Cal Baseball Nearly Achieves Its Longest Winning Streak Since 1931

Cal's baseball team was on the verge of an accomplishment on Tuesday night that would have taken us back to the Great Depression era 95 years ago.

The Bears had won 11 straight games when they began Tuesday's road game against a 4-11 San Jose State team that lugged a five-game losing streak into Tuesday's contest. Cal had matched the 11-game win streak achieved in 1989 for the second-longest winning streak in Cal baseball history, behind only the Bears' 14-game winning streak in 1931.

Cal took a 2-1 lead in the seventh inning against San Jose State, and Bears reliever Cole Clark, who had given up just one run in his six previous appearances this season, was pitching the bottom of the eighth with two outs and a Spartans runner at first. San Jose State batter Alan Ramirez was 0-for-3 when he stepped into the batters box at that point, and Clark got ahead in the count against him 0-2, looking for that third out.

It seemed Cal was on its way to its 12th straight win, leaving only the 14-game streak Cal achieved in 1931 as a longer winning streak in Cal baseball history.

The country was struggling with the debilitating effects of the Great Depression in 1931, and President Herbert Hoover was unable to relieve the economic pain that continued through the decade.

But Cal, under manager Clint Evans, won 14 baseball games in row in 1931, when the Bears finished with a 15-7 record and placed third in the South Division of the Pacific Coast Conference.

So when Clark threw his fifth pitch to Ramirez, who had fouled off two pitches after falling behind 0-2, Cal needed just one more strike to get out of the inning with its one-run lead in tact. Instead, Ramirez smacked a double that scored Peyton Rowles all the way from first to tie the game 2-2 entering the ninth.

Cal was unable to push across a run in the top of the ninth, and San Jose State loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. Cal needed one more out to force extra innings.

However, Rowles singled off Cal freshman pitcher Take Kreis to drive in the winning run in the Spartans' walk-off, 3-2 victory.

It ended Cal winning streak at 11, leaving it tied with the 1989 11-game streak as the second-longest winning streak in Cal history. It also dropped Cal's record to 13-4 heading into its first ACC series of the season, a three-game set against 15th-ranked North Carolina (14-3-1) in Berkeley starting on Friday.

The Bears will begin conference play with an offense led by Hideki Prather, who is batting .418 with five home runs and riding a 15-game hitting streak.

But Cal won't be riding its longest winning streak in 95 years.