BERKELEY, Calif. – Bright sunshine and warm temperatures greeted Cal baseball fans for the final time in 2017 and the Bears made sure to leave a lasting memory in their final home game of the year as a five-run sixth inning backed a quality effort on the mound and produced an 8-3 victory over No. 7-ranked TCU at Evans Diamond.
 
Given one final chance to show some of the progress gained throughout the 2017 campaign, Cal (23-28) hit the scoreboard first Saturday. A solo home run to right field by Jonah Davis provided a spark in the third inning and gave the Bears an early edge against the visitors from Fort Worth.
 
TCU (39-14) evened the score with a run in the top of the sixth but that tie didn't last long. Cal erupted for five runs in the bottom of the inning with a two-run single by Tyrus Greene, RBI bunt single by Preston Grand Pre, run-scoring single to right-center by Cameron Eden and an RBI sacrifice bunt by Max Flower putting momentum right back in the first-base dugout.
 
Andrew Vaughn drove in Cal's seventh run with a single in the seventh and Eden homered to left in the eighth to finish Cal's scoring and provide more than enough cushion even as TCU tried to rally late. Cal out-hit the No. 7 team in the nation for the second day in a row, finishing with 14 hits to the Horned Frogs' seven.
 
Cal's offensive barrage in the sixth inning came just one out too late for junior Matt Ladrech to earn a victory but the southpaw certainly deserved it. He worked into the sixth inning and allowed just one run on two hits, striking out three while walking four.
 
Tanner Dodson, who dazzled both the Horned Frogs and a television audience throughout the weekend with his defense in center field, got the final out of the sixth inning and never gave the ball back to pitching coach Thomas Eager as he went 3 1/3 innings to earn the victory. Dodson struck out four and didn't walk anyone while allowing two runs.
 
Saturday's hit totals were spread evenly throughout the lineup but Vaughn and Eden led the charge by each recording a three-hit day. Davis, Jeffrey Mitchell, Jr. and Grand Pre each had two hits and Cal finished the series with 27 hits to TCU's 23.
 
"We hung in there just like we did the first two nights," Cal head coach David Esquer said. "We hung around all three nights, we just did more to win today. We left the game at third base yesterday a couple times and the same on (Thursday) night where we just didn't take care of the ball well enough to keep the game as close as it really was."
 
Saturday's win also wraps up a highly productive season at home for the Bears. Helped by sweeps of Washington State, Arizona State and USC, Cal finishes the 2017 season with an 18-10 record at Evans Diamond. And, the win over TCU marks the second-straight victory in a series finale over a top-10 opponent after the Bears beat Stanford on Monday to close out that series.
 
Cal heads to the desert next weekend to wrap up the 2017 regular season as the Bears will square off with Arizona for three games beginning Friday. The series will be broadcast live by Pac-12 Networks and first pitch on Friday is set for 7:05 p.m.