I wonder if Cal will do something similar to Stanford, playing on the football field while their stadium is being renovated.

https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/9535e15a-41d7-43d7-8c57-21b72768d17b

Stanford has superior stats in all categories. T Kern (from Mitty) has 18 HRs,and the Cardinal have 3 hitters with batting averages in excess of .400. Mika Lee, the Bear's only .400 hitter, appears to be out for the series like the St Mary's DH on Tuesday. A dozen different Stanford hitters have homered this season. They have 72 long balls compared to the visitor's 51. Emily Jones homered against Anna Reimers in the B1st to tie the game at 1-1. On paper, Cal will have difficulty competing with this Stanford team. The Cardinal is pounding the Bear pitcher in the first with three hits and two runs already with two outs. They average in excess of 7 runs per game. The Bears have only six good hitters in their lineup while the Cardinal has eight batting over .300. Kylie Chung has good velocity on her pitches. GO BEARS!

Golden opportunity for the Bears here in the 2nd. Bases loaded and Butler up to bat.

Elon delivers with the double! 3-2 Bears. Go Elon!

After two innings, the score is tied 3-3. Stanford has six hits & Cal has four. The key to the game might be Chung's two strikeouts of Cal's cleanup, Tianna Bell. She is the Stanford pitcher's only strikeout.

In the 3rd, then bottom of the Bear's order (7-8-9) achieved a single and two walks. Lagi Quiroga grounded out to shortstop with the bases loaded. She is 0-2. The last walk forced in a run to put the Bear's back in front, 4-3. The Cardinal's leadoff hitter, Berry, quickly ties it up with a towering HR to CF. Stanford is pounding senior Reimers with eight hits (including 2 HRs) w/ only one out. Clutch double play turned by Nailyn Marshall as stepped on third for the force and threw low to 1st base. Tianna Bell made a beautiful scoop to complete the play.

Bears load the bases again here in the 3rd...Marshall up with 2 outs

Marshall draws the full count walk! 4-3 Cal

Top of the 4th, Kylie Chung strikes out Elon Butler. Acacia Anders walks but Tianna Bell continues her futility with 3rd consecutive K. Kaylee Pond walks and Stanford will make a pitching change. They are bringing in a freshman southpaw, Prystajko. She walks Mia Phillips but gets Holly Medina to ground out with the bases loaded.

Miranda De Nava enters in relief in the B4th and gets two quick outs but yields another Emily Jones home run to CF. Stanford jumps back into the lead, 5-4. The Cardinal is putting on a power display with three bombs! The Bears have none.

Stanford brings in their hardest thrower in Alyssa Houston. She gives up a single to Quiroga but fans two Bears (including Butler). De Nava answers with a three up, three down B5th. It is the initial time that Stanford has failed to score.

Cal hits three fly ball outs in the T6th. Pond almost tied the game with a deep drive to the CF warning track. Another bomb to dead center for Stanford off of De Nava. Her Achille's heel in her freshman season has been giving up the long ball. The Cardinal widens their margin to two runs (6-4). Any time that the Bear's pitching yields four round-trippers, they're in major trouble. River Mahler drives in another run with a single up the middle. Stanford's offense is dominating bigtime with 7 runs on 12 hits. Cal only produced six hits.

MVP pitcher is Alyssa Houston. She blanked the Bears over the final three frames, yielding only two base runners on two singles. The Cardinal had superior pitching that held their arch-rival to no home runs.

Bears load the bases (again) in the Top of the 4th but Medina grounds out to 3B.

Hoping we go with a different arm in this Bottom of the 4th.... Reimers has given up 8 hits in 3 innings.

De Nava with a 1-2-3 5th inning. Great job, Freshman!

Cal down 5 to 4 heading into the 6th

Cal falls to Stanford, 74.


Tough to win when you give up 12 hits, 4 homers, and leave 11 runners stranded. Maybe you survive one of those-maybe even two-but all three? That's a tough ask.

We've now dropped 10 of our last 11 in ACC play.

Kylie Chung retired Cal in order to set the tone for the game. Bears were swinging at low pitches that likely were balls. The results were easy groundouts by Quiroga & Anders. Butler was called out on strikes by the home plate umpire for not being in the batter's box ready to hit in the required amount of time. In essence, the bat was taken out of her hands. The Bears could not start this game in a feebler manner!

