Bears live to fight another day, take down Alcorn State

First of all, congratulations go to Alcorn State. They had a historic season and fought very hard today to live to fight another day. But today’s story is about the resiliency of these Golden Bears. Facing another early deficit, it would have been easy to roll over and let this season end. Instead, California is still very much alive in this tournament.

Kevin Miller looked to have reversed his poor showing last week against Stanford in the opening inning, with an easy 1-2-3 inning. The second turned out to be a nightmare for him, as he couldn’t even finish the inning. He gave up 4 runs, although an error from Chadd Krist certainly didn’t help. Justin Jones got him out of the jam though, and kept the damage to 4-0.

Facing a big deficit, the Bears got to work. They teed off on Braves starter Troy Williams, running him from the game before he pitched 3 innings. Chadd Krist dealt the major blow, with a 2 RBI double, but he wasn’t the only one doing damage. 6 runs scored in the third to put Cal in the lead, 6-4.

From there, the game was the Justin Jones story. The coaching staff would’ve liked to have saved him for a game tomorrow, but they had no choice with Miller pitching poorly. The lefty went 6.1 strong innings, keeping the Braves at 4 runs while the offense ran it up to 10-4. He stuck out 10 and only yielded 2 hits.

The ninth inning provided intrigue, as Jones let the first 3 Braves on. Matt Flemer came on and did what he’s done all year, close out games, and get the 3 outs necessary to keep us alive. 2 runs did come in to make it a 10-6 final.

The question now is, who pitches tomorrow? Miller, Jones, and Johnson have gotten us this far, and they’re all probably unavailable. Dixon Anderson has been terrible since Pac-10 play, but at this point he’ll probably get the start. Kyle Porter would be my favorite, considering he hasn’t pitched all week, but Esquer will probably take the junior over the frosh.

Cal played like there’s no tomorrow, and now they have a tomorrow. The Bear will take on the loser of Rice-Baylor tomorrow in hopes of prolonging their season another day. We shall see who takes the hill for the Golden Bears in that showdown. Go Bears!