BearTalk

UPDATED WITH STATS

FINAL SCORE: Gold 21, Blue 20. A wild fiinish to the Spring Game in front of an announced crowd of 8,812 at Edwards Stadium. Freshman QB Zach Kline delivered a 40-yard TD pass to TE Spencer Hagan with 7:35 left in a running-clock fourth quarter. He then zipped a two-point cconversion pass to Jackson Bouza, giving the Gold squad a 21-14 lead. Redshirt freshman Austin Hinder took over at QB for Blue and with 5 seconds left threw a 75-yard TD to redshirt freshman WR Stephen Anderson. But the defense double-teammed Maurice Harris on the two-point pass try and DB Tyre Ellison deflected Hinder’s pass, preserving the 21-20 Gold victory.

Coach Jeff Tedford was pleased with both teams as well as the crowd and atmosphere. He declined to participate in the post-game pie-eating contest, won by senior C Dominic Galas.

Hagan suffered a minor ankle sprain late, but otherwise the Bears emerged from the event intact.

Here are unofficial stats from Cal:

BLUE

Rushing – Isi Sofele 9-34, Zach Maynard 4-15 TD, Brendan Bigelow 3-20, Daniel Lasco 6-8, Austin Hinder 1-6, Kameron Krebs 1-2, Kyle Boehm 4-(-8)

Passing – Zach Maynard 6-10-109 TD, Austin Hinder 4-5-98 TD, Kyle Boehm 2-6-32

Receiving – Maurice Harris 7-95 TD, Bryce McGovern 3-51, Stephen Anderson 2-96 TD

Tackles (Big Plays) – Nick Forbes 7 (.5 TFL, 1 PBU), Avery Sebastian 4 (1 INT), Ted Agu 3, Jason Gibson 3, Kameron Jackson 3 (1 PBU), Adrian Lee 3, Chris McCain 3 (0.5 TFL), Austin Clark 2, Mustafa Jalil 2 (0.5 TFL), Keni Kaufusi 2 (0.5 TFL, 1 PBU), Nathan Broussard 1, J.P. Hurrell 1, Gabe King 1 (1 PBU, 1 QBH), Kameron Krebs 1, Jordan Morgan 1, Josh Hill (1 PBU)

Kick Returns – Brendan Bigelow 2-32, Adrian Lee 1-30, Daniel Lasco 1-27, Kameron Jackson 1-23

FG/PAT – Benjamin Calder 0-1 FG (50), 2-2 PAT

GOLD

Rushing – C.J. Anderson 14-85 TD, Dasarte Yarnway 6-7, Mitch Bartolo 3-6

Passing – Allan Bridgford 11-21-90, Zach Kline 3-5-54 TD

Receiving – Jackson Bouza 4-41, Ross Bostock 2-23, Dasarte Yarnway 2-16, Jacob Wark 2-11, Spencer Hagan 1-40 TD

Tackles (Big Plays) – Puka Lopa 7 (1.0 SK), Cecil Whiteside 7 (1.0 SK), David Wilkerson 6, Tyré Ellison 5 (1.0 TFL, 1 PBU), Deandre Coleman 5 (0.5 TFL), Viliami Moala 4 (0.5 TFL), Robert Mullins 4, Todd Barr 3, Stephen Fanua 2 (1.0 SK, 1 PBU), Alex Logan 2, Matt Mayes 2, Ross Bostock 1, Lucas King 1 (1.0 SK, -7), Isaac Lapite 1, Steven Williams 1

Kick Returns – Joel Willis 2-35, Mike Manuel 1-30

FG/PAT – James Langford 2-2 FG (47, 41), 2-2 PAT

END OF THIRD QUARTER: Told you it would be faster. Blue still leads 14-13. Blue has the ball with Boehm at QB. Bigelow just had a nice run nullified by a holding penalty.

