Ducks lose heartbreaker at Cal

Friday, April 26

Berkeley, Calif.

7:05 PM

University of Oregon

22-17, 0

California

22-14, 0

Oregon

California

Photo by: Deborah Mundorff

04/26/19 | Baseball

Box Score Box Score: California 8, Oregon 7

BERKELEY, Calif. – Oregon rallied from a 4-0 deficit to take the lead but California hit a pair of solo home runs in the ninth inning to pick up an 8-7 Pac-12 Conference win in game one of a three-game series at Evans Diamond on Friday night.

How it happened: Cal jumped out to a 4-0 lead with two runs in both the third and fourth innings.
The Golden Bears loaded the bases with no outs in the third and got runs on an Andrew Vaughn sacrifice fly and a Korey Lee ground out.

After a one-out walk in the fourth, designated hitter Grant Holman hit a two-run homer over the right-field wall for a four-run lead.

Oregon (22-17, 7-9 Pac-12) climbed back in the game with three runs in the top of the sixth thanks to a pair of home runs. Junior Gabe Matthews started the rally with a leadoff sole home run to right field. Three hitters later, senior Jakob Goldfarb drilled a two-run homer off the scoreboard over the left-center field wall to cut the lead to one.

Cal (22-14, 9-7 Pac-12) answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth, before Matthews hit a laser over the right-field wall for his second consecutive homer to cut the lead to 6-4.

The Ducks added three runs in the top of the eighth to take the lead. Max Foxcroft led off with a walk, Sam Novitske singled and then Tanner Smith walked to load the bases. After Spencer Steer struck out, Matthews drove in a run to get the Ducks within one run on a hit by pitch. Jonny DeLuca tied it with a bases loaded walk and then Aaron Zavala gave the Ducks the lead with a sacrifice fly.

Ryne Nelson pitched a scoreless eighth inning for the Ducks before giving up solo home runs to Quentin Selma and Korey Lee in the ninth.

Box score notes: Matthews hit two home runs in a game for the first time in his career … It was the third time this season a Duck has hit two home runs in a game … Steer hit two against Loyola Marymount on March 2 and two at Washington State on April 14 … Matthews now has a career-high six home runs this season and 12 in his career … Goldfarb's HR was his first of the season and the 10th of his career … Novitske reached base three times … He has now reached safely in 37 of 39 games this season … Matthews finished with three hits, while Goldfarb and Novitske both had two … Steer's hitting streak was snapped at 18, the longest in Ducks' modern era history … Cole Stringer got the start for Oregon … He allowed four runs on six hits in 5.1 innings pitched.

On deck: Game two of the series is Saturday at 3:05 p.m.