Arizona baseball beats Cal for 8th straight victory

Getting off to a good start in conference play is never a bad thing, and Arizona did that a year ago by winning its first series at Cal. And after rallying to beat the Golden Bears on Saturday, the Wildcats have a chance to accomplish something they haven’t done since 2007:

Sweep.

Arizona (11-3, 2-0 Pac-12) beat Cal 7-5 for its eighth consecutive win, marking the first time since 2017 it has won its first two league games. It last opened with a series sweep in 2007.

The UA took the lead for good thanks to a 3-run bottom of the fourth, with Mac Bingham’s sacrifice fly driving in the winning run. But it was a 2-run triple from No. 9 hitter Tyler Casagrande that was the big hit, as it tied the game at 4 after Cal (8-5, 0-2) took a 4-2 lead in the top of the fourth.

Casagrande, a fifth-year senior, added a 2-out RBI single in the eighth and was 3 for 4 on the day. He’s hitting .333 with 11 RBI after entering the season with 22 RBI and a career .211 average in 117 games.

Kiko Romero added three hits and an RBI, following up his 2-home run, 6-RBI performance in Friday’s 13-2 win, raising his average to .404.

Left-hander Bradon Zastrow, moved up a day in the rotation, allowed four runs (three earned) in four innings. Freshman righty Casey Hintz allowed a run over two innings of work, then righty Chris Barraza struck out five over two frames—giving him 15 in 10 innings this season—to pick up the win and Trevor Long worked a scoreless ninth for his fourth save.

It was the 11^th career save for Long, moving into 10^th place on the UA career list.

Righty Aiden May is scheduled to start for Arizona in the Sunday finale, which is set for a 12 p.m. MST first pitch at Hi Corbett Field.