Cal Takes Second Game of Series With Stanford, 5-2

All that the offense of the Cal baseball team needed to wake up was a fastball to the head.

Literally.

With the No. 16 Bears trailing No. 6 Stanford 2-1, second baseman Josh Satin led off the top of the seventh inning by wearing a pitch from Cardinal starter Erik Davis off the side of his helmet.

Satin looked like he was shaken up momentarily but stayed in the game and eventually came around to score on a two-run single by third baseman Jeff Kobernus that put Cal up 3-2.

The Bears then tacked on another run in the seventh and one more in the eighth, and Blake Smith and Matt Gorgen combined for 2 2/3 innings in relief of Craig Bennigson as Cal upended Stanford 5-2 at Klein Field for the second straight day.

This game didn't require the late heroics of the Bears' 4-3 win on Friday night, although the pitching was no less stingy.

Bennigson had probably his best start of the season after a string of rough outings that had ballooned his ERA to 6.71. Back in the Saturday starting role-where he began the year-the left-hander pitched 6 1/3 strong innings, giving up two runs on seven hits.

"He was good," Bears coach David Esquer said. "He matched up well with their lineup, their strength is their left-handed hitters, so that was obviously big for us."

The quality outing from Bennigson was critical in keeping Cal (32-15-2, 11-9 in the Pac-10) within striking distance, as the Cardinal's Davis-who took just his second loss of the year-kept the Bears off-balance at the plate until he started to struggle with his control in the seventh.

After hitting Satin, Davis walked center fielder Brett Jackson and Smith to load the bases for Kobernus, who drove in his 25th and 26th runs of the year on the single.

In the top of the eighth, a wild pitch by Davis and a passed ball moved Cal first baseman David Cooper all the way from first to third before he scored on a two-out single by catcher Dylan Tonneson.

"He didn't give us anything," Esquer said. "And whatever we got, we earned. Charlie came up with the big hit to score a run early and then the three-run inning was obviously big for us. He didn't give us a whole lot, but when he gave us a small crack our guys did a good job of taking advantage of it."

Tonneson's single capped the scoring at 5-2, as Gorgen retired Austin Yount-the potential tying run-on a fly ball to the warning track with two outs in the ninth.

With the win, the Bears secured at least a series win over Stanford (28-18-2, 10-7), after being swept at Sunken Diamond in 2007. The final game of the three-game series is tomorrow at 1 p.m., with Cal freshman Kevin Miller squaring off against the Cardinal's Jeffery Inman in a game that will be televised on CBS College Sports.

"It's going to be tough," Esquer said of the possibility of a sweep. "They have to win. I don't expect them to lie down and give us one."

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