BERKELEY, Calif. -- The Arizona Wildcats dropped the series opener to California on Friday, falling 9-3 at Evans Diamond.
 
The loss dropped the Wildcats, who entered on a six-game winning streak, to 29-19 on the season and 10-12 in Pac-12 play. The Golden Bears improved to 27-19 and 12-13 in league play.
 
The Cats had a couple of early opportunities to score and grab an early lead against Cal, but couldn't cash in. Arizona loaded the bases with one out in the second inning, But back-to-back looking strikeouts by the Cats ended the threat and kept them off the scoreboard.
 
An inning later, the Cats again loaded the bases on a pair of base hits from Alfonso Rivas and Cesar Salazar and a walk from Nick Quintana. But a double play from Seve Romo again ended the threat and got Cal starter Matt Ladrech out of the inning without any damage.
 
In between Arizona's early chances, Cal scored a run on a two-out double from shortstop Cameron Eden to give the Bears an early lead.
 
The Bears added another run in the fourth when Eden lifted a sacrifice fly to center to make it 2-0.
 
Arizona got one run back in the fifth when the Wildcats loaded the bases again with one out. Salazar singled, Quintana walked and Romo singled to load them up for second baseman Jacob Blas. Blas singled through the left side to plate Salazar and make it 2-1. With the bases still loaded and one out, the Cats hit into an inning-ending double play to end the threat and keep it 2-1.
 
But the Bears answered right back in the bottom half with a pair of runs. Sam Wezniak and Max Flower each had RBI singles to make it 4-1.
 
Rivas got one back in the sixth with a sacrifice fly to make it 4-2. But Cal scored three in the seventh on a three-run home run from Wezniak to again extend the lead, this time to 7-2.
 
Cal Stevenson hit his first home run of the season in the eighth to cut it to 7-3. Stevenson hammered a 3-2 pitch from Cal closer Tanner Dodson over the wall in right-centerfield for his first of the year after hitting four last season.
 
But again, Cal had an answer, plating two runs in the eighth to get it to 9-3.
 
Blas finished 3 for 5 with an RBI. Salazar extended his hitting streak to nine games, going 2 for 5 with a run scored. Rivas was 2 for 4 with an RBI. Cody Deason took the loss, going six innings and giving up four runs on seven hits. He fell to 5-5 on the season.
 
The Cats and Bears will continue their three-game series Saturday night at 6:05 p.m. Right-hander Michael Flynn will start for Arizona. He'll be opposed by righty Jared Horn.