The No. 8 Washington Huskies’ struggles in series finales continued in the Bay Area on Sunday afternoon, losing to the No. 20 California Golden Bears 4-3. The loss pushed coach Heather Tarr’s team to just 1-5 in the final game of three-game sets and 0-5 on Sundays in Pac-12 play.
Even though graduate student Brooke Nelson hit her seventh home run in as many games, Washington’s pitching staff didn’t have an answer for Cal’s Tianna Bell.
Bell went 3 for 4 on Sunday, including a home run off Nelson in the bottom of the first inning and a walk-off RBI single off Ruby Meylan in the seventh inning.
Meylan took the loss on the day, falling to 9-5 on the season after pitching the final 3 2/3 innings, allowing 2 hits and 1 earned run while walking 2 batters and striking out 2.
On the other side, Haylei Archer earned her first win of the weekend to improve to 9-5 after being charged with losses on both Friday and Saturday. Archer worked the whole game for the Golden Bears, allowing 4 hits and 3 earned runs, walking 4 batters and striking out 4.
The loss drops the Huskies to 30-8 on the season and 12-6 against Pac-12 opponents, while Cal improved to 31-14 overall and 5-11 in conference play. Washington returns home this weekend for an extremely important matchup with the No. 6 Stanford Cardinal, beginning on Friday night at 7:00.