January 28, 1997
Bears Travel To Hawaii For Three-Game Series At Rainbow Stadium
The Schedule: The Bears (0-0, ranked 25th in Baseball America and 30th in Collegiate Baseball preseason poll) travel to Hawaii (1-6) for a three-game series at Rainbow Stadium...
Day Date Opponent Site Time
Thu Jan. 30 at Hawaii Rainbow Stadium, Honolulu, HI 7:05 p.m. HST
Fri Jan. 31 at Hawaii Rainbow Stadium, Honolulu, HI 7:05 p.m. HST
Sat Feb. 1 at Hawaii Rainbow Stadium, Honolulu, HI 6:35 p.m. HST
Series Record: The Bears have a 19-21-1 overall series record against the Hawaii Rainbows...last season, Cal was swept by Hawaii (6-5, 12-6, 7-3) Feb. 16-18 at Rainbow Stadium...
Head Coach Bob Milano: The Bears skipper, who is in his 20th season at Cal, has a career record of 618-543-4 (.532)...Milano is the all-time winningest coach at Cal in terms of total victories, having passed Clint Evans (547-256 from 1930-54) Mar. 19, 1994 vs. Arizona (15-6)...he earned his 600th career win Feb. 24 with the Bears 5-3 victory over Fresno State...Milano has led Cal to six NCAA Regional berths ('80, '85, '88, '91, '92, '95) and three College World Series appearances ('80, '88, '92)...he was named Pac-10 South Co-Coach of the Year in 1980 and 1992...Milano will serve as the head coach of 1997 USA Baseball Team that will compete in the Intercontinental Cup, August 1-10 in Barcelona, Spain...
Bear Notes: The '97 Bears (27-29, 10-20, fifth in the Pac-10 Southern Division in 1996) are ranked 25th in Baseball America's preseason poll and are picked to finish fifth in the Pac-10 Southern Division, yet still qualify for an NCAA Regional...Baseball America has four Six-Pac teams ranked in the Top 10 with Stanford picked No. 1, USC No. 3, UCLA No. 5 and Arizona State No. 7...sophomore right-hander Ryan Drese (Oakland, CA) is a first team preseason All-American in Baseball America and sophomore right-hander Tyler Walker (Ross, CA) is mentioned as the top rated amauter baseball player in the nation according to the Major League Scouting Bureau...last year Drese threw a near no-hitter Feb. 10 versus Long Beach State (8.0 innings, two unearned runs, five walks, four strikeouts), before suffering strained ligaments in his right elbow Feb. 23 versus Fresno State that knocked him out for the rest of the '96 season...Walker, who began his Cal career as a catcher, was 2-1 with a save and a 3.58 ERA as a redshirt freshman last year and was selected the Top Professional Prospect at the National Baseball Congress World Series last summer...Baseball America also lists sophomore shortstop Brian Oliver (Antioch, CA) and senior second baseman Ivan Lewis (Berkeley, CA) as conference Players to Watch...Oliver is a third team preseason All-American in Collegiate Baseball and last year he became the first Freshman All-American (selected in both Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball) in Cal baseball history...Lewis is the two-time Pac-10 stolen base champ and has 96 career stolen bases, fifth on the Cal all-time career stolen base list...Cal is picked 30th in Collegiate Baseball preseason poll and lists Oliver, Lewis, Drese and Walker as Players to Watch...both Oliver and sophomore catcher Jason Hill (Alamo, CA) were selected as one of 66 players to join Bear coach Bob Milano at the Team USA Baseball Tryouts, Jan. 9-12 at Legends Field in Tampa, FL...Oliver finished the trials batting .556 (5-for-9) with a double and an RBI...Hill was 1-for-7 with a run scored...the 1997 Cal baseball team features two sets of twins--redshirt freshmen Adam and Sam Petke (Mission Viejo, CA) and true freshmen Curtis and Kevin Johnson (Oakland, CA)...
Hawaii: The Hawaii Rainbows, coached by Les Murakami (27th year at Hawaii, 957-472-4, .669), are 1-6 after being swept by No. 5 ranked UCLA (23-11, 10-0, 12-8) Jan. 23-25 and winning one of four games versus Miami Jan. 16-19 (won 3-2, lost 14-7, 10-7, 13-11) at Rainbow Stadium...top hitters for the Rainbows include freshman third baseman Sean Murphy (.400, 0 HR, 9 RBI), freshman designated hitter David Perreira (.357, 0 HR, 7 RBI) and senior catcher Robert Mederios (.346, 1 HR, 5 RBI)...Hawaii's tentative starting pitching rotation is senior right-hander Robby Robinson (0-1, 18.78 ERA), freshman left-hander Jamie Aloy (0-2, 8.16 ERA) and senior right-hander Andrew McNally (0-0, 6.00 ERA)...in 1996, the Rainbows were 29-26 overall (12-18, fifth in Western Athletic Conference play)...
Tentative Lineup And Stats: Here is a look at Cal's tentative lineup and pitching rotation...
No. Pos. Player '96 stats
26 2B Ivan Lewis, Sr. .300, 27 RBI, 12 2B
9 3B Jim Schmidt Sr. .217, 14 RBI, 1 3B
5 SS Brian Oliver, So. .335, 32 RBI, 5 HR
45 C Jason Hill, So. .250, 9 RBI, 2 HR
33 LF Aaron Gordnier, Jr. .158, 2 RBI, 2 2B
2 1B John Furstenthal, Sr. .234, 13 RBI, 7 2B
17 DH Barry Schell, Fr. --
10 RF Juan Hernandez, Fr. --
16 CF Curtis Johnson, Fr. --
25 RHP Ryan Drese, So. (Fri.) 1-2, 2.93 ERA
30 RHP Drew Fischer, Sr. (Sat.) 2-4, 3.08 ERA
42 RHP Jim Vorhis, Jr. (Sun.) 5-6, 3.99 ERA
