Cal Golden Bears shut out Oregon 6-0
By Thom Fain
The Cal Golden Bears won in a shutout on Friday night at PK Park in what was a total team effort that served as a small senior sendoff.
The match was highlighted by outgoing senior Kyle Porter’s pitching performance, as he struck out eight and gave up just two hits in his eight innings on the mound.
This disrupted home team starting pitcher Jeff Gold from acquiring the record for most wins in a season for a Duck. The ramblin’ man on the mound left enough pitches in the strike zone for Cal’s lineup to feel comfortable swatting at first pitches, first pitches that found their holes off of bats and once even nearly ended up on the other side of the fence.
Infielder Brenden Farney opened up scoring in the first for the Golden Bears with a hard hit ball to center field, allowing Devon Rodriguez to run home — all while fist pumping — to tally the first run.
Derek Campbell continued the offensive tear by leading off the following inning with a second standup double that would’ve gone yard had it had another two feet on it. And after a catchers interference in the top of the fourth, with runners on first and second, Campbell unloaded with another extra-base hit to make it 3-0 Golden Bears.
The Ducks head coach Greg Horton stepped out of the dugout to talk to the ramblin’ man on the mound, but ultimately decided to leave him in. That allowed the Golden Bears to tack on two more runs to make it a three-run inning, which was a bounty more than the Bears needed to put the Ducks away.
Defensive highlight of the game has to go to right fielder Brian Celsi, who made a diving catch in the fifth to help keep Porter’s no-hit bid going. While he didn’t get one, he still added on to his team-best 64 strikeout total and can move on to the next one as a winner.
Oregon now faces an uphill battle in their bid for NCAA Regional play at PK Park.
The rubber match between Cal (25-27, 12-17 Pac-12) and Oregon (42-17, 18-11 Pac-12) will be played at 7 p.m. tomorrow.