BERKELEY— Behind tremendous pitching and quality performances from its seniors, the California baseball team defeated Stanford 2-1 on Senior Day at Stu Gordon Stadium. The rubber match and regular-season finale victory gave the Golden Bears the series win and set up a rematch with the Cardinal on Tuesday in the first round of the ACC Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Cal (29-25, 12-18 ACC) finishes the regular season with a program-best 12 ACC wins to secure the 13th seed in the conference tournament. The Cardinal (27-25, 13-17 ACC) could have finished as the eighth seed with a win to get a first-round bye, but instead fell to the 12th seed to continue this weekend series where all three games were decided by one run.
Gavin Eddy got the ball to start in the rubber match and turned in yet another strong performance allowing just one earned run to score on sac fly in the third inning on his fifth straight quality start. He scattered five hits and three walks while striking out five. The sophomore found himself in trouble on multiple occasions but continued to get his way out of the jams, stranding a total of seven Cardinal on the basepath, five of which were in scoring position.
Unfortunately for Eddy, the Cal bats failed to provide him with run support in his outing going scoreless with just four hits through the six innings.
In the bottom of the seventh the Bears got on the board and took the lead for good with one swing of the bat. After center fielder
Ethan Kodama led-off with a double and right fielder
Gannon Snyder laid down a picturesque bunt single, Cal was in business, but Stanford killed that momentum getting an out at the plate for the third time this series to keep the Bears scoreless.
First baseman and graduate student
Daniel Murillo collected a two-out single to load the bases for senior third baseman
Cade Campbell. In his final at-bat at The Stu, Campbell took the first pitch he saw to center field for a two-run single.
Seniors
Cole Clark and
Ethan Foley did the rest, combining for three shutout, one-hit innings. Clark went two full with a strikeout to pick up the win and Foley had a one-two-three ninth inning to pick up his second straight save and fourth of the season.
The Bears have now defeated the Cardinal in five of the last six meetings since both schools joined the ACC but need to make it six-for-seven to keep their NCAA Regional hopes alive when the two rivals meet Tuesday at Truist Field at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET on ESPN2. The winner will go on to face fifth-seeded Miami on Wednesday.
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