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Cal third baseman Conor Jackson hit a grand slam in the bottom of the 10th inning to beat visiting Georgetown, 6-5, on Tuesday afternoon. 

The first three Cal batters of the inning walked to load the bases, and Jackson hit the first pitch he saw from Georgetown reliever Sean Cox over the left-field wall for the dramatic victory, the Bears’ eighth in their last nine games. 

“That’s a first for me,” Jackson said of his game-winning shot. “I was just missing all day, and I just wanted one more at-bat to make up for it.” 

The game went into extra innings when the Bears score two runs in the bottom of the ninth to tie the score. John Baker and pinch-hitter Matt Einspahr drove in runs with a double and single, respectively, Einspahr’s coming with two outs. 

The Hoyas answered by scoring three runs in the top of the 10th. Matt Carullo started things off with a one-out single, and Cal hurler Arthur Gross walked the next batter before leaving the game. Blake Read threw gas on the fire, giving up two singles and a walk without recording an out to surrender two runs, then senior Matt Payne’s first pitch was wild, scoring Carlos Gazitua. Payne avoided further damage when left fielder Brad Smith made a diving catch on a James Supple flare down the line, and ended up with the win when Jackson hit his slam. 

“We were lucky to win,” Cal head coach David Esquer said. “The only thing we did well was to win.” 

Both teams threw up goose eggs for the first seven innings. Cal’s Ryan Atkinson, making his first start of the season after an offseason injury, threw two innings before giving way to freshman Joe Todoroff.  

Todoroff was solid through the seventh inning, giving up just two hits, but tired after throwing 75 pitches. Tony Lee led off the eighth with a single for the Hoyas, with leadoff hitter Mike Green sacrificing him to second. Todoroff got Carullo to ground out, with Lee moving over to third, but Ron Cano rapped a double to the gap in right, scoring Lee with the game’s first run. Gazitua followed with an RBI single to center, just past diving shortstop Jeff Dragicevich, and the Hoyas had a two-run lead. 

The Bears looked flat for the first eight innings, as they got baserunners in every inning but the fifth but couldn’t score anyone. In fact, no Cal player made it as far as third base until the ninth. Georgetown starter Tom O’Connor threw five quick innings, with sidearmer Tony Pina coming on to mow down the Bears for three more frames. 

Cal second baseman Carson White started the ninth with a single off of Pina’s leg, and Georgetown quickly went to closer Kevin Galvin. Galvin got Jackson to fly out to deep center, but Baker lined a shot to center, and Gazitua slipped down while chasing the ball, allowing White to score and putting Baker on second base. Dragicevich drew a walk, but Galvin struck out pinch-hitter Chris Grossman on a pitch in the dirt, and Cal was down to its last out. 

Up came Einspahr, who grounded the ball into the hole on the right side, plating pinch-runner Creighton Kahoalii and sending the game into extra innings. 

The bottom of the tenth had to be painful for the Hoyas. After issuing just four walks in the first nine innings, Galvin, Mike Halloran and Cox teamed up to issue free passes to Cal’s Dave Nicholson, Dave Weiner and White.  

“Turnabout is fair play, I suppose,” Esquer said. “We gave them all kinds of opportunities in the previous inning, so I guess it was their turn to give us something.” 

Jackson, who hadn’t had a hit all day, stepped to the plate and hit his seventh homer of the season just when the Bears needed it most. 

“It seems like every time we get down, and that’s when we start really playing hard,” Jackson said. “It’s not something we can count on, so we have to work on getting started earlier in the game.” 

NOTES: The Bears take on rival Stanford this weekend in a non-league series. The Bears will start ace Trevor Hutchinson for Friday’s opener, with Brian Montalbo going on Saturday. Esquer said Sunday’s starter will depend on who throws in the first two games.