March 25, 2000
BERKELEY, Calif. - The University of California baseball team lost to Arizona State, 4-2, in the second game of the three-game conference series Saturday at Evans Diamond. The Bears fall to 11-16 overall and 3-5 in the Pac-10, while No. 6 ranked Sun Devils improve to 26-6, 2-0 in conference. Arizona State had defeated Cal, 6-4, on Friday.
For the second day in a row, the Sun Devils defeated the Bears in a tightly contested ballgame that featured solid pitching by both teams and Arizona State winning by two runs.
Cal scored in the bottom of the first on an RBI single by Xavier Nady off of ASU starter Chad Pennington (6-0, 6.7 innings, seven hits, two runs, two walks, six strikeouts). The Bears Mike Tonis had started the rally with a two-out double. The score stayed 1-0 until the Sun Devils battled back by scoring two runs in the fifth inning on back-to-back homers by Mitch Jones and Casey Myers off of Cal starter Brad Steele (3-4, 7.0 innings, eight hits, three earned runs, two walks, four strikeouts). Both Jones' and Myers' home runs were to the same spot over the right field fence.
Arizona State padded its lead by scoring twice more in the sixth inning. After Brooks Conrad led-off the inning with a single to left, Cal's Tommy Callen booted a potential double play ball hit by Mike Lopez. That extended the inning as Trent Pratt singled to load the bases, Dennis Wyrick hit a sacrifice fly to right and Jonah Martin had an RBI sacrifice bunt.
The Bears were able to make the score 4-2 with a run in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI ground out by Nady. Eric Doble, who was the winning pitcher in Friday's game, earned his third save of the season, pitching the final 2.3 innings (one hit, no runs, one walk) for the Sun Devils.
Casey Myers led Arizona State at the plate, going 4-for-5 with a double and a home run. Mike Tonis was 2-for-3 with two doubles, and Rob Meyer also had two hits for Cal.
Cal will next host Arizona State in the third game of the three-game conference series, Sunday, Mar. 26 at 1 p.m. at Evans Diamond.