Bears Downed In San Jose

SAN JOSE, Calif. – California traded early blows with San José State but could never claim a lead in a 10-7 midweek loss against the Spartans at Excite Ballpark on Tuesday afternoon.
 
Despite scoring six runs through the first three innings, the Golden Bears (14-9) found themselves trailing entering the fourth and managed just one more run of offense the rest of the way. It was Cal's second consecutive loss, following an 11-4 defeat in its series finale at Utah last Sunday.
 
The early slugfest started in the bottom of the first when the Spartans (2-2) used three straight hits, a fielding error and a wild pitch by Cal starter Joseph King to take a 3-0 lead. King, working in an opener role, pitched one inning before Cal turned to the bullpen. The Bears knotted it up the following half frame on a three-run home run by Cole Elvis, but quickly fell behind again as the Spartans scored four times in the bottom of the second. Five straight batters opened the inning with hits off of Mitchell Scott, who was relieved by Jack Wolger before the end of the frame.
 
Cal's bats responded once again in the third, scoring three runs to make it a 7-6 contest. Darren Baker singled, stole second base and scored on an RBI single from Nathan Manning, who later scored along with Dylan Beavers on a bizarre two-run sacrifice fly by John Lagattuta.
 
SJSU pushed across one run in each of the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to extend its lead. Lagattuta's solo home run in the sixth proved to be Cal's final run of the game. The Bears put the tying run at the plate with two outs in the top of the ninth, but could not piece together the late rally. Ian Villers ate up the final three frames on the mound, holding the Spartans to one run on two hits while striking out three batters.
 
NOTABLES

• Darren Baker (1-for-5) extended his reached-base streak to 28 games.
• Cal has homered in five consecutive games and tallied multiple home runs in four of those contests.
• Jack Wolger was the lone Cal pitcher to not surrender an earned run during his 2.1 innings of work. In 9.2 innings pitched this season, the graduate senior owns a 0.93 ERA.
• Both John Lagattuta and Cole Elvis tied career highs with three RBI. Lagattuta also homered for the second time in four games.
• Ian Villers set a career high with three strikeouts and tied his career-long outing of three innings pitched.

 
UP NEXT
The Bears open the month of April with a Pac-12 home series against USC at Evans Diamond, starting at 6 p.m. PT Thursday.
 
STAY POSTED
For coverage of Cal baseball, please follow the Bears on Twitter (@CalBaseball), Instagram (@CalBaseball) and Facebook (/CalBaseball/).