IRVINE— The California baseball team picked up its first series win of the season Sunday, defeating UC Irvine 4-2 on the road at Anteater Ballpark in Irvine.
The rubber-match win saw the Golden Bears improve to 4-3 on the season while the host Anteaters suffered their second straight loss to fall to 5-2.
For the third time this weekend, catcher
Hideki Prather jumped on the very first pitch of the game, and just as he did Saturday, collected an extra base hit that led to a Cal lead. Prather doubled down the left line and was later driven in on an RBI groundout by designated hitter
Daniel Murillo.
Prather ended the series 6-for-13 (.461) with two home runs, three doubles, five runs and four RBI. The junior transfer had a slugging percentage of 1.154 and only struck out once.
For the second straight game the Bears got a tremendous outing by their starting pitcher as
Gavin Eddy (1-0) tossed five innings of scoreless ball while striking out a career-high tying eight batters. He scattered five hits and did not allow a walk.
Déjà vu struck in the top of the third inning, with Murillo driving in Prather on an RBI single to double the lead. Murillo struck again in the fifth with his third RBI of the game, bringing in left fielder
Ethan Kodama on another timely two-out single.
Cal extended its lead to 4-0, scoring its final run of the series on an error by the UC Irvine pitcher.
It wasn't until the seventh inning that the Anteaters got on the board and broke a 10-inning scoreless drought that dated back to yesterday's game. UC Irvine got a single run in the eighth to cut the lead to 4-2 and put the winning run on the base paths in the ninth inning, but the Bears' bullpen held strong to preserve the win.
Two Cal relievers entered in high-leverage situations and got the Bears out of the jam to keep their team ahead. Senior right-hander
Cole Clark took the mound in the sixth with runners on first and second and no outs and kept UC Irvine scoreless, getting three outs on seven pitches via a double play and a strike out. Clark pitched 2.0 innings and allowed just one run on no hits and two walks while striking out two.
Freshman righty
Take Kreis entered in a similar situation in the eighth with no outs and runners on the corners and three big outs, including a strikeout on a full count to end the inning and strand an Anteater in scoring position.
In the ninth, Kreis loaded the bases on a hit and two walks but left them that way to end the game, getting a huge strikeout and a game-ending groundout to earn his first career save.
Cal now heads home for a full week of action playing home-and-home series with both UC Davis and Sacramento State. Cal hosts the Aggies Tuesday night and heads to Davis on Wednesday before hosting the Hornets on Friday and Sunday with a Saturday trip to Sacramento in the middle.
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