TV UPDATE: Gary Stevenson, president of Pac-12 Enterprises, said at halftime that all Comcast, Time-Warner, Cox and Bright House cable subscribers will get the Pac-12 network on their basic cable packages, beginning in August. Nothing extra to purchase. Negotiations are ongoing with DISH and DirecTV, but Stevenson expressed optimism that a deal will be struck with both. He also said the plan is that all 12 Pac-12 spring games will be televisesd a year from now.

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The top-ranked Cal women’s softball team (41-2, 12-1 Pac-12) scored five runs in the fourth inning and easily topped Oregon 8-1 at Eugene, Ore.

Jolene Henderson pitched a four-hitter and eight strikeouts while improving to 23-1. Jace Williams included a home run among three hits and drove in four runs and Frani Echavarria doubled home three runs to power the offense.

   – Baseball: Chad Bunting hit two home runs and drove in five runs as the Bears (21-15, 5-8) climbed out of last place in the Pac-12 with a 9-4 home victory over Utah (10-26, 5-11). Andrew Knapp also homered among Cal’s 17 hits.

The Bears, who lead the Pac-12 in errors, played flawlessly in the field for the second straight game.

The Golden Bears will close out spring ball on Saturday morning with an 11 a.m. spring game and a variety of giveaways and contests at Edwards Stadium.

Gates open at 10 a.m. The event is free.

Here’s a time schedule and a list of activities for the Spring Football Experience.

And here are rosters for the Blue and Gold teams that will square off in the game.

The Wall Street Journal on Thursday published a story suggesting that Cal’s efforts to meet financing goals for refurbished Memorial Stadium are falling substantially short.

Here’s perspective on the story from our Jon Wilner along with Cal’s response to the WSJ story.

The top-ranked Cal women’s softball team stepped outside the Pac-12 and toppled Santa Clara 10-2 in five innings to win its 40th game of the season.

Senior Valerie Arioto struck out 13 in five innings and improved to 18-1, while going 2 for 3 with two RBI. Danielle Henderson hit her 13th home run, a three-run shot in the first inning, and Lindsey Ziegenhirt clubbed her first homer of the season.

Back home in Chicago, Alex Rossi expects to decide on a new college basketball destination by the end of the week. The former Cal guard said he has offers from Valparaiso and Loyola-Chicago.

He is hoping not to have to sit out a year as a transfer after returning home because of private family issues. The NCAA can waive its transfer rule in the case of hardship situations, as it did a year ago when MoMo Jones went from Arizona to Iona to be closer to his ailing grandmother.

“I don’t think I’ll have to sit out, but I don’t know for sure,” Rossi said. “The schools I’m applying to are taking care of that.”

Valparaiso is on the Illinois-Indiana border, less than an hour from Chicago. “Both of them are a lot clsoer than California,” he said.

Rossi is awaiting word from the NCAA on whether he would be allowed to accept a scholarship from Loyola, where his godfather is employed.

He left for home on March 1 to be with his family, missing Cal’s final regular-season game, the Pac-12 and the NCAA tournaments.

In two years at Cal, he played just three games because of a lingering lower-abdominal injury.

“Being hurt is always frustrating,” he said. “I’m healthy now.”

Through it all, Rossi said he enjoyed his experience at Berkeley.

“It was great,” he said. “I met a lot of really good people, had some really cool experiences. I’d never been to California before. It was fun.”

This is why Kentucky won the NCAA tournament — all five of the Wildcats’ starters announced today they will turn pro.

Three freshmen and two sophomores — and they’re apparently all going to get drafted.

The website DraftExpress.com projects four of them being selected among the first 18 picks — Anthony Davis at No. 1, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist at No. 3, Terrence Jones at No. 11 and Marquis Teague at No. 18. Doron Lamb is tabbed go to No. 33, with senior reserve Darius Miller pegged for No. 35.

UPDATE:

Cal fans get a sneak peek at the football team Saturday at Edwards Stadium (the track stadium on Bancroft Ave., west of Haas Pavilion) when the Bears host what they are calling their Spring Football Experience. The event marks the end of spring practice.

Coach Jeff Tedford announced after practice Tuesday that the team will stage essentially a spring game, after all. As recently as Monday, that wasn’t decided. But the coaches held a “draft” to divide the roster into two squads.

