Cal Sports Report

Cal Completes First Baseball Sweep of Stanford in 33 Years

The Bears had never taken all three games in a road series against the Cardinal until now

Jake Curtis

Jacob French
Jacob French / Photo by Fausto Ibarra
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Cal's baseball team finshed off a historic three-game sweep of 14th-ranked Stanford on Sunday with a riveting 6-5, 10-inning victory at Stanford's Sunken Diamond.

It's the first time since 1992 that Cal has swept the Cardinal in a three-game series at any any venue, and it's the first time in recorded history that the Bears swept the Cardinal on Stanford's home field.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the sweep is that Cal (13-10, 5-4 ACC) came into the series unranked while the Cardinal (15-6, 5-4 ACC) was ranked in the top 15 in two major polls (D1 Basball and USA Today Coaches poll).

Cal won the first two games of the series in dominating fashion, outscoring the Cardinal 26-7 in those two games -- 13-3 in a seven-inning, run-rule victory on Friday and 13-4 on Saturday.

On Sunday, Cal rallied from a 4-1 defict after four innings to force extra innings. The hero turned out to be redshirt freshman Ethan Kodama, who had only six plate appearances this season before Sunday. He stepped the plate for his only at-bat on Sunday with the score tied 5-5, Cal runners at first and second and two outs in the top of the 10th.

On a 1-2 pitch from Stanford's Trevor Moore, the left-handed-hitting Kodama spanked a shot down the third-base line that got past the Stanford third baseman, driving in the go-ahead run. It was Kodama's third hit of the season and his first in the weekend series.

Cal reliever Cole Tremain gave up a leadoff single in the bottom of the 10th, but then retired the side to get the win after pitching the final two innings.

The Bears' hitting star for the series was Jacob French, who went 10-for-13 with eight runs scored and four RBIs. He went 4-for-4 on Friday and 4-for-4 again on Saturday before having a 2-for-5 day on Sunday.

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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