Nine months ago, Cal baseball was marked for extinction. Nine months later, they're headed to Omaha.
After the drama of the Houston Regional, Cal had relatively little trouble dispatching the upstarts in Dallas Baptist. After a dominating 7-0 victory on Saturday night over Dallas Baptist in Game 1 of the Super Regional, Cal had a relatively comfortable 6-2 victory to send the Bears on to the College World Series.
Cal again worked themselves to an early lead. Austin Booker walked on four straight balls, and Chadd Krist brought him home with a two run shot to left field to give the Bears a lead they'd never relinquish. Dallas Baptist placed a run at the top of the second for their first run of the best-of-three series, but Booker responded with a double at the bottom of the inning to help bring home Derek Campbell (although an error by the center fielder was mostly to blame).
Cal's lead was cut to 3-2 in the very next frame, but Cal would put in two more runs at the bottom of the fourth to give the Bears much needed breathing room. Chad Bunting doubled down the left field line, Darrel Matthews's fly-out advanced Bunting to third, and a double by Derek Campbell brought him home. Booker's ground out advanced Campbell, who touched home after Tony Renda singled him home. Cal tacked on their final run when Krist singled up the middle in the bottom of the sixth to bring home Booker.
Cal pitcher Erik Johnson pitched six innings, struck out four, walked four and gave up three hits and the two earned runs. Kevin Miller, Kyle Porter and Matt Flemer all pitched an inning in relief to close out proceedings.
Cal will take on the winner of tomorrow's Virginia-UC Irvine matchup. We'll have more on that game tomorrow. For now, discuss the game over at the California Golden Blogs!