When first baseman Garret Forrester took ball four and walked to first base in the sixth inning of Saturday’s game at Goss Stadium, he also walked his way into Beaver baseball history. Forrester now sits with 120 career walks and is tied for second all-time with three other Beaver legends.

“It’s really cool,” said Forrester on his personal victory. “It shows how good I am at controlling the zone and it is something I pride myself on.”

The leader of this achievement is none other than Adley Rustchman with 160 walks. Upon finding out this news, Forrester is ready to take on the challenge, “He’s got 40 more? I’ll see what I can do.”

The California Bears jumped on an early lead in the second inning courtesy of a home run from sophomore left fielder Jack Johnson. Come-from-behind wins are no mystery to the Beavers as they are 6-4 when opponents strike first.

Beaver pitcher Jacob Kmatz kept his team within striking distance his whole outing. Kmatz tossed five and one-third innings, striking out eight Cal hitters and surrendering just two runs. The righty would also be trouble for baserunners, picking off two runners at first base in the same inning.

“The big focus after last week was driving the ball down in the zone,” head coach Mitch Canham explains. “A lot of his ‘misses’ were below the zone and that is what we are looking for. I would rather him miss low than up in the zone all of his pitches play better down low.”

California Bears starting pitcher Paulshawn Pasqualotto dominated the Beaver lineup in his five-inning tenure, striking out two and only giving up one hit.

“He was very quick to the plate and I did not see any fastballs which helped but he worked fast,” said Forrester on Pasqualott. “His fastball was around 93 mph and his changeup was 80 so that can be hard to adjust to.”

In the ninth inning, the Beaver lineup showed some life with back-to-back singles and a sacrifice bunt to move the runners over. Runners on second and third pinch hitter Ruben Cedillo grounded out to first allowing the Beaver’s first run to cross the plate.

“Sitting there in the ninth inning with runners on second and third, two out lefts to go. All we needed was one more hit but we just fell a little short,” Canham said.

Up next the Beavers take on California at 12:05 p.m. Sunday in the rubber match of the three-game series.