WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.— The California baseball team dropped a pair of games to open its series at Wake Forest on Saturday. Game one, which began last night and was suspended due to rain, resumed in the seventh inning this afternoon and ended in a 9-5 loss. The Golden Bears then dropped game two of the series 4-1.
 
Cal's losing streak has now grown to double digits as it fell to 13-13 overall with a 0-8 ACC record. The Bears dropped to .500 for the first time since Feb. 21 while Wake Forest improved to 20-7 with a 6-5 conference mark.
 
Game 1
Cal got its second straight ACC east-coast road series off to a great start with a three-homer first inning. Catcher Hideki Prather took the first pitch of the ballgame deep over the left field wall for his team-leading seventh home run of the season.
 
Freshman Lawson Olmstead was next, extending his hit streak to eight games with a two-run homer and on the very next pitch thrown, third baseman Cade Campbell sent a solo shot to the opposite field to give the Bears a 4-0 lead.
 
Junior Oliver de la Torre was tremendous on the mound for Cal throwing a career-high 6.1 innings and tying his career-high with nine strikeouts. The junior allowed just one earned on four hits and did not issue a single walk.
 
After allowing his sole earned run of the game in the second inning, de la Torre hung three straight zeros, retiring 11 of the next 12 batters he faced. The only WF batter to reach during that streak did so via an error.
 
Unfortunately de la Torre would not make it out of the sixth as three Golden Bear errors led to three Deacon runs which cut the lead to 5-4. Senior Cole Clark entered in relief with two runners on as rain started to pour and got two huge outs including one via a punchout.
 
Following that out the game was suspended for the rest of the night due to rain and was picked up in the top of the seventh inning Saturday afternoon.
 
When play resumed Clark took the mound again and after retiring the Deacons in order exited in the 8th after allowing a pair of singles and a sacrifice bunt that put both runners into scoring position. Freshman Otto Espinoza took the mound but could not hold the lead allowing a two-run double that gave Wake Forest the late 6-5 lead. Three unearned runs would score after the Bears committed their fifth error of the game to make the final score 9-5.
 
Game 2 
For the first time in five games the Bears were not the first to score as Wake Forest collected a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the first to go up 2-0.
 
Senior Ethan Foley had his shortest outing since opening weekend but was effective in his 4.2 innings of work allowing just two earned runs in the fifth inning.
 
Cal avoided its first shutout of the season, scoring its sole run of the game on an RBI single from Carl Schmidt in the seventh inning.
 
Four relievers made appearances for the Bears and combined to allow just one hit and a walk in 3.1 scoreless innings.
 
Ryan Spaillero has his third straight scoreless outing out of the pen allowing just a hit and a walk while striking out a pair in 1.1 innings of work. Quinn Larson picked up a pair of K's of his own in his one inning on the mound.
 
Cal brought the tying run to the plate in the top of the ninth but was unable to convert.
 
The Bears and Deacs are back at The Couch for game three tomorrow at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET on ACCNX.
 
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