For 119 years, the California baseball team has been a fixture in Berkeley. Playing at Evans Diamond -- just a stone's throw from where the team first laid lumber to cowhide -- the Bears have created something special. Over 2,383 wins and 1,774 losses, 11 postseason appearances, two national titles, 33 All-Americans, six Freshman All-Americans, 90 all-conference selections and 48 Major League alumni, this program has become as much a part of the fabric of Cal sports as the block C which has adorned their caps for the better part of a century.

With 10 alumni reaching the Major Leagues last season, a homegrown hurler plying his trade on the Oakland Coliseum hill in Tyson Ross, American League MVP Jackie Jenson and future-Hall-of-Famer Jeff Kent, the program was anything but short on tradition.

So when this year's bunch assembled in a hotel room at the Tucson Hilton East at the behest of head coach David Esquer on Friday morning for a scouting report, it seemed like it would be just more business as usual -- the day-to-day work of a lengthy baseball season. It would make sense to have one more meeting, especially considering this weekend's opponent: No. 20 Arizona.

That wasn't quite how things worked out.

"When Coach told us we had a scouting report, we were a little confused," said junior All-Pac-10 catcher Chadd Krist. "We hadn't done it on the past two road trips. We went in, he dropped the news on us, and it was just a big weight off of our shoulders, a big sigh of relief, that our program's finally getting reinstated. We no longer have to worry about our futures, because our futures are with the University of California and with Cal baseball. Now, we can just really focus on what we're doing on the field: keep winning and keep playing hard."

Esquer -- in his 12th year at the helm of the program -- was excited just to finally have some good news to give his charges, who had been dealt nothing but gut-punches and haymakers since the initial decision on Sept. 28 to cut four programs -- baseball, men's and women's gymnastics and women's lacrosse -- and relegate a fifth -- Jack Clark's national-championship rugby program -- to varsity club status.

"I got the news from Sandy Barbour this morning, and our kids went into what they thought would be a scouting report meeting, and I was able to give them the news that we'd all been waiting for, which was that we were reinstated," Esquer said. "They let out with a loud ovation as soon as I gave them the news, and it was pretty touching to see how excited they were."

When freshman catcher Andrew Knapp drove a game-winning RBI single into right on the opening day of the season against Utah, little did he know that there was an even bigger feeling of utter elation and celebration on the horizon, as, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, the program came up with a winning knock of its own.

"It's definitely up there," laughed Knapp. "It was just one of those ecstatic feelings, and I think it's more of a relief, it's off everyone's chest: the team the coaching staff and the program. Just to know that it's finally over and to put it behind us and move on with the season and the future of Cal baseball, I would say that it's definitely better than winning one game. Now, there's a lot more that we can win."

There was whooping and hollering and carrying on of all shapes and sizes, colors and volumes in that cramped hotel room, and across the country, text messages and facebook chats began to fly. From the St. Louis Cardinals clubhouse at AT&T Park to the Oakland A's clubhouse in Minnesota, across the minor leagues in Springfield, Mo., and Binghamton, N.Y., there were sighs of relief, quiet reflection and indelible grins. The program that, on Sept. 28, was told it would be playing its last season, wouldn't be disappearing, after all.

"I don't think anyone was disappointed that it wasn't a scouting meeting.," Knapp laughed. "There was definitely an ecstatic feeling throughout the whole room. I know that Coach and a couple other people said that this should, in no way, affect the way we've been playing, and I think that part of our motivation has been to prove that we should be continuing to be a Cal sport, but now that we're reinstated, I think that we're still going to have that mentality and that attitude in the games we play."

Of course, being hardened baseball players, no one shed a tear -- at least one that could be seen by teammates.

"I don't think anyone got too emotional. Everyone was just happy and excited that we finally now know that we're going to continue to play here," Knapp said. "People may have gotten emotional and didn't show it, because that might not be the best thing to do around a bunch of baseball players."

Playing with a chip on their shoulders has become second-nature for the No. 13 Bears, who have compiled a 19-7 overall record and a 5-1 mark in the Pac-10.

"It's a great tribute to the resiliency and the focus and the talents of the young people we have on this campus. I think what our baseball student-athletes and the program have done is quite remarkable, and we owe them all our admiration," said Barbour. "Our mission has always been about a higher-quality experience for our student-athletes, and the passion and the generosity and the action-oriented campaign of our donor community and their results mean the world to a bunch of students and their opportunity to compete."

Cal goes into tonight's clash with Wildcats ace Kurt Heyer tied atop the conference standings.

"I think it has brought them closer together and boy, nothing like adversity to bring a group closer, and this was something that was life-changing for a lot of our players, and from Day One, they had made a commitment to move forth and give it everything they had," Esquer said. "We said that if this was going to be the last season in Cal history, we're going to give them one hell of a team, and they've done that."

After the initial announcement, just three players decided to depart the program, something that one of the team's leaders -- Krist -- sees as a testament to what this bunch has built over the past several seasons.

"We have something special here at Cal," he said. "I think that we established that last year, and we've built on it this year, just the ambiance of practice, games, the locker room, we're all best friends. There's nobody who sticks out. We're really a tight-knit family and it's something that not a lot of programs have. I think that's the reason why we had so many people stay and stick with the program and fight on through this stuff."

Two of the foundational pieces for the team's success have been sophomores Tony Renda and Justin Jones. Both would have transferred to Oregon had the program not been saved. Now, the Ducks' loss is the Bears' gain, as the pair of Freshman All-Americans will stay put.

