Tyson Ross didn’t seem like he was at his best today against Oregon State. That’s all right, though. Ross on a decent day is still better than about 90 percent of college pitchers on the best day of their careers.

The No. 7 Cal baseball team’s ace had some uncharacteristic trouble locating his fastball in the middle innings, gave up seven hits and walked three Beavers hitters in seven innings. But he allowed just two runs, stranded 10 runners and pitched himself out of a couple of jams in the early innings to lead the Bears to a 5-2 win over the two-time defending national champions and improve his own record to 5-0.

Ross on an off-day is kind of like Zeppelin 35 years later: still pretty damn good. He was bringing his fastball in the 89-91 range, the slider was effective and he struck out a season-high nine batters. This all coming against a team that entered the day with a cumulative batting average of .320. A couple times, OSU made contact off of Ross that was as loud as their orange jerseys, but their 10 hits were fairly spread out and Cal—after committing nine errors in the previous two games—tightened up the defense to limit the Beavers’ scoring opportunities.

The Bears jumped out on offense early with two runs in the first inning and another in the second. Rich Gorman led off the game with a double down the right-field line, Charlie Cutler followed with a walk, and they both scored on a passed ball and fielder’s choice, respectively. In the second inning, Cal loaded the bases with no outs, but managed just the one run on a groundout from Cutler.

But with solid outings from Ross, Daniel Wolford and Matt Gorgen, that was all the Bears needed. Gorgen pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his sixth save of the year and the 17th of his career, tying him for fourth place on Cal’s all-time list. Ross also moved into a tie with Bryan Price for fourth on the Bears’ list of all-time strikeout leaders with 235.

Cal has now reached the 20-win plateau just 27 games into the season, after accomplishing that same feat in its 39th game in 2007. The Bears will be going for win number 21 tomorrow afternoon against OSU at Evans Diamond at 1 p.m.

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