Arizona Wildcats baseball logo USE

California broke open a close game with five late runs to beat the Arizona baseball team 9-3 in the series opener in Berkeley, Calif., on Friday night.

The Wildcats (29-18, 10-12 Pac-12) had won six games in a row coming in, including a sweep of then-No. 9 UCLA at Hi Corbett Field last weekend.

Cal led 4-2 in the bottom of the seventh before Sam Wezniak belted a three-run homer to put the Golden Bears (27-19, 12-13) up 7-2.

Cal Stevenson hit his first home run of the season in the eighth to bring UA within 7-3, but the Golden Bears added two more runs in the inning.

UA got its other runs on a Jacob Blas RBI single in the fifth to cut the lead to 2-1, and an Alfonso Rivas sacrifice fly that scored Ryan Haug in the sixth to make it 4-2.

Blas had three hits in the loss, while Rivas and Cesar Salazar each had two as UA had 12 as a team.

Cody Deason (5-5), who shut out the Bruins last week en route to being named the Pac-12's pitcher of the week, took the loss against Cal, allowing four runs on seven hits in six innings.

The teams meet again at 6:05 p.m. Saturday and 1:15 p.m. Sunday.


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