Cal Baseball Tops Stanford, and Must Beat the Cardinal Again in ACC Tournament

Cal won the final baseball game of the regular season by beating rival Stanford 2-1 on Saturday in Berkeley, and now the Bears have to beat the Cardinal again on Tuesday to keep alive their slim hope of reaching the NCAA tournament.

The Bears (29-25, 12-18 ACC) have won six of their past eight games, including two of three from Stanford, with all three of those games being one-run games.

So Cal will be the No. 13 seed in in the ACC tournament in Charlotte, North Carolina, and will face 12th-seeded Stanford (27-25, 13-17 ACC) in a first-round game at 10 a.m. Pacific time on Tuesday. Otto Espinoza is a good bet to get the start for Cal against the Cardinal.

Cal presumably would need to win that game as well as a second-round game against fifth-seeded Miami (36-17, 16-14) on Wednesday to have any chance of being selected as one of the 35 at-large teams in the NCAA tournament. Cal lost two of three games to Miami during the season on the Hurricanes' home field.

When Saturday's game ended Cal had an RPI ranking of 55, which is a little low to be considered a bubble team, so the Bears have more work to do.

Of course, Cal could get an automatic berth to the postseason by winning the ACC tournament, but that would require Cal to win five games in five days in a conference that has some of the best teams in the country.

Cal kept alive its chance for its first postseason berth in seven years by virtue of some excellent pitching by Gavin Eddy and its relievers and one key hit by Cade Campbell.

Eddy allowed just one run on five hits while striking out five in seven innings. It was his third straight start in which he allowed just one earned run in at least six innings, pushing his ERA down to 2.87. The one Stanford run came in on a sacrifice fly by Teddy Tokheim in the third inning.

For a long time it appeared that would be enough to send the Bears to defeat, as Cal could not get the big hit, winding up with 10 men left on base for the game.

It seemed the Bears would waste another scoring chance in the seventh inning when they had runners at first and third with no outs. But Stanford pitchers retired the next two Cal batters without a run scoring.

Runners were at first and second when Daniel Murillo singled to load the bases with two outs, and Campbell got the key two-out hit when a lined a single to center off Cardinal reliever Trevor Moore to knock in both baserunners, giving Cal a 2-1 lead.

SOUP ON SENIOR DAY! 🍜

Cade Campbell puts us on the board with a bases-loaded 2-out single!#GoBears pic.twitter.com/LBArWiKuwg
— Cal Baseball (@CalBaseball) May 17, 2026

That's all the Bears needed as relievers Cole Clark and Etan Foley pitched shutout ball over the final three innings. Foley who got the final out in Friday's 4-3 Cal victory, retired the three batters he faced in the ninth to record his fourth save of the year.

Cal finished with nine hits, and Jett Kenady was the only Bears player with two hits.

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