Winner of six of its last eight games, the California baseball team will test its recent success this week hosting San Francisco on Wednesday before flying to Coral Gables, Florida, to take on Miami in a three-game weekend series that begins Friday. All four contests will be aired on ACCNX.
 
After opening conference play with a 1-11 record, the Golden Bears (20-18, 6-12 ACC) have won five of their last six ACC games sweeping Pitt on the road before taking two of three at home from Louisville last weekend. Cal's schedule has been trying to this point as five of the six teams it has faced so far are either currently ranked, such as No. 2 North Carolina and No. 3 Georgia Tech, or were previously ranked like preseason No. 8 Louisville.
 
The Hurricanes (29-11, 10-8 ACC) will add to that trend as a team that was ranked in early February and is now still receiving votes in several polls. Miami has won its last five series, four of which were ACC matchups.
 
The Dons (19-18, 10-5 WCC) come to Stu Gordon Stadium to face the Bears for the second time in two weeks with Cal winning the first matchup at Benedetti Diamond 8-0. USF has yet to find success on the road this season with a 4-9 away record.
 
Game Information                                                                                                                                           
San Francisco
·       Date and Time: Wednesday, April 22, at 3:05 p.m. PT
·       Location: Berkeley, California | Stu Gordon Stadium
·       Live Stream: ACCNX/ESPN+
·       Live Stats: Statbroadcast
 
Miami
Game 1
·       Date and Time: Friday, April 24, at 4 p.m. PT
·       Location: Coral Gables, Florida | Alex Rodriguez Ball Park at Mark Light Field
·       Live Stream: ACCNX/ESPN+
·       Live Stats: Statbroadcast
 
Game 2
·       Date and Time: Saturday, April 25, at 3 p.m. PT
·       Location: Coral Gables, Florida | Alex Rodriguez Ball Park at Mark Light Field
·       Live Stream: ACCNX/ESPN+
·       Live Stats: Statbroadcast
 
Game 3
·       Date and Time: Sunday, April 26, at 10 a.m. PT
·       Location: Coral Gables, Florida | Alex Rodriguez Ball Park at Mark Light Field
·       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 Starters
San Francisco
Game 1: TBA vs RHP Alan Gonzalez
 
Miami
Game 1: RHP Oliver de la Torre vs LHP Rob Evans
Game 2: RHP Gavin Eddy vs RHP Lazaro Collera
Game 3: TBA vs RHP AJ Ciscar
 
Neu's Return
This weekend will mark head coach Mike Neu's first return to his alma mater, Miami, and Mark Light Stadium, where he played for the Hurricanes from 1997 to 1999. Neu helped lead Miami to a 1999 College World Series title earning three saves in four appearances to earn All-CWS honors. He tossed the final pitch of the season to seal a 6-5 victory over Florida State.
 
Neu and the Bears knocked Miami out of the ACC Championship last season with a 12-2 second-round win, but this will be his first time coaching a series against his former team and his first time coaching at The Light.
 
Bears > Birds
Cal topped Louisville last weekend taking two of three games, all of which were close, competitive contests, to win its second straight ACC series. The Bears' two wins both came in comeback fashion, winning Game 1 8-5 after trailing 4-0 in the fifth inning and taking Game 2 6-5 after going down a run in the second inning. The Cardinals gave Cal a taste of its own medicine coming back from down 4-0 to win Game 3 8-5 and avoid the sweep. First baseman Daniel Murillo led the way offensively slashing .455/.538/1.091 with six RBI. He hit two go-ahead home runs in game two to give him a team-best nine on the season. On the pitching side, righty Gavin Eddy was impressive in his Saturday start tossing eight innings of three-run ball with seven strikeouts to improve to 6-2 this year.
 
Perfect At Pitt
The Bears picked up their first road sweep at Pitt (April 10-12) where they outscored the Panthers 39-9 and picked up two run-rule wins Friday and Sunday. Cal hit .432 as a team while holding Pitt to a .258 average with the Bears' pitching staff posting a 3.52 ERA. It was the Bears' first series win of the year and just their second ACC sweep ever. Six Cal hitters posted batting averages of .429 or better including second baseman Jacob French, who slashed .538/.600/.923 for a 1.523 OPS in his first series back since going down on March 20 in the team's first game at Boston College. The bottom third of the lineup was particularly impressive with Cade Campbell, Ethan Kodama, and Joshua Hanson combining for a .486 batting average and .727 OBP while scoring 17 runs. Cal only used seven pitchers in the whole series with Oliver de la Torre pitching a seven-inning complete game Friday, the first by a Bear this year. He allowed just one run on three hits while striking out four.
 
