From the moment Oregon State scored its first run against the Cal baseball team, the Bears couldn’t find an answer to get back into the game — let alone the entire series.
Junior designated hitter Devon Rodriguez’s lead-off home run during the seventh inning in the first game of the series was arguably Cal’s only offensive bright spot against the Beavers. But Oregon State’s incredible pitching and downpour of hits and runs completely extinguished any small flicker of hope the Bears had. In each of the three games this weekend, the Beavers completely overwhelmed the Cal team.
No. 5 Oregon State (37-9, 17-4 Pac-12) capped off its sweep on Sunday afternoon in Goss Stadium in Corvallis, Ore., with a 6-4 victory over the Bears. Cal (21-26, 9-15 Pac-12) will now need to win both of its last two series to return to a .500 overall and conference play record — a feat that will be close to miraculous for the struggling Bears.
Even when Cal started to make a turnaround during the last game of the series, outhitting the Beavers 13 hits to seven, the Bears were still fighting an uphill battle.
Junior Andrew Knapp led the offensive charge with three hits and two RBIs, but Oregon State still came away with the victory. With the game tied at one run apiece at the start of the third inning, the Beavers pulled away after infielder Danny Hayes smacked a homer into right field, giving Oregon State a two-run lead.
The Bears continued to battle back as Knapp pelted a double into the right field during the ninth inning to try to close the deficit. Oregon State’s advantage was too large to handle, though, as Cal could not close the margin, losing the game 6-4.
The series started off on an even worse note on Friday as the standout pitching of Oregon State senior left-hander Matt Boyd left Cal’s offense virtually immobile. Boyd only let in three hits, one run and one walk including throwing a career-high 12 strikeouts. The Bears just couldn’t get their bats moving during the game, tallying only three hits compared to Oregon State’s nine.
The only bright spot came from Cal’s only score of the game, when Rodriguez smacked his sixth home run of the season during the ninth inning. After falling to Oregon State 6-1, the Bears could not find an offensive spark in the next game of the series either.
In fact, Cal found itself in an almost identical situation on Saturday — this time limited by Oregon State’s right-hander Andrew Moore. Moore pitched all nine innings with two hits, one walk and two strikeouts, improving his season record to 9-1 and shutting out the Bears 5-0.
The Bears have been incompetent this season in handling top-tier teams. Earlier this year, Cal dropped series against USC and UCLA, and the team has been swept by Arizona, Oregon and now, Oregon State. Ever since Cal made the College World Series in its glory days two years ago, the team has been in a decline due to a major drop-off in pitching and hitting. As of now, the Bears are just shadows of their former selves as they look to finish off the season at home.
Contact Johnny Zhang at [email protected] Follow him on Twitter @thejohnnyzhang.