Just checking in with a few notes on the newly-minted No. 11 Cal baseball team. The Bears finally supplanted the Southern Branch, which dropped to No. 23. The team who dealt Cal its first loss of the season, Missouri, vaulted itself to No. 2 on the arm of ace Aaron Crow. That loss is actually looking better and better as the Tigers climb up the ranks.

UCLA was swept over the weekend by Long Beach State (which climbed from No. 7 to No. 5) and has fallen far from its preseason No. 1 ranking. The next team that the Bears face in a weekend series? Those same Dirtbags, this weekend at Evans Diamond, while I will be at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum watching the Dodgers and the BoSox. If only I had a jetpack. If you are still in Berkeley, CATCH THIS SERIES. It could very well be a key to the Cal season, as a very interesting rivalry has developed between these two teams since the Bears shocked Long Beach State in 2005. It should be a great back-and-forth series.

Over the weekend against Wazzu (the Bears took the series 2-1), senior second baseman Josh Satin claimed the school consecutive-game hit streak record for his own. On Saturday, Satin broke the record in dramatic fashion, smacking his eighth home run of the season over the left field wall at Bailey-Brayton Field to record a hit in 24 straight games dating back to last season. The previous record holder was Brian Horwitz, who hit in 23 straight back in 2001. Satin will be this week’s Cal nominee for Pac-10 Player of the Week. Satin is hitting .443 with 22 runs, eight longballs, and 24 RBI. Only junior first baseman David Cooper has more roundtrippers (9) and RBI (26) than Satin.

That’s it for this installment of your Spring Break Baseball Update. More to come after the Bears take on Santa Clara in a midweek game, well, I guess that would be today, wouldn’t it?  Until then, take care, and keep reading.

For the first time in about 15 years, the Cal women’s hoops team finds itself in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

But the Bears’ next opponent may give them fits, so much so that ESPN predicts a nice little second-round upset when sixth-seeded George Washington plays Cal tonight at Maples Pavilion.

We’ll see if that happens, but for now, the Bears can relish finally winning a first round game. Some keys for tonight’s game: (Click here to read more…)

It was hard to believe. It was nearly impossible to fathom. Before rallying back in a win over Saint Cuthbert, the Cal reserves trailed 21-0. Yes, trailed. But as it turns out, that margin has some coincidental significance.

The Bears have won all 20 of their matches so far, and they can finish the regular season in perfect fashion — 21-0 — with a victory over British Columbia in the second leg of the World Cup Series. That match is scheduled for Wednesday, March 26, at 2:30 p.m. at Thunderbird Stadium in Vancouver, Canada. (Click here to read more…)

The NIT might be the last thing on your radar at this point in time, but low and behold, the Cal men’s basketball team is drawing some national attention. During the first half of its 68-66 win over New Mexico last Wednesday, Jerome Randle raced up the floor on a Bears fastbreak with one man between him and a trailing Patrick Christopher. Randle passed the ball off the backboard to Christopher who caught it for the slam dunk, sending the one thousand or so Cal fans in attendance into a frenzy. Sunday night, it was No. 1 on SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays of the week, not including NCAA Tournament plays. Jamal Boykin had said after the game, “Hopefully that makes the Top 10!” Well, what do you know?

I hope everybody is enjoying March Madness, the best time of year. Pac-10 teams have performed predictably, with the exception of USC which thoroughly disappointed me and pretty much busted the midwest region of my bracket. Oregon and Arizona never looked impressive in conference play, so there was no reason to expect them to survive even the first round of Tourney play. Washington State, on the other hand, is looking dominant, and how about Brook Lopez’s clutch baseline fadeaway that gave Stanford the win in overtime? I wouldn’t mind seeing either of those teams go deep into the Tournament.

But UCLA. That’s a different story. I couldn’t care less if a Bruins loss anytime before the national title game would bust my bracket. After seeing this for the third time this season, I would love to see UCLA finally fall flat on its face.

Simply ridiculous.

The NCAA Tournament hasn’t been too fruitful for the Cal women’s hoops team.

The Bears haven’t won a Tournament game in about 15 years. Granted, Cal hasn’t been dancing all 15 years, but its has been to the Tourney each of the last two years and has gone one-and-done.

But it looks like this year may be the year that the Bears finally get out of the first round. With a No. 3 seed in its pocket and traveling down to a familiar (yet unfriendly place) in Maples Pavilion in Stanford, Cal has to be thinking this is the year.

The Bears have only one Tourney win in their history and it might be two after they play No. 14-seed San Diego. But of course, after watching the Toreros men take down power UConn yesterday in the men’s Tournament, the women’s side has got to be thinking that it can also pull off the upset.

Some keys: (Click here to read more…)

I have to admit, after watching Cal men’s tennis dismantle UNLV on Tuesday I was impressed. I wasn’t surprised by the result, seeing as the Bears have shutout three out of their last four opponents, but just impressed to see Cal firing on all cylinders.

However, I was surprised by senior Pierre Mouillon, and it wasn’t because of his court performance.

Mouillon came out yesterday sporting a new clean cut hairdo—an improvement from the shaggy look he has sported for most of his tenure with the Bears. (Click here to read more…)

The No. 12 Cal baseball team looks to be back in proper form after a mid-week hiccup against 5-11 Sacramento State. Through three innings against No. 25 Washington State (13-5), the Bears are chipping away as usual, scoring a run in the second and a pair in the third. Senior Josh Satin is 1-for-2 so far, extending his season hit streak to 17 games. As a side note, the record-keepers in the media relations department have informed us that not only has Satin hit in 17 consecutive games this season, but he also hit in the last five games of the 2007 season, making his real streak 22 games.

This being Purim, let’s have a little fun with that. The record holder, Brian Horwitz (who hit in 23 straight from Feb. 9-Mar. 25, 2001), is, like Satin and myself, a Member of the Tribe (Jewish). Way to keep the record in the family, Josh. One more single tomorrow, and we can all wish Satin a hearty ‘Mazel Tov!’

More updates as the game progresses. (Click here to read more…)

Yesterday opening game in the NIT was exciting for Cal. Real exciting. It was a nail-bitter. A Thriller. It came down to the wire. It was almost a barn-burner.

But of course I’m being condescending. When less than 2,000 fans show up for a major college basketball game, then why should I be excited? I wasn’t.

The real madness begins today. (Click here to read more…)

Welcome to the first men’s golf blog entry of the spring!

I understand that golf isn’t exactly the most spectator-friendly sport. The whole standing up for ten hours while never raising your voice above a library-acceptable whisper deal somehow doesn’t have the same appeal as a football game. Plus, there are no cool cheers…although I am trying to remedy that. Email me if you think of something sweet that rhymes with Gandranata.

In the spirit of trying to make Cal golf more entertaining and accessible for you, the fans, I’m going to be using this blog as a forum to tell you all about the subtleties of the game and those fun little details about the team.

A few things that you may not have known about the Cal men’s golf… (Click here to read more…)