BERKELEY, Calif. – The Gold team took a firm hold on the Blue and Gold series on Friday night at Evans Diamond with an 11-3 win, adding another bonus run for the win to up their cumulative advantage to 19-6. Two members of the Gold team had a pair of hits each; sophomore first baseman Denis Karas (2-for-2 with 2 RBI, a walk and two runs scored) and senior Brian Celsi, who was playing third base (2-for-3 with a run scored). Freshman right-hander Joey Matulovich logged three innings for the Gold team, allowing one run on three hits with a pair of strikeouts.

“The effort was good tonight,” Gold head coach Brad Sanfilippo said following the win. “It's good to score a lot of runs because it allows you to work your pitching to set up some really good arms for Sunday. I thought that offensively we gave ourselves a lot of opportunities to score and we capitalized on those. We have pitched very well; getting out of a lot of jams and that has allowed us to maneuver our bullpen in a way that we want. I feel good for Sunday.”

The Gold team picked up right where they left off in Thursday's win, opening the top half of the first inning with a two-spot, courtesy of a run that crossed the plate on an error and an RBI single by Karas.

Blue pulled a run back in the bottom half of the frame, but were unable to get the big inning they desperately needed, stranding a pair after having runners at first and second with only one away. Redshirt senior first baseman Nick Halamandaris hit an RBI double, going the other way with the Matulovich delivery and flaring it over third base.

Nine runs over the fourth, fifth and sixth innings for the Gold squad put game two on ice, and made things an uphill climb for the Blue team heading into Sunday's finale. Freshmen Tanner Dodson and Lorenzo Hampton, Jr. tallied an RBI each in the fourth, while Karas added his second RBI single of the game in the fifth. Gold capitalized on some mistakes by the Blue team to grab the other runs, pushing the advantage to 11-1 at the time.

“We've been doing a pretty good job,” Celsi said on Friday night. “We hit well today, ran the bases well and just kept putting it on them. With the running score, it's going to make it difficult to keep things competitive, but that's what's going to be fun; we are looking for the sweep. (They should) be ready on Sunday, because we are coming.”

Blue showed some fight in the bottom of the seventh, despite a good relief outing by redshirt sophomore lefty Akaash Agarwal, who surrendered two unearned runs over his two innings of work out of the Gold bullpen. Senior third basemen Mitchell Kranson picked up an RBI on a sharp single and then redshirt senior infielder Brenden Farney hit a sacrifice fly to center to pull the final score of game two to 11-3.

Aside from Matulovich and Agarwal, junior Oregon State transfer Kevin Flemer looked very good for the second straight night; giving the Gold team 1.2 innings shutout innings out of the pen. He got out of a jam, after inheriting a pair of baserunners in the bottom of the fourth, getting freshman centerfielder Jonah Davis to line into a 6-3 double play to end the threat. On the Blue side, freshman Connor Jackson struck out the side in the seventh, posting his second scoreless inning of the series, and now has four strikeouts in just those two innings of work.

The two teams are back at it on Sunday afternoon at Evans, as senior righty Ryan Mason will be taking the hill for the Gold team and he will be opposed by junior right-hander Daulton Jefferies for the Blue team. First pitch slated for 2 p.m. PT, and fans are encouraged to come out and get their final look at the Golden Bears during the fall. They can follow full coverage from the series @Cal_Baseball on Twitter and Instagram, as well as on Facebook and CalBears.com.