Quentin Selma

After a tumultuous 2021 season where they narrowly missed regional playoffs, the Bears will look to come out strong this weekend as they open the 2022 season at the MLB4 Collegiate Baseball Tournament.

Despite logging a barn-burner win on Friday, Cal’s quiet bats and defensive errors against Washington State made stout pitching efforts and clutch plays obsolete.

After faltering in the first game of the series, Cal’s hitting and pitching depth became more apparent than ever, as it propelled the Bears to a walk-off, series-tying win and a rubber match victory against USC.

Electric bullpen performances bolstered by offensive fireworks helped Cal baseball steamroll the opposing Gaels in all games but one of the four-part series.

Game three of the series, a 5-2 loss in Stockton, displayed all of the Bears’ early season flaws, both offensively and defensively.

Head coach Mike Neu and his Bears will take the field for the first time since last March in what could be a topsy-turvy 2021 season. Cal begins its journey with a four-game series against Pacific.

The Cal lineup had high expectations for the 2020 season, but the Bear hitters severely underperformed, a trend that is clearly exposed when evaluating the advanced statistics behind their performance.

Last spring, the Bears ended the season with the worst record in the Pac-12. After the introduction of new names in the offseason, next year may well be different.

A crushing extra-inning comeback from the Dons late in the rubber match barred the Bears from winning their first series of the season Sunday afternoon.

The Bears will aim to get their offensive gears turning against the USF Dons this weekend with hopes of flipping the season’s script.