"There was definitely a big sigh of relief. There's a reason why (Austin) Book(er), myself and Jonesy picked Cal. It's the place where we want to be. It's got everything that a kid could want: a great education, a great program, we're all brothers on the team and it's just a huge sigh of relief," Renda said. "Going somewhere for a year or two other than where you want to be is not what any one of us really wanted to do. Now we can just focus on building this team and winning this year and winning a championship."

Krist -- who is eligible for this June's Major League Draft -- has a new understanding about how important it is to have a place to come back to, echoing the sentiments expressed by the current second baseman for the Double-A Binghamton Mets and former Cal infielder Josh Satin when the team was initially cut in September.

"All the alumni, all the current players in the pros, they have something to come back to," Krist said. "Hypothetically, if I were to get drafted, then I can still come back to Cal and take batting practice and talk with Coach Esquer about the game. That's big. That's really important to guys who graduate from Cal."

As Krist and others move on from the program, the biggest question now for the Bears coaching staff is recruiting.

"There's no doubt that there has been an impact on our program," Barbour said of the initial decision back in September. "But, given our financial realities, we had some pretty difficult decisions to make, and there was going to be an impact."

How do you rebuild the program after losing all of your commitments, especially this late in the game?

"The sooner, the better, obviously, because we've got to try and salvage a recruiting class as soon as possible," Esquer said. "I know that Monday opens the second signing period, and we're obviously behind there, but Cal is a destination spot, and that's not going to change."

Cal will likely lose Krist, junior Sunday starter Dixon Anderson, junior Friday starter Erik Johnson and senior righty Kevin Miller. Senior outfielder Austin Booker will be gone, as will be senior outfielder Dwight Tanaka. Other possible losses could include junior shortstop Marcus Semien and junior closer Matt Flemer.

"Many of the kids who we initially had commitments from had already signed letters of intent with other programs, so they're virtually all gone to us at this point," said Esquer, who has loosed ace recruiter Tony Arnerich and well-respected pitching coach Dan Hubbs on the remaining recruits. "Tony Arnerich and Dan Hubbs, we've kind of turned them loose already and they've been on the phone already trying to see what's still out there, and we're going to find our players. We're very lucky that, from this year's team, we return a player at virtually every field position. The mound will be different. That's where we'll take a little bit of a hit from graduation and the Draft. That's where our focus is going to be based on, is bringing in pitching."

Esquer said that the team will work on bringing in eight scholarship players, divided between three position players and five pitchers.

"This week or 10 days is a dead period, and we missed the early signing date and the late signing date is fast approaching, but that's the hand we're dealt, and we're going to deal with that just like we've dealt with everything," Esquer said. "We're going to move forward as positively as we can, and we have a lot of faith that Cal is a destination spot. People want to go to the University of California for the education, and we feel like we've got a heck of a baseball program to sell them, as well. That's what we're going to focus on."

Esquer is in the final year of his contract with the University, but has arguably turned in one of the finest coaching jobs of his career under less-than-ideal conditions.

"We haven't had to do much. Our team is extremely self-motivated, and they've kind of built this momentum a lot on their own, as far as, it is a little bit of us against the world, and that it was the biggest mistake to try and do away with our program," Esquer said. "The motivation has been easy, and the baseball part of it is, if we can't be motivated to play in the Pac-10 -- as good a group of 10 teams in the country as there is -- then we've got problems. This has definitely added to it the fact that, hey, our Athletic Department decided that we were going to be cut."

"A lot of the coaches, they really focused on keeping that stuff off the field and not letting us get caught up with it," Krist said. "It was more of a behind-the-scenes thing. Coach Esquer, Coach Hubbs, Coach Arnerich and Coach (Brad) Sanfilippo were all doing their best to help look out for our futures. It was really their responsibility as leaders to keep our minds focused on the games and focused on practice. It wasn't that big of a distraction; it was kind of put on the backburner, but now that it's reinstated, we continue to focus on winning."

Knapp -- a third-generation Golden Bear -- put off his decision on where to transfer as long as he possibly could. Now that the program is back, he will relish jumping onto the web on Monday to select his classes for next fall.

"I was devastated. Cal has been my dream school since I could remember. I'm a third-generation Cal student in my family, and I've always wanted to play baseball there, and when it got taken away from me, I was just devastated," Knapp said. "I knew that we had to play this season and I just focused on that, mostly.

"From the beginning, I knew that I was going to continue the season here, just because we have such a special group. I was still weighing my options for next year, looking at a couple Pac-10 teams, and I wasn't going to make a decision until I was forced to, and I knew that the whole Save Cal Baseball group was making progress, so I wasn't really going to make myself choose any school at this point. Now that we're reinstated, it really takes a load off of my back, now that I can continue to play and attend the school that I've always wanted to."

The hard-nosed Renda -- at 5-foot-8, 173 pounds -- is used to being the underdog, the runt of the litter. There's no mistaking that as far as he's concerned, the decision doesn't change anything for this team between the lines.

"If you're faced with adversity in life, there's ways of dealing with it. You can run from it, or you can face it and make the best out of it. We knew we had a team this year, and that's all we knew. Eight months: that's all we knew. Our focus was winning, and it still is," Renda said. "Our alumni never gave up on us, they kept working for us and they raised a lot of money to get us back, and we reached the goal.

"We were motivated by getting cut, and if we were going to be the last program at Cal, then we were going to go out with a bang. We had nothing to lose, and we still have nothing to lose. We're going to go out and play and this team was brought together for a reason. We have a goal at the end of the season, and that's to make it to Omaha and ultimately win a championship. I believe that these guys can do it. