Baseball's late rally comes up short vs. No. 12 California

Friday, March 4

Austin, Texas

6 p.m.

University of Texas

5-5

California

7-3

California

Texas

Baseball's late rally comes up short vs. No. 12 California

03.04.2016 | Baseball

Box Score

The Longhorns fell 4-3 to the Golden Bears on Friday night at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.

Box Score | Postgame Quotes

AUSTIN, Texas—A late rally came up just short for Texas Baseball on Friday night as the Longhorns fell 4-3 to No. 12 California at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. Texas chipped away at the Bears lead in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, but it wasn't enough to overcome the early deficit.

The Longhorns faced a tough matchup in Cal's Daulton Jefferies, who, entering the game, had not allowed an earned run this season, but Texas' Kyle Johnston responded with a solid performance of his own.

After the two sides traded zeroes in the first two frames, Johnston led off the third frame with a hit batter. The righthander got the next two Cal hitters on a sacrifice bunt and a groundout but a two-out walk and a bloop single to left resulted in the game's first run. Johnston threw a wild pitch to the next batter and the Golden Bears took a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the inning.

In the Texas third, Kacy Clemens continued to produce. The junior doubled to open the frame but the Longhorns offense was unable to cash in.

A pair of scoreless innings followed before California added to its lead in the sixth. Thanks to a sequence of four straight singles and a throwing error, the Golden Bears upped their lead to 4-0.

In the home half of the inning, however, the Longhorns offense showed some spark. With one out, Zane Gurwitz singled through the right side and Bret Boswell followed with a ground-rule double to give Texas two runners in scoring position. Joe Baker lifted a sacrifice fly to left to pick up his first RBI of the season and cut the Cal lead to 4-1.

Freshman Beau Ridgeway came on in relief in the seventh and retired the side in order on just seven pitches.

The bottom of the Longhorns order fought back in the seventh when, with two down, Jake McKenzie reached on a single to deep short. Clemens followed with a full-count walk and freshman Brady Harlan took an 0-2 pitch up the middle to make it 4-2.

Ridgeway added another perfect inning in the eighth in advance of another Longhorns scoring opportunity. Baker singled with one out and Tres Barrera came through with his first extra-base hit of the season—a double—to score Baker from first and pull Texas to within one.

Ridgeway returned for the ninth inning and got two quick outs before allowing a double. Travis Duke then entered to close out the frame.

With one out in the home ninth, Clemens picked up his second walk of the day and Harlan followed with his second hit to give the Longhorns two baserunners, but Cal's Erik Martinez struck out the next two batters to seal the Golden Bears win.

Texas and California return to action tomorrow at 2 p.m. for the third game of this four-game non-conference series. Reigning Big 12 Pitcher of the week Ty Culbreth will oppose Cal's Ryan Mason on the hill.