After a successful first road series last weekend at UC Irvine, the California baseball team is back in Northern California for a five-game week that features three games at Stu Gordon Stadium. The Golden Bears (4-3) will play a two-game home-and-home series with UC Davis (3-4) on Tuesday and Wednesday, before playing a three-game split weekend series with Sacramento State (3-4).
 
Cal comes into the week on a two-game win streak, having won the final two games of its three-game set with the Anteaters. The Aggies ride a two-game win streak of their own, having won their road series at Santa Clara, and have been victorious in three of their last four contests. The Hornets won three of their four games with Saint Joseph's last weekend, including a 21-2 victory on Sunday, and will play Pacific on Wednesday before making the trip down to Berkeley.
 
Game Information                                                                                                                                           
UC Davis
Game 1
·       Date and Time: Tuesday, Feb. 24, at 6:05 p.m. PT
·       Location: Berkeley, CA | Evans Diamond at Stu Gordon Stadium
·       Live Stream: ACCNX/ESPN+
·       Live Stats: Statbroadcast
Game 2
·       Date and Time: Wednesday, Feb. 25, at 6 p.m. PT
·       Location: Berkeley, CA | Phil Swimley Field at Dobbins Stadium
·       Live Stream: ESPN+
·       Live Stats: Statbroadcast
 
Sacramento State
Game 1
·       Date and Time: Friday, Feb. 27, at 6 p.m. PT
·       Location: Berkeley, CA | Evans Diamond at Stu Gordon Stadium
·       Live Stream: ACCNX/ESPN+
·       Live Stats: Statbroadcast
Game 2
·       Date and Time: Saturday, Feb. 28, at 2 p.m. PT
·       Location: Sacramento, CA | John Smith Field
·       Live Stream: WAC International
·       Live Stats: Statbroadcast
Game 3
·       Date and Time: Sunday, March 1, at 1 p.m. PT
·       Location: Berkeley, CA | Evans Diamond at Stu Gordon Stadium
·       Live Stream: ACCNX/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 Weekend Starters (Cal/Sacramento State)
Game 1: RHP Oliver de la Torre (0-2) vs RHP Ethan Lay (0-0)
Game 2: RHP Ethan Foley (1-0) vs RHP Kurt Marton (1-0)
Game 3: RHP Gavin Eddy (1-0) vs RHP Carson Timothy (0-0)
 
Rotation + Prather Lead Bears To Series Win
Cal's 2-1 road series win over UC Irvine, a team that was receiving votes in multiple polls, was heavily influenced by its starting rotation and its new starting catcher, Hideki Prather. The weekend rotation of Oliver de la Torre, Ethan Foley and Gavin Eddy combined for 14 innings and allowed just four runs (2.57 ERA), two walks, and a .241 batting average to the Anteaters while striking out 14. Foley earned his first win of the season with five innings of two-run ball and Eddy earned his first win as well, spinning five-full scoreless innings with a career-hight ying eight strikeouts.
 
Prather, who had four collegiate plate appearances to his name at Clemson, emerged as one of the top bats in the lineup for the Bears. In addition to catching all three games, the junior went 6-for-13 (.461) with two home runs, three doubles, five runs and four RBI at the plate. In the lead-off spot he had a slugging percentage of 1.154 and only struck out once. He jumped on the very first pitch of the ballgame on all three days, falling just feet short of a home run on Friday, crushing his first collegiate home run to the same part of the field Saturday and roping a double down the left-field line on Sunday.
 
New Bear Production
Much of Cal's success so far this season can be attributed to its freshmen and new transfers as that group has combined for 37 of the Bears' 58 hits, scored 21 of their 33 runs, and hit 14 of their 17 doubles. On the mound, the newcomers accounted for 20 of the team's 32 innings pitched in relief, with seven Bear arms making their collegiate debuts opening weekend. Freshman Otto Espinoza leads that group, ranking second on the team with nine strikeouts in eight innings of work and has only allowed one earned run for a 1.13 ERA.
 
Walk-Off Déjà Vu
The Bears' first two wins of the season both came in walk-off fashion on the same day. Due to an inclement weather forecast last weekend, Cal and Santa Clara decided to play a Saturday doubleheader, which boded well for the Bears as they collected two come-from-behind wins. Trailing 4-1 in the bottom of the fifth inning of game one, the Bears put up a two-spot and scored a single run in the eighth to tie the game at 4-4 before junior transfer Hideki Prather roped a walk-off double in the bottom of the ninth to give his new team its first win of the season. Cal trailed early once again in game two but found itself tied 3-3 in the bottom of the ninth. This time it was graduate transfer Daniel Murillo, who scored the game-winning run in game one, that slashed a walk-off double of his own.
 
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 and 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 several 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 freshmen 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 nationally-ranked wins, including a 5-0 shutout 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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