stadium, while Sunday and Monday's action will be at the Broncos' Stephen Schott Stadium in Santa Clara.
 
Game Information                                                                                                                                           
Santa Clara
Game 1
·       Date and Time: Friday, Feb. 13, at 6:05 p.m. PT
·       Location: Berkeley, CA | Stu Gordon Stadium
·       Live Stream: ACCNX/ESPN+ (PxP: Roxy Bernstein, Analyst: Jim Darby)
·       Live Stats: Statbroadcast
Game 2
·       Date and Time: Saturday, Feb. 14, at 3:05 p.m. PT
·       Location: Berkeley, CA | Stu Gordon Stadium
·       Live Stream: ACCNX/ESPN+ (PxP: Phillip Hall, Analyst: Jim Darby)
·       Live Stats: Statbroadcast
Game 3
·       Date and Time: Sunday, Feb. 15, at 3 p.m. PT
·       Location: Santa Clara, CA | Stephen Schott Stadium
·       Live Stream: ESPN+
·       Live Stats: Statbroadcast
Game 4
·       Date and Time: Monday, Feb. 16, at 3 p.m. PT
·       Location: Santa Clara, CA | Stephen Schott Stadium
·       Live Stream: ESPN+
·       Live Stats: Statbroadcast
 
Promo Schedule
The 2026 Cal Baseball promotional schedule is now available and features several theme days, giveaways and discounts. Season tickets and single-game tickets can be purchased on CalBears.com.
 
Probable Starters (Cal/SCU)
Game 1: RHP Oliver de la Torre vs RHP Max Bayles
Game 2: RHP Ethan Foley vs RHP Jace Gillmore
Game 3: RHP Gavin Eddy vs TBD
Game 4: TBD vs TBD
 
Series History
The Bears own the all-time record against the Broncos 166-100, but Santa Clara won last year's four-game series 3-1. Before 2025 the two programs hadn't played a true series since 2001.
 
Strong In Season Openers
Cal has won each of its last five season openers starting with the last time the Golden Bears opened the season at home against Pacific in 2021 and followed by wins over Houston (2022, 2023), Kansas State (2024) and Nevada (2025).
 
D1Baseball Preseason Positions List
Three Bears were named to D1Baseball's preseason positions lists with Jacob French checking in as the 13th-ranked second baseman in the nation, which placed him in sixth in the ACC. Third baseman Cade Campbell was ranked 31st nationally and fifth in conference while starting pitcher Oliver de la Torre came in at 97th on the list of 200.
 
The 2026 Roster
This year's team features a lot of new faces with 14 new pitchers and 14 new position players making up over half of the dugout. Eighteen of those 24 first-year Bears are freshman while the others came over through the transfer portal. Cal returns 17 letterwinners from 2025 including 12 pitchers and three starting position players.
 
Second Time Through
This will be Cal's second ACC campaign after joining one of the top conferences in the sport last year. The Bears went 9-21 in conference in 2025 but picked up five national-ranked wins including a 5-0 shutout win over No. 2 Florida State. This year the Bears will face five ACC opponents that were ranked in D1Baseball's preseason top-25 poll including conference favorites No. 5 Georgia Tech and No. 1 North Carolina.
 
Head Coach Mike Neu
Mike Neu is in his ninth season at the helm and has led the Golden Bears to winning campaigns in five of his first seven seasons, excluding the shortened 2020 season. Neu is only the third Cal head coach since 1977 (Bob Milano 1977-99, David Esquer 2000-17, Mike Neu 2018-present).
 
2025 Recap
A young 2025 Cal baseball team came on strong at the end of the campaign by reaching the quarterfinals at the ACC Championship as the Golden Bears knocked off No. 9 and No. 8 seeds Miami and Wake Forest in their first two contests. The performance in Durham capped a strong final month that also included a 5-0 shutout victory over a No. 2 nationally-ranked Florida State squad and a series victory against Boston College. The win over the Seminoles was one of four over ACC teams that reached the NCAA Super Regionals (Duke, Florida State, Louisville, Miami) with the Cardinals also a College World Series participant. In addition, the 2025 campaign featured a 7-2 record on a season-long nine-game road trip that was highlighted by a historic series sweep of then No. 14 Stanford that was Cal's first three-game road sweep of the Cardinal in recorded history. Third-Team All-ACC selection Jacob French (.390) had the team's highest batting average and Cal pitchers spread the wins around with 11 recording at least one victory apiece.
 
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