Stanford loads the bases with 2 HBPs and a walk. Teperson wild pitches in a gift run. The Cardinal do not have a hit, yet. The super frosh first baseman, Economides, grounds a ball through the 5 1/2 hole for two more runs. After one inning, Stanford scores 3 times with two outs. 3-0

Stanford takes the lead in the 1st on 3 free passes and a passed ball. Not a single hit.Sighs.

Scratch that. Stanford gets their first hit of the inning to make it 3-0.

Our pitching is just so, so bad this year. Not much we can really do at this point. Just hoping we can somehow sneak into the NCAA tournament with 33-34 wins. We've still got a few non-conference games left to win. I'd be happy with a NCAA tournament appearance this year to set us up for a 2026 season. We have a top 15 recruit coming in next year in the circle. Go Bears!

Mika Lee played yesterday and had three of Cal's five hits. She should have had a fourth hit her initial AB, but the score keeper called it a fielder's choice instead. Without her offense, Bears were a no-show. Tianna Bell is 0-8 with four strikeouts through two games.

Here at the game witnessing history with the attendance record.

Cal's taken a 5-0 lead with no outs in the 1st on multiple home run balls by Butler and Pond. Heck, Bell almost went yard too.

Cal erupts in T1st with 5 runs on 5 hits. Two HRs (Butler & Pond) + two doubles (Quiroga & Bell) plus an infield single off of Stanford's frosh southpaw. Kaylee Pond hit an absolute bomb to RF! The Cardinal quickly responds with a three run HR by Berry off of Teperson so make it 5-3.

Stanford brings in Kylie Chung for her third straight game. She walks Lagi Quiroga and Tianna Bell crushes her 13th homer to RCF. Bears push their lead to 7-3. Another three-run bomb for the Cardinal in the B3rd, cuts
margin to one (7-6).

Teperson has yielded six runs in 3 IP. She needs to be replaced. Alyssa Houston appears in relief for third day in a row. She has pitched six shutout innings vs the Bears. Cal puts an end to that trend with three more runs on two walks and singles by Acacia Anders and Kayleen Pond. Bears lead 10-6 but are keeping Teperson on the hill. It's time for Miranda De Nava to try to preserve the four-run lead.

Looking at the remaining schedule here…if we beat Santa Clara and take 2 of 3 from Syracuse I think we're easily in the tournament.

Would be great to either sweep Syracuse or snag one from VA Tech.

We absolutely can not lose to SC. Give the ball to De Nava as much as possible.

The Bears' Instagram post celebrating today's win said the crowd was 13,207, an NCAA softball attendance record.

And we won!!

Go Bears!!

SFCALBear72 said:

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The Bears' Instagram post celebrating today's win said the crowd was 13,207, an NCAA softball attendance record.

And we won!!

Go Bears!!

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https://instagr.am/p/DIpVEtLz6lI

Espn.com took note of today's game.

Stanford softball draws NCAA record crowd to football stadium - ESPN

Not surprised that we were hitting against Zoe Prystajko (half Korean, btw) Stanford freshman pitcher. I was the plate umpire last summmer during the Alliance Nationals. She was big, strong, and her pitches were fast but she had zero movement on her balls. Perfect hitting clinic for Cal Bears.

BearinOC said:

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Not surprised that we were hitting against Zoe Prystajko (half Korean, btw) Stanford freshman pitcher. I was the plate umpire last summmer during the Alliance Nationals. She was big, strong, and her pitches were fast but she had zero movement on her balls. Perfect hitting clinic for Cal Bears.

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That was very apparent today. She seemed to spot place her fastball in-out-in-out. Wasn't a lot to her pitching.

The reason I'm bullish on De Nava is her pitches move. She has some nasty stuff. She just needs to work on incorporating in a drop ball a bit more. Beautiful change too.

Cal is likely in for a tough game at Santa Clara today @ 4pm. Hope Alley is batting 3rd and playing the hot corner. She leads the Broncos in RBIs. SCU has their best record that I can recall (27-16), and they have two starting pitchers that have superior ERAs to anyone on Cal's staff. Hannah Edwards is the veteran from Archbishop Mitty and they have a freshman, Ferguson, from Los Alamitos HS with an ERA under 2.00. Broncos do not have much power. The team from the South Bay does have speed, however, with 69 stolen bases. Hope is 10-10 in steals and has only struck out 5 times in 123 ABs. Wow. Their best hitter is a soph 2B from Hawaii, Cairah Curran. She bats leadoff and possesses a .452 BA% & a .509 OB%. Curran must be fast because the young lady has stolen 25 bases in 30 attempts.

