Junior ace Tyson Ross will miss his scheduled showdown with fellow Preseason All-American pitcher Aaron Crow of No. 5 Missouri tomorrow. Ross did not travel with the Cal baseball team down to San Diego for the tournament this weekend due to unspecified illness.

“Tyson’s not throwing,” senior second baseman Josh Satin said. “He stayed back this weekend. He wasn’t feeling well.”

That means that the Bears will be playing without two of their three team captains, as junior catcher Charlie Cutler is still out with a broken left pinky. It looks like the only captain left standing is Michael Capbarat. Get that man into the witness protection program and roll him in some bubble wrap. And get him some vitamin C and zinc just in case.

In Ross’s place, it looks like either sophomore transfer Daniel Wolford or sophomore Todd Fitzgerald will get the start and try to replace Ross as best they can.

“Tyson’s not going to throw at all this weekend, unfortunately,” Satin said. “But I’m confident that we’re going to score enough runs. You can’t obviously replace Tyson, but our offense is clicking so much right now that hopefully we can score enough runs where we can make up for not having him.”