Cal's Win in Pac-12 Baseball Tournament Helps Bears’ NCAA Chances

Red-hot Cal continued to make its case for an NCAA tournament berth with an impressive 12-0, 6 ½-inning victory over Washington in the Bears’ opener of the Pac-12 baseball tournament on Thursday night in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Cal made short work of the Huskies, ending the game after 6 ½ innings by virtue of the run rule. A team is awarded a victory if it holds a lead of 10 runs or more after seven innings. (Cal did not need to bat in the bottom of the seventh.)

Cal starting pitcher Andres Galan came up with his best performance of the season, and the Bears offense took care of the rest as Cal (35-18) pounded out 15 hits and increased its winning streak to five in a row. Cal has also won nine of its last 10 games and 19 of its past 23.

Cal plays the second game in its three-team pool on Thursday night against regular-season Pac-12 champion Arizona. And that game may determine whether Cal gets into the NCAA tournament. A win in that game would enable Cal to advance to Friday’s semifinals, and the winner of the Pac-12 tournament gets an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament.

Entering the conference tournament, Cal seemed to be on the fringe of making the 64-team NCAA tournament. The D1 baseball site projected Cal would be one of the First Four Out of the NCAA tournament field if the selection were made Tuesday morning, while Baseball America predicted the Bears would be one of the Next Four Out, putting Cal just outside the First Four Out.

Cal’s RPI ranking on Tuesday morning was No. 65, and that’s typically just a bit low for NCAA tournament consideration.

However, the sixth-seeded Bears certainly looked like an NCAA-caliber team while dominating ninth-seeded Washington (19-30-1).

Galan is usually the Bears’ midweek starter, and he made just his seventh start of the season on Thursday. But he was masterful until he ran out of gas in the seventh inning. Galan gave up no runs and just two hits while walking two and striking out seven in 6 1/3 innings. He was replaced with two runners on and one out in the top of the seventh, and Christian Becerra got the final two outs.

Cal’s offense was impressive as well. Six Cal players had at least two hits, led by Max Handron, who was 3-for-4 with three RBIs, and PJ Moutzouridis, who was 2-for-4 with three RBIs.

The Bears hit just one home run, but Jarren Advincula’s solo homer in the bottom of the third inning accounted for the Bears’ first run and started the onslaught. Two-out RBI hits by Moutzouridis and Handron later in the third inning made it 3-0.

Cal added four runs in the fifth inning and five more in the six to set the Bears up to end the game in the seventh.

Seth Gwynn and Jag Burden also knocked in two runs apiece for the Bears.

Perhaps the most encouraging aspect for Cal was the hitting of catcher Caleb Lomavita. A likely early-round pick in the upcoming Major League draft, Lomavita had been struggling at the plate recently. But he hit the ball hard three times on Thursday and finished 2-for-3 with a double, a triple and a walk.

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