2025 Santa Clara University Softball (PDF) - Santa Clara University

Santa Clara is using their fifth best pitcher against Cal and held the Bears to a single run on one hit. Cal has Ryann Orange, their #4 pitcher, on the mound. Bases loaded with zero outs for the Broncos on a single to center, a bunt hit and a HBP (Hope Alley). SCU fails to score due a double play and a flyout. Seva retires the visitors in order with three ground balls to the infield. Opposing hitters have hit .352 BA% against this pitcher but the Bears have not had any solid contact. I missed the opening double by Elon Butler to open the game. Other than that, Cal has not hit the ball out of the infield.

In the T3rd, Cal begins to hit the ball hard. Butler singled up the middle, Quiroga tripled to RF & Acacia Anders tripled high off of the RCF fence. Tianna Bell hit a fly ball to CF but Anders was thrown out at home for a DP. Bears 3, Broncos 0.

OMG! Cal just put on a base running clinic on how NOT to run the bases as all three runners were thrown out on the bases. Pond led off with a double off of the CF fence but wandered too far off of second and was caught in a run down and thrown out at 3B. Then Mika Lee got an infield hit and stole second but also got caught in a rundown on a ground ball back to the pitcher by Mia Phillips. They tagged out Lee and doubled up Phillips trying to make to second base. Pitiful exhibition!

Cal lucks out, 3-2, over Santa Clara. De Nava walked batters on 4 pitches in both the sixth & seventh innings. The freshman also threw a wild pitch that allowed the runner to advance to third base. The Bear's defense made two errors, too. Hope Alley singled to CF in the B7th to plate the Bronco's second run and then easily stole second base with two outs. Quiroga acted unprepared. Fortunately, Acacia Anders barely made the final out on a 6-3 throw to end it. Remember that the Bears had five runners thrown out on the bases, today. IMO, Cal should have scored at a minimum 2 more runs with fundamentally sound softball. GO BEARS!

You don't see this every day.


Cal just made all three outs in the 4th inning against Santa Clara on the basepaths. Yep, three baserunning mistakes in one inning:

• A pickoff at second base
• Then... another pickoff at second
• And as a result of that second pickoff, the trailing runner at first got caught in a rundown and tagged out

Three outs. All on the bases. If nothing else in this crazy world we are consistent(ly horrible) running the bases.

Not a huge issue in a 3-0 game but yikes, could be an issue if the Broncos storm back.

CalFanatic said:

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You don't see this every day.


Cal just made all three outs in the 4th inning against Santa Clara on the basepaths. Yep, three baserunning mistakes in one inning:

• A pickoff at second base
• Then... another pickoff at second
• And as a result of that second pickoff, the trailing runner at first got caught in a rundown and tagged out

Three outs. All on the bases. If nothing else in this crazy world we are consistent(ly horrible) running the bases.

Not a huge issue in a 3-0 game but yikes, could be an issue if the Broncos storm back.

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If we want to include Anders being thrown out at home... that would be 4 in 4 innings =)

To be fair, the OF made a beautiful throw. Kudos to the Santa Clara RF.

Beautiful play by De Nava, snagging the hard-hit grounder and leading the shortstop perfectly to second with her throw.

A clutch double play to get out of the jam. 3-1 Bears

CalFanatic said:

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CalFanatic said:

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You don't see this every day.


Cal just made all three outs in the 4th inning against Santa Clara on the basepaths. Yep, three baserunning mistakes in one inning:

• A pickoff at second base
• Then... another pickoff at second
• And as a result of that second pickoff, the trailing runner at first got caught in a rundown and tagged out

Three outs. All on the bases. If nothing else in this crazy world we are consistent(ly horrible) running the bases.

Not a huge issue in a 3-0 game but yikes, could be an issue if the Broncos storm back.

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If we want to include Anders being thrown out at home... that would be 4 in 4 innings =)

To be fair, the OF made a beautiful throw. Kudos to the Santa Clara RF.

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A 5th Cal runner was just thrown out on the base paths today.

Pond doubles shortly after. Game could easily be 7 or 8 to 1 right now.

You just kind of have to laugh. The whole thing is so insane as a fan.

Hope Alley single makes it a 3-2 game in the 7th.... Winning run up to the plate for Santa Clara.

All of the insane base running issues are looking mighty problematic now...

Returning home for the final series at Levine-Fricke Field this weekend 🕺#GoBears pic.twitter.com/ocLtfdA8Gn

— Cal Softball (@CalSB) April 23, 2025

the MAGIC of cal softball (would be enhanced if the 3rd base coach didn't recklessly run the team outta innings)#