“It will be pretty much like a game,” Tedford said. “Unless something really bad happens Thursday (in practice), which we’ll cross our fingers on that, we’ll break up into blue and gold teams and play pretty much a game.”

“I hope there’s a great turnout,” Tedford said. “It’s going to be a great day. We’re going to have some of the NFL guys back, we’re going to have a lot of fan interactive things going on throughout the game, so it should be a fun festive day.”

After the game, players and coaches will be available to sign autographs and take photos with fans.

There will be drawings to win a pair of season tickets, autographed memorabilia and a free trip to Columbus, Ohio, for Cal’s game against Ohio State on Sept. 15. One fan will get the chance to call a play with Tedford during the spring game.

The first 1,500 fans will get free food from the San Francisco Soup Company.

The event is free. Gates open at 10 a.m. and the team begins practice at 11 a.m.

Here’s more.

Despite losing just its second game of the season last week, the Cal women’s softball team remains atop both national polls.

The Golden Bears (39-2 overall, 11-1 in Pac-12) are No. 1 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball and USA Today/NFCA rankings for the fourth consecutive week.

Alabama (40-2) remains No. 2 in both polls.

Cal faces Santa Clara (8-36) in a nonconference game Wednesday at 3 p.m. at Levine-Fricke Field in Berkeley, then visits No. 14/18 Oregon (29-9, 8-5), the Pac-12′s third-place team, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Reserve guards Emerson Murray and Alex Rossi — part of the five-man 2010 recruiting class that featured Allen Crabbe — are leaving the Bears’ program.

Murray, who averaged 1.4 points in 57 games over two seasons, will transfer to Seattle U, according to assistant coach Jay John.

Rossi, plagued by a bothersome lower-abdominal injury most of his two seasons, has returned home to the Chicago area to help with family issues, John said. Rossi redshirted in 2010-11 and played in just three games this past season.

Neither player ever started a game for the Bears.

The departures leave Cal with two vacant scholarships, although rising senior center Robert Thurman, originally a walk-on, could wind up with one of them.

The Bears’ backcourt depth actually should be better a year from now, even with the exit of Murray and Rossi and the graduation of senior Pac-12 Player of the Year Jorge Gutierrez.

Three newcomers — Missouri transfer Ricky Kreklow, and high school signees Tyrone Wallace and Kahlil Johnson — will add to the choices on the perimeter.

The Bears’ likely starting lineup next season: PG Justin Cobbs, SG Allen Crabbe, SG Ricky Kreklow, PF David Kravish, PF/C Richard Solomon.

Off the bench: PF Brandon Smith, C Robert Thurman, F Bak Bak, F Christian Behrens and the freshmen — Wallace, Johnson and PF Kaileb Rodriguez.  Also back is walk-on SG Jeff Powers.

Kreklow, who practiced all season with the team, already has the confidence of the coaching staff. Wallace, the most highly rated of the three freshmen, can play either PG or SG, but may not be needed immediately at the point, with Cobbs and Smith available.

Johnson, signed just last week out of Price HS in Los Angeles, is a 3-4 combo player with face-the-basket skills.

Murray, who came to Cal from Vancouver, B.C., never developed the raw potential the coaches saw in him. He shot 13 for 47 (27.7 percent) from the 3-point arc and did not handle the ball well enough to play point.

Rossi never could get healthy enough to find his way onto the court. Hernia and groin issues shelved him all of his freshman season, and he played just 16 minutes this past season. He left the team late this season to be with his family.

Regarded as an excellent catch-and-shoot perimeter threat, Rossi made one 3-point basket for the Bears.

Murray and Rossi were part of the recruiting class that arrived with great fanfare in the fall of 2010. G Gary Franklin Jr., transferred to Baylor midway through the 2010-11 season. Solomon was academically ineligible for the second semester this past season after earning a spot in the starting lineup, although he is expected to be OK moving forward.

Crabbe has delivered as the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year in 2010-11 and an all-Pac-12 selection this past season.