Cal Walks Off In 10th, Clinches Series With No. 24 Stanford

BERKELEY – California scored two runs in the bottom of the 10th inning to rally for a wild 6-5 win and clinch the series with No. 24 Stanford on Friday at Levine-Fricke Field.

The Bears (24-17, 6-8 Pac-12) got an RBI double from Amani Bradley to tie the game in the 10th and scored the winning run on a suicide squeeze play that resulted in a Stanford error to allow Bradley to race home from a rundown situation. The Cardinal fell to 26-12 overall and 5-6 in Pac-12 play with the loss.

Makena Smith continued her strong weekend after returning to the lineup, crushing her 10th home run, while Bradley, Acacia Anders, Alexis Bishop and Kennedy Thomas each recorded a pair of hits for the Bears. Sona Halajian picked up her 16th win of the year in the circle after entering in relief.     

HOW IT HAPPENED
Cal jumped on Stanford early with two runs on two hits in the bottom of the first. Anders plated the first run with a double to left center and Bishop brought around Anders with a single to right.

After the Cardinal got one back in the second, Cal returned the favor right away when Thomas laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to score pinch-runner, Diamond Holland, making the score 3-1 after two complete.

Cal starter Haylei Archer battled through the middle innings and Smith made it 4-1, California, with her home run over the wall in left in the fifth. Stanford rallied in the sixth, scoring two runs on two hits and it was 4-3.

Halajian entered with the bases full of Cardinal in the seventh and one out, but she gave up just an RBI sacrifice fly and got a groundout to allow one run and it was 4-4 heading to the eighth.

Neither team could get anything across until the 10th, when Stanford took their first lead of the day on three hits. Cal, however, as it has done all season, didn't give up. Bishop led off with a single and after a hit by pitch, pinch-runner Amanda Kondo scored on the Bradley double.   

UP NEXT
Cal and No. 24 Stanford wrap-up the series Saturday, April 16 with a 2 pm PT first pitch from Levine-Fricke Field on the Pac-12 Networks.     

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