Cal Sports Report

Cal Defeats No. 2-Ranked Stanford in Baseball

Grand slam by Carson Crawford helps Bears beat their Bay Area rivals and improve to 3-1

Jake Curtis

Cal used the long ball to pull off an 8-4 upset of second-ranked Stanford on the Cardinal's home field Tuesday night.

Sophomore shortstop Carson Crawford belted a grand slam in the top of the first inning to give Cal and quick lead, and catcher Caleb Lomavita hit a two-run homer for the Bears in the fifth inning.  Lomavita went 2-for-5 with three RBIs for the night.

This Bay Area rivalry game does not count as a conference contrest, but it counts as a signficant accomplishment for Cal on the road.

The Bears remain unranked but improved their record to 3-1 after taking two of three from Houston on the road in the opening weekend.  Stanford slipped to 2-2 after taking two of three from Cal State Fullerton in its opening series.

Cal finished with seven hits, and jumped on Stanford starter Toran O'Harran in the first inning.

R.J. Green started the rally with a one-out single, and Peyton Schulze followed with another single.  After Tucker Bougie walked to load the bases, Crawford connected with his first homer of the season to make it 4-0. 

Cal never trailed after that. Lomavita's two-run shot in the fifth made it a 6-2 game, and Lomavita drove in another run in the Bears' two-run sixth that made it 8-2.

Lomavita is hitting .421 in the young season, and Crawford stands at .429.

Joe Williams was the Bears' starting pitcher and he allowed just one hit and one walk in his two shutout innings to pick up the victory. Christian Becerra pitched the final 2 2/3 innings for Cal and allowed just one hit and no runs while striking out four.

Cal plays it home opener on Friday against Cal Poly.

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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