Mr. Smith Goes Downtown on Fresno State

Blake Smith had probably the roughest pitching outing of his Cal career yesterday afternoon, surrendering four runs in an inning without recording an out.

Fortunately for the No. 7 Bears baseball team, he had already won the game with his bat.

Smith blew the game open with a grand slam in the sixth inning, closer Matt Gorgen shut the door on Fresno State's late rally with three innings of scoreless relief and Cal held on for a 5-4 win over the Bulldogs at Evans Diamond.

The grand slam was the result of a scrappy at-bat from the Bears' rightfielder, in which he fouled off four straight fastballs in an 0-2 count before driving the ninth pitch from Fresno State starter Justin Wilson onto the roof of the RSF in left field.

"He was throwing a lot of fastballs, so I was just looking to hit a fastball the other way, trying to get a run in, and I just happened to run into it pretty well," Smith said. "And it ended up going over the fence, which was a plus."

Cal's five-run sixth disrupted what had been a scoreless game through five and a half innings. With runners on second and third, centerfielder Brett Jackson looped a single over the shortstop to score rightfielder Charlie Cutler and put the Bears (19-6-1) on the board. Catcher Dylan Tonneson then walked to load the bases and set the table for Smith.

But the Bulldogs (16-14) came charging back in the top of the seventh with Smith on the mound, tagging the hard-throwing righty for three straight hits and four runs to cut Cal's lead to one. Only one of those runs was earned, though, as Fresno State benefited from a bizarre play that featured two errors by the Bears' defense.

With two on and a run already in, Bulldogs catcher Danny Grubb pulled a sharp grounder to third baseman Jeff Kobernus. Kobernus' throw skipped past first baseman David Cooper and into right field, allowing Tommy Mendonca to score from second base. Cutler then picked the ball up in foul territory, couldn't find a grip and threw it into the ground to bring Steve Detwiler home as well.

"It's just one of those days," Smith said "I was throwing strikes and they were hitting them. Luckily Gorgen came in and he was able to close it out, which is great-to have a guy come in and you're pretty confident that he'll close it out as long as we've got a lead."

Gorgen gave up just one hit and struck out four, earning his fifth save in what was his longest outing of the season. Still, head coach David Esquer had no intent of taking Gorgen out before the ninth, as the closer-who was in the ninth slot of the lineup-would have hit in the bottom of the eighth had his spot come up.

"I'm kind of used to it," Gorgen said of his long outing. "I did it a lot last year. It wasn't a huge change, and it was kind of fun to go out there and throw more than one inning."

Todd Fitzgerald made an effective spot-start for Cal, allowing one hit in four shutout innings, and freshman Kevin Miller contributed two scoreless frames, continuing his year-long dominance of opposing lineups. Miller has yet to allow an earned run in 32 innings this season, and he picked up the win to improve his record to 4-0, tying him with Tyson Ross for the team lead.

"Outside of one inning yesterday (against San Francisco) and one inning today, 16 of the last 18 innings we've pitched excellent," Esquer said. "Fitzgerald did a good job today, Miller continued to do what he does and Gorgen was great. That's the key, that's why we had a chance."

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