The Cal baseball team got slapped hard by Sacramento State today at Evans Diamond. 12-6. Damn. I can easily say that this was the worst I’ve ever seen the Bears play in my three years covering them. Five errors by Cal and only four earned runs out of 12 for the Hornets. See tomorrow’s article in the Daily Cal for the down and dirty.

But for now, here are a few notes. (Click here to read more…)

It’s the call you never want to make as a reporter. But it’s the one you have to.

Wins and losses are easy. Slumps and streaks are pieces of cake. They’re so easy sometimes that I’ve had the story written before the game is even over. Simple, formulaic and predictable. There’s always a final score, comforting statistics. Always some place to take refuge.

But not when you have to make that call to ask about a dead teammate. (Click here to read more…)

The No. 12 Cal baseball team dropped the back end of Saturday’s doubleheader against Loyola Marymount to snap its nine-game winning streak, but before the Lions got the better of the Bears, Cal hitters put on a helluva show in the morning half.

The Bears decimated Loyola Marymount 21-9 off of 19 hits, and slammed six roundtrippers, including one by leadoff hitter Rich Gorman, who is generously listed at 5-foot-9. As a sidenote, Gorman popped another leadoff bomb in today’s win as well. Those are his first and second career home runs, respectively. But the big fireworks came from the usual suspects. (Click here to read more…)

The No. 12 Cal baseball team (11-1-1) won its eighth straight game today at Evans Diamond by the tally of 10-4 against Loyola Marymount (7-8). The headliner of the game was supposed to be starter Tyson Ross, returning from two weeks on the injured list. Ross worked a solid three no-hit innings, before a dying quail fell in front of right fielder Blake Smith in the top of the fourth to break up the no-no. Given Smith’s toughness and grit, I expected him to dive, and it looked like Ross did too, because immediately afterward, he gave up a two-run home run. Ross gave up one more run - again on a homer - in the fifth before the weather turned chilly and damp. I’d bet that coach David Esquer pulled Ross so as to not aggravate the injury more, which is probably a good idea. He definitely was fidgeting and looked uncomfortable. (Click here to read more…)

No, he wasn’t in the trees down the right field line, but he did stroll down behind home plate and exhort the fans to “support the Berkeley Tree-Sitters!”  He also spouted something or other about ending some sort of tyranny, blah, blah, blah.  Yet another reason for college baseball to switch to wooden bats. Maybe it’s just coincidence, but the same inning the tree-bag showed up, Cal gave up a 2-0 lead. The Bears are now tied with San Francisco, 2-2, with junior David Cooper on first via a walk, and senior Josh Satin at the plate with one out.

UPDATE 2:58 PM: Satin just absolutely crushed a two-run homer to left center that definitely flirted with tagging the roof of the RSF fieldhouse. I lost it as soon as it came off his bat. Some lucky kid in Oakland will find a very special Easter egg, because I don’t think that thing has landed yet. Satin’s now tied with Cooper for the team lead with six home runs.

The hits just keep on coming for Cal baseball, as the Bears (9-1-1) climbed even higher in the Baseball America rankings to No. 12, right behind the Baby Bears of Los Angeles, who are falling fast, going 2-3 last week. Arizona (10-1) remains at No. 1 with cross-state rival Arizona State (12-0) checking in at No. 2.  Cal and UCLA (7-4) are the next two Pac-10 teams in the rankings, followed by Stanford (8-4), which climbed from unranked to No. 18 … sounds familiar, doesn’t it? The last Pac-10 team in the mix is struggling No. 22 Oregon State (5-5), the two-time defending NCAA champion. All of a sudden, head coach David Esquer’s assertion that this is the best the conference has ever been doesn’t sound like too much of a stretch. Even a .500 team in the Pac-10 is worthy of a ranking. Sweet.

After a three-win weekend, the No. 18 Cal baseball team should inch higher in the rankings coming out tomorrow from Baseball America. The 9-1-1 Bears have been rolling even without junior ace Tyson Ross, who did not start for the second consecutive weekend. Without Ross, sophomore lefty Craig Bennigson has stepped up big time, winning two big starts over the past two weekends, including a 10-strikeout effort on Saturday in a 4-1 win over Minnesota. (Click here to read more…)

The No. 18 Cal baseball team claimed yet another victory today, defeating Northern Iowa 11-3 on the artificial turf of the Minnesota Twins’ Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minn.

The Bears opened the University of Minnesota Tournament with a solid win, led by hefty lefty Chris Petrini, who looked superb in his second outing of the year. The sophomore southpaw upped his record to 2-0 with 7 quality innings, allowing three hits and three runs with four walks and six strikeouts. The good pitching continued for Cal, as sophomore Michael Bugary came on to toss two innings of scoreless relief, allowing only one hit and two walks while striking out five.

The middle of the Bears lineup was scintillating … again. (Click here to read more…)

The Cal baseball team has launched itself back into the national rankings this week for the first time since the preseason rankings of 2006. The Bears checked in at No. 18 after beating then-No. 22 San Diego State and then-No. 24 Fresno State as well as No. 17 San Diego, which did not drop below Cal despite being defeated by the Bears on Sunday. Both the Aztecs and the Bulldogs dropped out of the Top 25. (Click here to read more…)

Look for next week’s new Baseball America Top 25 sometime on Monday, because after downing three ranked teams this weekend and coming within a sneeze of beating No. 5 Missouri, there’s a good chance the Cal baseball team will be up in the low 20’s.

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” junior pitcher Craig Bennigson said. “But, we’ll see how it goes.” (Click here to read more…)