Midseason Watch Lists
Several Bears were named to the different midseason watch lists last Wednesday. Prather was named to the Midseason Buster Posey Award Watch List as one of the top catchers in the country. Cal's starting shortstop Kenady was named a Perfect Game Midseason Freshman First-Team All-American and to the Baseball America Freshman Player of the Year Watch list. Pitcher Otto Espinoza was named a Perfect Game Midseason Freshman Second-Team All-American.
 
Bears Named To Midseason D1Baseball Position Rankings
After not being ranked during the preseason, both Prather and Kenady were ranked 20th in their positions in the country on D1Baseball's Midseason Top 50 Catchers list. Jacob French checked in as the No. 25 second baseman and Cade Campbell was named the No. 32 third baseman.
 
On the pitching side Gavin Eddy went from unranked to 43rd on the starters list and Oliver de la Torre moved up from 97 on the preseason list to 60. Cole Clark made his debut on the reliever list at No. 47.
 
Top-50 National/ACC Rankings (As of 4/21)
Double Plays – 10th/3rd – 37
Double Plays Per Game – 10th/2nd – 0.97
Doubles Per Game – 46th/3rd – 2.08
ERA – 43rd/6th – 4.45
Home Runs Per Game – 46th/9th – 1.39
 
11 Straight Ws
The Golden Bears streak of 11 straight wins that spanned five different opponents from Feb. 21-March 8 was tied for the second longest win streak in program history. It was the longest streak since 1989 and second only to a 14-game win streak by the 1931 team. The run started with Cal taking the final two games of its road series with UC Irvine, a team that reached an NCAA Regional Final last year, and included a three-game sweep over Sacramento State and a four-game sweep over reigning WCC regular-season champion San Diego. In those 11 games the Bears outscored their opponents 93-33, outhit them .343-.198, hit 21 home runs to their six, and won the team ERA battle 2.20-8.15. Cal's starting rotation had an ERA of 2.21 in 61 innings of work and its bullpen carried a 2.34 ERA in 34.2 innings.
 
San Diego Sweep
Cal swept its four-game series with San Diego with a run differential of 40-13 with the Golden Bears outhitting the Toreros .392 to .208 and winning the team ERA battle 2.06 to 11.08. The Bears' bullpen allowed just one earned run the entire weekend and the starting rotation had an ERA of 2.45 led by freshman Otto Espinoza, who in his first collegiate start went seven full innings and allowed just one run while striking out 10 batters, the most by any Bear this season. A freshman led the way on offense too with shortstop Jett Kenady hitting .467 with a 1.133 slugging percentage. He recorded two home runs, a triple, a double and four RBI and scored seven runs.
 
Sac State Sweep
The Bears earned their second straight series win and first sweep of the year after winning all three games with Sac State from Feb. 27-March 1 in Sacramento. After falling behind 4-0 in Game 1, the Bears used four solo home runs to come back and walk off the Hornets. It was sophomore Jordy Lopez who collected his first career homer in a tie game in the bottom of the ninth to get the series started with a win. From there the tone was set as starting pitchers Ethan Foley and Gavin Eddy went deep into Games 2 and 3 to ensure the Bears could bring out the brooms. Cal's pitching staff had a 1.33 ERA in the series and the offense doubled up the Hornets with a run differential of 16-8. Third baseman Cade Campbell led the Bears with a slash line of .583/.615/1.250 to go with two home runs, two doubles, four RBI and four runs.
 
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 picked up his first win as well, spinning five full scoreless innings with a career-high tying 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 leadoff spot, he had a slugging percentage of 1.154 and only struck out once. He jumped on the very first pitch of the game on all three days, falling just feet short of a home run in Game 1 on Feb. 20, crushing his first collegiate home run to the same part of the field in Game 2 on Feb. 21 and roping a double down the left field line in the Feb. 22 series finale.
 
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, Cal and Santa Clara played a Feb. 14 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 1, 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 2 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 1, who slashed a walk-off double of his own.
 
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.
 
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, respectively, in their first two contests. The performance in Durham, North Carolina, capped a strong final month that also included a 5-0 shutout victory over a No. 2 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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