Cal Falls In First Round Of ACC Championship
CHARLOTTE— The 13th-seeded California baseball team fell in the first round of the 2026 ACC Championship to 12th-seeded Stanford 11-4 Tuesday at Truist Field in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Golden Bears (29-26) saw their 2026 season come to an end, but not before they went above and beyond the expectations that many had for this young ball club. For a team with 28 newcomers, 18 freshmen, and a handful of tough injuries that saw some of its top performers miss meaningful time to start with a 1-11 ACC record and finish 11-7 in one of the top two conferences in the sport shows the fight and resilience that these Bears had all year.
After a couple of quiet innings from both teams the scoring got started in third with nine-hole hitter Gannon Snyder doubling down the left field line to give Cal its first hit of the day. Just three pitches later catcher Hideki Prather drove Snyder in on an RBI single to right field to put the Bears up 1-0.
The Cardinal (28-25) evened the game with a solo home run in its first at-bat in the bottom half, which was also its first base runner of the game.
That would be one of just three baserunners allowed by Cal starter Otto Espinoza as the freshman retired six in a row with four strikeouts to start before running into some trouble in the bottom of the fourth. Stanford scored another pair in that inning to take a 3-1 lead and give Espinoza a final line of three earned on one hit and two walks in 3.1 innings of work in the loss.
The bottom of the Bears’ lineup gave Cal a great chance to get right back in the game with centerfielder Ethan Kodama collecting a lead-off walk in top of the fifth and Snyder following with his second straight double, but the top of the lineup went down in order to end the inning.
Stanford added three more in the bottom of the fifth, all with two outs, followed by four in the sixth to take a 10-1 lead that the Bears could not overcome.
Prather hit his team-leading 14th home run of the season in the bottom of the seventh giving him an OPS of 1.053 to end his first season with the Bears. The lead-off catcher led Cal in batting average (.333), slugging (.632), OBP (.421), runs (47), doubles (17), and RBI (44).
The Bears fought till the very end with center fielder Ethan Kodama crushing the first home run of his career in the top of the ninth. It was a two-run shot that carried 424 feet, the longest of the tournament so far.
Snyder finished with one of his best outings of the year going 3-for-4, and left fielder Carl Schmidt went 2-for-4 with a double.
Cal finishes its second ACC campaign with a 29-26 overall record giving head coach Mike Neu his sixth above-.500 season with the Bears. The 29 wins ties the third most in his career, which he has achieved three times. The Bears’ 12 ACC wins and 13th-place finish are their highest marks in their two seasons with the conference.
