This is the initial meeting of Cal vs new HC of Arizona State (from Ball State). I reviewed the Sun Devil roster and 11 of the 21 players are transfers. The only starters are Grad (5 yr) students, seniors & 3 juniors. In other words, these are all upperclassmen that the Bears will be facing this weekend.

Their stats are eerily similar to Cal on both offense and defense. They also are not a great defensive team from their stats.

This team is beatable but the Bears will have to play well in every facet of the game. I'm taping the game on tv but following live stats.

Haylei Archer appears to be in a slump. She yielded a lead-off HR to Yanni Acuna which is her first HR given up this season. She is wild again with a passed ball and a wild pitch in the 3rd inning. Saiki has booted two grounders to second base for two errors. ASU tied the score at 2-2 without getting the ball out of the infield and no hits. Cal's pitching and defense leave a lot to be desired. It appears that Archer has her sinker ball working now. GO BEARS!

Butler with the HUGE game winning single and maybe even bigger double play at 2nd. As a sub. Coach Spencer's sub magic continues. She clearly knows her team.

Yep, great game by Archer. This would be a huge series to win and might even break us into the top 25. GO BEARS

a player's program
https://bearinsider.com/forums/2/topics/110786/0

Schroeder71 said:

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I want to apologize for saying that Haylei was in a pitching slump. If she was, Archer just snapped out of it with a two-hitter over 7 innings against a Pac Nine opponent. She allowed only a lead-off HR for a single earned run. Bears produced seven hits for their four runs. Cal is now .500 in league (3-3-1). It's been a long time since Cal has been sitting @ a .500 record. GO BEARS!

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I've been impressed with the improvement Archer has shown this year over last season. This version of the SunDevils doesn't have nearly the firepower of recent years and this is a winnable series, especially if we can eliminate some of the fielding issues.

Cal has grounded into three double plays as a team this season and Acacia Anders has hit into all of 'em. She appears to be NOT running hard to 1st base.

AT with a gem so far. 2-0 into the 7th

Cal wins 2-0! ROLL ON

Got the job done in game one. 🤙#GoBears pic.twitter.com/F9ngu9F2Ze

— Cal Softball (@CalSB) March 25, 2023

california golden bears 2
arizona state sun devils 0

the magic of cal basketball (is living within cal softball, a player's program)#

I am amazed at Teperson's shutout of ASU. Both teams only mustered five hits. Cal has only scored six runs in two games so far this weekend. Sun Devil's pitching has been solid, too. Bears vault above .500 record today and are now 4-3-1 in conference play. GO BEARS!

She's got incredible spin on some of her pitches and generally decent control… but has been throwing way too much over the middle of the plate this year. Today she worked east to west, had the drop going and her off speed was as good as I've seen. Really amazing job.

Schroeder71 said:

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I am amazed at Teperson's shutout of ASU. Both teams only mustered five hits. Cal has only scored six runs in two games so far this weekend. Sun Devil's pitching has been solid, too. Bears vault above .500 record today and are now 4-3-1 in conference play. GO BEARS!

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That random collapse/tie against OSU could come back to haunt us. If we held on we'd be ahead of UCLA right now.

CalFanatic said:

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Schroeder71 said:

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I am amazed at Teperson's shutout of ASU. Both teams only mustered five hits. Cal has only scored six runs in two games so far this weekend. Sun Devil's pitching has been solid, too. Bears vault above .500 record today and are now 4-3-1 in conference play. GO BEARS!

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That random collapse/tie against OSU could come back to haunt us. If we held on we'd be ahead of UCLA right now.

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At this point, why be negative?

You have to attend the game to understand. Can't see the spinning of the ball from TV. Also can't see where the defense is playing from the TV angle.

coachdeke said:

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CalFanatic said:

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Schroeder71 said:

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I am amazed at Teperson's shutout of ASU. Both teams only mustered five hits. Cal has only scored six runs in two games so far this weekend. Sun Devil's pitching has been solid, too. Bears vault above .500 record today and are now 4-3-1 in conference play. GO BEARS!

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That random collapse/tie against OSU could come back to haunt us. If we held on we'd be ahead of UCLA right now.

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At this point, why be negative?

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Not negative. That game/ending was very random, we ended in a tie! Cal is the better team, and it's awesome to think we are competing with UCLA for a top 1-4 spot in the conference.

This is division 1 sports in the best softball conference. Not the YMCA. We should be able to look at standings, think about tournament seedlings, and be incredibly excited about a series win while thinking ugh, that game could haunt a future seeding when it comes to the post season.

Coach Spencer is doing an incredible job.

wvitbear said:

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You have to attend the game to understand. Can't see the spinning of the ball from TV. Also can't see where the defense is playing from the TV angle.

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I agree. See you all at Levine-Fricke field at 2:00pm today!

CalFanatic said:

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coachdeke said:

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CalFanatic said:

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Schroeder71 said:

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I am amazed at Teperson's shutout of ASU. Both teams only mustered five hits. Cal has only scored six runs in two games so far this weekend. Sun Devil's pitching has been solid, too. Bears vault above .500 record today and are now 4-3-1 in conference play. GO BEARS!

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That random collapse/tie against OSU could come back to haunt us. If we held on we'd be ahead of UCLA right now.

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At this point, why be negative?

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Not negative. That game/ending was very random, we ended in a tie! Cal is the better team, and it's awesome to think we are competing with UCLA for a top 1-4 spot in the conference.

This is division 1 sports in the best softball conference. Not the YMCA. We should be able to look at standings, think about tournament seedlings, and be incredibly excited about a series win while thinking ugh, that game could haunt a future seeding when it comes to the post season.

Coach Spencer is doing an incredible job.

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Best conference? Unhappily, that is a memory that will become dimmer when UCLA is officially in the BIGWhatever. California is still the mother lode of talent but too much is leaking east to the SEC/Big12.

I still believe the PAC 12 is the best end to end conference for softball. Now other sports….

All 8 Pac 12 women's gymnastics teams made the NCAA tournament.

Men's swimming results yesterday had USC #22 & UCLA failing to score. Cal repeats as national champion, ASU & Stanford finished second and eighth, respectively. Pac 12 (10) rules!

Halajian gives up the long ball, again. It was a two-run HR, her 11th gopher ball of the season in only 37+ IP.
Kenzie Brown pitched in relief in all three games and possessed too much velocity for Cal hitters. She also has a great change-up. KB threw a combined 9 innings over the weekend. She allowed five singles and one run (unearned) while striking out 15!

Bears back to .500 (4-4-1) and have not swept the Sun Devils in more than a decade...Cal was held to one extra base hit, a Makena Smith HR, in three games. ASU only mustered 3 extra base hits (a double & 2 home runs). Both teams' pitching staffs really quieted down two power-hitting teams.

Thank for your always positive spin!

Fun day at LFF yesterday. Bummer of a loss... but I thought our defense looked much better.

Cal clocking in at #27 in RPI after the series win. Go Bears!

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/softball/d1/ncaa-womens-softball-rpi

Knocking on the door of breaking into the top 25.... Series win against #18 Utah should do the trick!

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/softball/d1/espncom/usa-softball

https://sportstarsmag.com/2023/03/sportstars-norcal-softball-rankings-march-28?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sportstars-norcal-softball-rankings-march-28

I stumbled upon these norcal softball rankings so I thought that I would provide the link. GO BEARS!