A Look at Tyson Ross and the Cal Bears
Bears’ ace Tyson Ross threw seven solid innings to help the Bears defeat the Huskies on Friday.
I finally made it out to my first game of the Cal baseball season the other day. I’ve totally been meaning to go several times before, but something always came up. However, as if the prospect of spending a sunny afternoon watching baseball (with CBKWit’s delightful company, no less) wasn’t enticement enough, we managed to snag some free hot dogs and ice cream! (Don’t ask me how, I don’t even know. All I can say is that I was offered free food, and I rarely question such things.)
Now, while any day watching baseball is better than a day at the office, I must personally recommend, if you can, skipping out on a Friday to catch the Bears’ #1 starter (and pre-season All-American) Tyson Ross. After Friday’s 10-5 win over Washington, Ross is now 6-1 on the year, sporting an ERA of 3.56 and 41 strikeouts in 43 innings. Opponents are batting a paltry .231 against him. Catch him while you can; though he’s only a junior, at least one mock draft has him being taken in the first round of the upcoming MLB draft. I certainly expect this to be his final year as an amateur.
Ross winds and delivers. Kind of a funky delivery, if you ask me. He kind of slings the ball towards the plate. Whatever, it’s plenty effective.
So how’d he look? On Friday against the University of Washington, he looked good, but not great. Certainly good enough to get another win behind the Bears’ potent offense, but definitely short of ‘lights out’. Perhaps, once he was given a big lead, he simply dialed it down and went on cruise control. He only gave up one hit through three innings, but then, after being staked to a 5-run lead, gave up a run in each of the next four. Yes, he picked up five strikeouts on the day, but he sure looked hittable to me. Not that I personally would have a prayer of hitting off him, of course, but UW’s hitters looked pretty comfortable. Lots of loud outs and well-hit balls right at defenders. It was enough, but I definitely wouldn’t call his performance ‘dominant’.
In fact, the most impressive pitching performance of the day came from the Bears’ closer, Matt Gorgen. THe Huskies staged a rally in the top of the 8th, pushing across a run to pull within 9-5, then loading the bases with one out to bring the tying run to the plate. In comes Gorgen from the bullpen, who gets the next Washington hitter to line the first pitch to the first baseman, nearly catching the runner off base and ending the inning right there. Gorgen then strikes out the next hitter on four pitches, ending the threat. The ninth inning was a breeze, and Gorgen picked up his 7th save.
Closer Matt Gorgen retired all 5 batters he faced in stifling the Husky rally and nailing down the save.
Still, this year’s edition of the Bears is not built on pitching. No, the Bears will go pretty much as far as their hitting will take them. Ross gives them a great chance to open every series with a win, and if they can merely split the weekend games, they’ll win every series from here on out. This year, they’re hitting at a brisk .318 clip, with 55 homers in 38 games, scoring over 7 runs per game. That’s good, because although the Bears are 26-10-2 this year, they’re just 2-6 in games where they score 4 or fewer runs.
David Cooper, a transfer from CSU Fullerton, leads the Bears with 16 homers and is second with a .392 average. Here, he singles in the sixth inning.
All in all, nice victory for the Bears. If you haven’t made it down to Evans Diamond yet this year, you’re missing a great way to spend an afternoon and a really, really good college baseball team, Cal’s best in years.
UW’s Kyle Conley strikes out to end the game.
Another victory, 10-5 over the Huskies. High-fives all around!
what about riley vs longshore?
jk, thanks for the report.
Comment by (Not Nasty) Nate — April 20, 2008 @ 9:29 pm
great report ragnarok… by the way you can listen to all the games here:
http://kalx.berkeley.edu/sports.htm
Comment by danzig — April 20, 2008 @ 10:58 pm
thanks danzig, i’ll be sure to check it out. some sports (football, basketball) don’t lend themselves to radio very well, but i happen to think that baseball on the radio can be better than on the TV. still doesn’t beat live baseball, though.
Comment by ragnarok — April 21, 2008 @ 8:20 am
Nice Post Guys! Love the diversified posting.
Comment by johno — April 21, 2008 @ 10:16 am
Nate Longshore could only be a pitcher if Dusty Baker were his coach. People would be BEGGING Dusty to bring in Riley from the bullpen, but Dusty would just keep throwing him out there. Inning after inning after inning. After inning.
Comment by TwistNHook — April 21, 2008 @ 10:27 am
I used to swipe Tyson Ross’s Cal ID card at the security monitor booth in Unit 3. In fact, one time my hand grazed his when I gave him his card back and I totally lost it.
Comment by Scott M — April 21, 2008 @ 10:53 am
USC kicked ours and Tyson Ross’ asses pretty badly.
Comment by anon — April 21, 2008 @ 9:57 pm
I can’t tell if that’s Amy above. He brought up the “historic” USC loss, which is a classic Amy move.
But he also referred to Cal as “ours.” Difficult to tell.
Comment by TwistNHook — April 21, 2008 @ 10:03 pm
So I can’t help but notice that the spring ftbl practice pics are gone and am guessing that this is related to GreyBears’ request made on the Scout board. Will this photo “embargo” have implications on future analysis that Hydrotech has done in the past?
Comment by Montezuma's Revenge — April 22, 2008 @ 1:30 pm
Montezuma,
You’re right, the spring game photos have been removed, and it is related to (though not necessarily caused by) GreyBear’s request. Right now, we’re trying to work with Athletics to figure out an appropriate policy for these things, but for now, we’ve removed all Spring Game photos as a precaution. Hopefully we’ll have this sorted out soon. Nevertheless, rest assured that HydroTech will continue to provide his excellent analysis which we all enjoy so much.
Comment by ragnarok — April 23, 2008 @ 9:29 am