Cal Baseball Preview: Bears Try Again in Loaded ACC

Bears were surprised they did not get a berth in the NCAA playoffs last year and have a drastically different roster this season

Jake Curtis | Feb 13, 2025

Austin Turkington is scheduled to be Cal's starting pitcher for the opener / Photo courtesy of Cal Athletics

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California Golden Bears

Cal baseball coach Mike Neu was asked a few days ago how long it took him to get over not being invited to the NCAA tournaent last year.

"I don't think I ever will," Neu said.

It wasn't just that nearly everyone in the Pac-12 thought the Bears would get a berth in the national championship tournament after going 36-19, including 17-13 in the Pac-12, and winning 20 of their final 25 games. It was also about Neu lamenting that one more win or scheduling one more strong opponent to boost the Bears' RPI could have been the deciding factor in getting in.

"I think more about what we could have done," he said. "I don't know that I'm over it ever, but you always got to move forward."

Cal begins its 2025 season with Friday's game against Nevada, the first of 10 straight home games to open the season. The Bears hope a strong start will launch them into contention for an NCAA tournament berth this season with a dramatically different roster, one in which many of its top players from last season were either taken in the major-league draft or transferred away. The Bears have 22 new players on this year's roster, and this season they are competing in the ACC, one of the two powerhouse baseball conferences, along with the SEC.

Because of the makeover of its roster and the strength of the conference, Cal was picked to finish 13th in the 16-team ACC in the preseason coaches poll:

2025 Preseason ACC Coaches Poll

📰 read more: https://t.co/9lm0YZ5QXQ pic.twitter.com/DNyN0ir7iZ
— ACC Baseball (@ACCBaseball) January 30, 2025

Cal lost its top two sluggers from last season -- catcher Caleb Lomavita and center fielder Rodney Green Jr. -- to the major-league draft, and the Bears return only one of the six pitchers who started six games or more last season. In reality Cal has no returning starting pitchers, since Austin Turkington was a reliever who started eight games as an opener. Turkington will be an authentic starter this season after going 2-1 with a 3.52 ERA last season, and he is scheduled to be the Bears' staring pitcher in their opener on Friday.

The key Cal players who transferred out of Berkeley after the 2024 season were first baseman Peyton Schulze (Texas Tech), infielder Carson Crawford (Washington) and pitchers Ian May (UCLA), Trey Newmann (TCU) and Oliver Boone (Kentucky),

Cal added a few transfers itself, perhaps the most significant being pitcher David Shaw, who played at Texas last season. He was primarily a reliever with the Longhorns, but he is expected to be one of Cal's three weekend starters this season.

Shaw had a 2-2 record with a 3.09 ERA for Texas in 2023, but his ERA ballooned to 7.79 last season. Neu assumes that 2024 result was an aberration because Shaw was coming back from Tommy John surgery, With Shaw having another year to recover, Neu expects him to be back to his pre-surgery form.

The other significant additions via the transfer portal are infielder Carl Schmidt (Texas A&M), reliever Spencer Dessart (Washington), catcher Alex Birge (Wichita State), outfielder Jacob French (San Francisco State) and outfielder-pitcher Cole Tremain. Schmidt transferred from Texas A&M after redshirting his freshman season in 2024 following a standout high school career, and Tremain played at Sacramento State last season after starting 26 games at Baylor in 2023, when he hit .273.

However, the heart of the Bears' 2025 team is their middle infielders, both of whom were on the all-Pac-12 team last season as freshmen -- second baseman Jarred Advincula, the Bears' leading hitter in 2024 with a .325 batting average, and shortstop PJ Moutzouridis, who hit .299 last season. They are the two players featured in the videos.

The third key returning Cal player is outfielder Seth Gwynn, who hit .311 with seven homers last season.

The RPI issue, which probably prevented Cal from making the NCAA playoffs last year, should not be a factor this season as a member of the powerful ACC.

Seven ACC teams are among the top 15 teams in the D1Baseball preseason rankings, with Virginia at No. 2. Six SEC teams are in the top 15, and only two teams that played in the Pac-12 last year are among D1 Baseball's top 15 this preseason.

Neu does not expect the travel in the ACC to be a major problem, because it won't be more than Cal is used to. Including the postseason ACC tournament, Cal will make five trips to the East this season and will play 38 of its 52 regular-season games in the Bay Area, including 30 home games. Two years ago, Cal played three-game series at Houston, at Frisco (Texas) and at Pittsburgh to go along with road tripes to Tucson, Corvallis, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Scottsdale, Arizona.

"Actually we do travel less this year this year as far as total trips go compared to previous seasons, especially last year, so feel good about that," Neu said.

Cal does not have to worry about qualifying for the conference postseason tournament, to be held May 20-25 in Durham, North Carolina. All 16 teams will participate in the ACC tournament, but it will be a single-elimination event.