BERKELEY— Fueled by a two-homer day from
Hideki Prather and a quality start by
Ethan Foley, the California baseball team defeated Virginia Tech 9-4 Sunday at Stu Gordon Stadium.
For the first time this weekend Cal (24-23, 8-16 ACC) jumped out to a lead with a five-spot on four hits in the second inning. After a lead-off single by
Carl Schmidt and a walk by
Kalen Applefield,
Brady Errecart stepped to the plate with the bunt sign on. After failing to get one down the freshman pulled his bat back with two strikes and kept his career weekend going with an RBI single to drive in his first collegiate run.
Ethan Kodama was next, dropping down an RBI sac-bunt before Prather crushed his first home run of the day to left field, a three-run shot that gave Cal a 5-0 lead.
After giving up a two-run home run in the third inning Foley (4-3) struck out four straight batters and hung a zero in the fourth enroute to Cal's third quality start of the series. The senior ended with three earned runs in 6.0 innings pitched in the win and scattered seven hits and a walk while striking out seven.
In the bottom of the fourth, nine-hole hitter
Gannon Snyder turned the lineup over with a two-out, four-pitch walk to bring Prather up to the plate. The catcher wasted no time taking the first pitch he saw to deep left field to make it a 7-2 ball game with five RBI coming off the junior's bat. Prather is now tied with
Daniel Murillo for the team lead in home runs at 10.
The Hokies (25-21, 13-14) punched back with a run in the fifth and had a good opportunity to tack on another in the sixth but saw the inning end on a spectacular outfield assist by
Kalen Applefield. The sophomore fielded a ball in shallow right field and gunned down a runner trying to go from first to third on the fly.
Freshman right hander
Otto Espinoza took over for the Bears in the seventh and did not disappoint in his ninth relief appearance of the season with 2.2 innings of one-hit, one-run ball to preserve Cal's lead. Fellow freshman
Cade Colombara would be called upon to get the final out of the series and did so on a strikeout.
In the bottom of the eighth Schmidt led off with a walk drawn on a full count and
Taichi Nakao stepped to the plate in a pinch-hitting opportunity. Deja-vu struck the Hokies' defense as after Nakao could not lay down a bunt he pulled the bat back and singled up the middle on an 0-2 count. Two at-bats later Kodama drove in Nakao on an RBI single and Cal's ninth and final run came around to score on an error by VT.
Virginia Tech led off the top of the ninth with a long fly ball that was heading for the wall but Snyder, who had just been moved to right field, kept the ball in the park robbing what would've been a momentum-building solo shot. Despite the wind getting knocked out of their sails, the Hokies played to the final out loading the bases with two gone but only got one across to make the final score 9-4.
Errecart, who picked up his first career hit Friday, his first extra-base hit Saturday and first RBI today, wrapped up a solid series going 2-for-4 with a pair of runs in the finale. The freshman made the absolute most of his opportunity helping the short-handed Bears this weekend with five hits, four runs and two stolen bases. He had at least one hit and one run in all three games.
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