Bears Walk It Off Against The Broncos
BERKELEY – Jarren Advincula calmly walked to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning with the tying run just 90 feet away. Needing a base hit to extend his season-high hitting streak to 12 games, he smashed a 1-0 offering over the right field fence for a 3-run home run, giving the California baseball team a 6-4 win over visiting Santa Clara on Monday night at Stu Gordon Stadium.
Max Handron started the drama in the night blasting a double off the right field wall. Jag Burden came on to run for Handron and took third on a passed ball. Seth Gwynn walked to put runners at the corners with no outs for Advincula who pulled a ball just over the glove of Broncos’ right fielder Michale O’Hara. The home run was the second of the year for the freshman and gave the Golden Bears their third walk-off win this season.
Cal (15-7) managed five hits on the night but made them count. In the bottom of the third Caleb Lomavita broke the scoreless tie jumping all over a first-pitch fastball for a 3-run home run, his 10th of the year and 33rd of his career.
The 3-run lead looked like it would last as Cal’s pitching put zeros on the board through the first four plus innings. An error by the Bears extended the fifth for Santa Clara (12-10) allowing JonJon Berring to launch a ball over the right field fence for his fifth home run of the year.
The two-run home run was the only blemish on the day for starter Andres Galan who had his best outing of the season. Galan went five complete, scattering four hits, and allowing two unearned runs, with no walks and a season-high six strikeouts.
The bullpen did its job in holding the Broncos largely in check. Santa Clara finished the evening 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left seven runners on base. In the top of the seventh inning, Tyler Stasiowski got the Bear out of a jam striking out two to strand a pair of runners.
In the top of the eighth inning, the Broncos took their first lead of the evening. Logan Piper came in to pitch and immediately got into trouble walking the leadoff batter. A single and another walk loaded the bases with no outs. Austin Turkington was summoned from the bullpen and did a good job of stopping the bleeding, however, the Broncos took the lead thanks to a ground ball to second that scored the tying run and a suicide squeeze for the go-ahead run.
Connor Sullivan (2-0) got the win after pitching a clean ninth inning. The loss was charged to Max Bayles who went an inning plus, allowing three hits, three runs with a walk and a strikeout.
The home run for Advincula extended his team-leading hitting streak to 12 games. Lomavita finished the night 2-for-4, he was the only Golden Bear with multiple hits. Peyton Schulze and Handron had the other hits on the night.
Cal heads back on the road for a three-game series at Arizona State. Game one of the series is on Thursday, March 27 at 6:30 p.m. Friday’s contest starts at 6:30 and Saturday’s game is scheduled to start at 1 pm. All three games will be streamed on the Arizona State Live Stream.
Late Inning Heroics Allow Bears To Even The Series