The final road week of the regular season has arrived for the California baseball team, which visits Pacific in Stockton on Tuesday before making the trip out to Charlottesville, Virginia, to take on No. 23 Virginia in a weekend series that begins Friday.
 
The Golden Bears (24-23, 8-16 ACC) are coming off their second straight ACC series loss, dropping two of three at home to Virginia Tech last weekend but ending a three-game skid with a 9-4 win over the Hokies on Sunday. Cal has been playing shorthanded missing several of their starting fielders, but the pitching staff has done a tremendous job of keeping games close till the end. All three members of this weekend's rotation turned in quality starts and combined for a 3.00 ERA in 18.0 innings pitched.
 
The Tigers (20-25, 12-9 WCC) come into the week below .500 for the year but have been hot as of late winning four straight WCC series including sweeps over LMU and Santa Clara. They outscored the Lions 29-13 in their three wins last weekend.
 
The 23rd-ranked Cavaliers (32-16, 12-12) have been one of the top teams in baseball all season long ranking as high as ninth when they opened the year with a 19-5 record. They boast a 21-6 mark when playing at Disharoon Park having only lost one home series this year to then-ranked No. 7 Florida State.
 
Game Information      
 
At Pacific
·       Date and Time: Tuesday, May 5, at 6 p.m. PT
·       Location: Stockton, California | Klein Family Field
·       Live Stream: ESPN+
·       Live Stats: Statbroadcast
 
At No. 23 Virginia
Game 1
·       Date and Time: Friday, May 8, at 3 p.m. PT/Noon ET
·       Location: Charlottesville, Virginia | Davenport Field at Disharoon Park
·       Live Stream: ACCNX/ESPN+
·       Live Stats: Statbroadcast
 
Game 2
·       Date and Time: Saturday, May 9, at 1 p.m. PT/4 p.m. ET
·       Location: Charlottesville, Virginia | Davenport Field at Disharoon Park
·       Live Stream: ACCNX/ESPN+
·       Live Stats: Statbroadcast
 
Game 3
·       Date and Time: Sunday, May 10, at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET
·       Location: Charlottesville, Virginia | Davenport Field at Disharoon Park
·       Live Stream: ACCNX/ESPN+
·       Live Stats: Statbroadcast
 
Promo Schedule
The 2026 Cal Baseball promotional schedule features several theme days, giveaways and discounts. Single-game tickets can be purchased on CalBears.com.
 
Probable Weekend Starters
Game 1: RHP Oliver de la Torre vs LHP Henry Zatkowski
Game 2: RHP Gavin Eddy vs LHP Kyle Johnson
Game 3: TBA vs TBA
 
Top-50 National/ACC Rankings (As of 4/26)
Double Plays – 17th/2nd – 42
Double Plays Per Game – 20th/2nd – .89
ERA – 36th/4th – 4.33
 
Rotation Remains Hot
Despite only getting one win at Miami, the Cal starting rotation was incredibly effective as it combined for a 2.70 ERA with 15 strikeouts in 20.0 innings. Friday starter Oliver de la Torre allowed just two runs on five hits and a walk in 8.0 innings while striking out seven on a career-high 110 pitches and was given plenty of run support to help secure Cal's third straight series-opening win. Gavin Eddy was equally effective on Saturday with an identical seven Ks in 8.0 innings, as after allowing a three-run homer in the first inning he hung seven straight zeroes on the scoreboard to give his team a fighting chance. He appeared to only get stronger as the game went on, striking out the side in the seventh inning and getting a scoreless eighth as he spun a career-high 120 pitches. Freshman Otto Espinoza was effective in his second straight Sunday start allowing just one run in his four innings of work.
 
During the Virginia Tech series last weekend, the trio of de la Torre, Eddy, and Ethan Foley, who earned the Sunday start, combined for a 3.00 ERA in 18.0 innings. All three Bears turned in quality starts with each going exactly six innings.


Walk-Off Walk
Cal picked up its first extra-inning win of the season last Tuesday to sweep its season series with San Francisco. After tying the game at 3-3 with a run in the ninth inning, the Dons were on the verge of taking the lead in the top of the 10th after putting two runners in scoring position with just one out. Ethan Foley took over on the mound for the Bears in his new bullpen role and did not disappoint, striking out a batter and getting a weak ground ball that third baseman Cade Campbell made a big-league play on to save a run and end the frame. Cal's offense rewarded Foley with his first relief win of the season in the bottom half as it loaded the bases and second baseman Taichi Nakao drew a four-pitch walk to walk it off.
 
Bears > Birds
Cal topped Louisville on April 17-19 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 run-rule wins in the first two games of the series. 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 April 15. 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.
 
11 Straight Ws
The Golden Bears' streak of 11 straight wins that spanned five different opponents from Feb. 21-March 8 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.
 
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).
 
STAY POSTED
For coverage of Cal baseball, please follow the Bears on X (@CalBaseball), Instagram (@CalBaseball) and Facebook (/calbaseball).