Cal Baseball’s Fan Fest Rained Out
BERKELEY – Rain in the Bay Area has forced a cancellation of Cal Baseball’s third annual Fan Fest, scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 9 at 11:30 a.m. at Evans Diamond. The rain has also washed out the Golden Bears’ scheduled Blue-Gold intrasquad scrimmage, originally set for 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
The Cal Baseball Fan Fest, which began in 2012, is an opportunity for fans of all ages will get a chance to meet the players, get autographs, run the bases, and test pitching, fielding and batting skills on the Bears’ home baseball field that now features lights and a new video scoreboard. Fan Fest is hosted by Cal Athletics and the Cal Baseball Foundation.
The 2014 Bears feature 23 returners from last year’s squad and an impressive freshman class. Cal has five members returning from the 2011 College World Series squad – seniors Devon Rodriguez, Kyle Porter and Vince Bruno; and juniors Derek Campbell and Michael Theofanopoulos.
Campbell was the starting second baseman for the Bears as a freshman at the CWS, Theofanopoulos is a talented left-handed pitcher/utility player, Porter was a freshman All-American left-hander in 2011 and picked up Cal’s CWS victory over Texas A&M in Omaha, Bruno was an honorable mention all-conference selection in 2011 and Rodriguez was the Most Outstanding Player of the 2011 Houston Regional after knocking in the game-winning hit in Cal’s dramatic come-from-behind victory over Baylor to advance the Bears to the 2011 Super Regionals in Santa Clara.
The schedule for the 2014 Cal baseball team includes hosting the season-opening four-game series against Texas, Feb. 14-16 at Evans Diamond (7 p.m. Friday, doubleheader at 1 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m. Sunday). The Bears will also be hosting a tournament at Evans Diamond, the Cal Baseball Classic, with Arkansas, Tulane and San Francisco March 7-9. Cal will also be hosting Pac-12 series versus 2013 National Champion UCLA (March 14-16), Utah (March 28-30), Washington (April 17-19), 2013 CWS participant Oregon State (May 2-4) and 2012 National Champion Arizona (May 16-18) at Evans Diamond.