March 26, 2011

Final Stats

BERKELEY -

The No. 16 California Golden Bears began the Pac-10 portion of their season with back-to-back shutouts, blanking the Washington State Cougars 3-0 Saturday at Evans Diamond.

Sophomore left hander Justin Jones pitched eight scoreless innings, scattering seven hits and striking out seven in his eight innings of work. He combined with junior right hander Matt Flemer for the shutout. Flemer faced three batters in the ninth, getting two strikeouts and not allowing a hit to earn his third save of the season.

Cal got on the scoreboard in the fourth inning. Sophomore second baseman Tony Renda doubled down the left field line, coming around to score on a sac fly from sophomore first baseman Devon Rodriguez.

The Bears added a pair of insurance runs in the seventh inning. Rodriguez led off the inning with a walk. A hit by sophomore centerfielder Darrel Matthews gave Cal runners on second and third with one out. Freshman DH Andrew Knapp singled to right to score both runs, putting Cal up 3-0.

Cal got a strong defensive effort out of third baseman Mitch Delfino who logged eight assists in the game.

Cal's pitching staff has yet to allow a run in their first two Pac-10 games after blanking the Cougars 7-0 in the series opener. This is Cal's third shutout in a row after also blanking Nevada, 2-0, on March 21. Cal has thrown shutouts in four of their last five games and now have seven shutouts for the season in 20 games.

With the win, the Bears improve to 15-5 (2-0 Pac-10). The Cougars fall to 9-9 (0-2 Pac-10).

The Bears will go for the sweep on Sunday, March 27 when the two teams play the final game of the series. The game has an early 11 a.m. start time to accommodate Washington State's travel schedule.