A big second inning was the difference for the California baseball team, who beat Oregon 5-3 on senior night at PK Park.
With the bases loaded and no outs in the second inning, Vince Bruno singled up the middle to score two runs, giving Cal a 2-0 lead. Oregon starting pitcher Brando Tessar was pulled thereafter, officially making Saturday’s start the shortest Tessar’s shortest of the season.
“Brando again was not extremely sharp,” Oregon head coach George Horton said. “Just didn’t seem to have very good stuff. When he was in the strike zone they turned it around. … We were not good on the mound. Three out of 14 first-pitch strikes is not the way we pitch.”
Trent Paddon relieved Tessar and allowed both inherited runners to score. Jacob Wark grounded out to score Derek Campbell, and Aaron Knapp drove in Bruno to give Cal a 4-0 lead.
Tessar’s line was one inning pitched with four earned runs allowed on four hits and one walk. He didn’t strikeout any Cal batter he faced. The short start was Tessar’s third straight after throwing 22.1 consecutive scoreless innings. In his last three outings combined, Tessar has pitched eight innings, giving up 15 runs (12 earned).
Oregon’s bats were silent until the fifth inning, when Steven Packard singled with one out to break up Ryan Mason’s no-hitter. Packard scored on Nick Catalano’s RBI double to make the score 5-1. Catalano scored on an RBI base hit by Mark Karaviotis, who was driven in by Aaron Payne.
Kyle Garlick’s leadoff single in the sixth was Oregon’s last hit of the game.
“We were trying to come out here, get some runs on the board early but it hasn’t gone our way lately,” Garlick said. “Their guy was kinda dialed in pitching the first few innings and we’re just going to have to tip our cap off to him. We were squaring balls up but they were just right at people so you keep grinding with it and we put up three in that one inning, but it wasn’t enough tonight.”
“We’ll have to re-evaulate that,” Horton said. “Brando has had three less than stellar outings in a row. We’ve gotta figure that out. Brando is not terrible. He’s experienced, he’s got some savvy-ness. It could be Paddon, could be (Stephen Nogosek), it could be a lot of guys, so we’ll see.”
Follow Madison Guernsey on Twitter @guernseymd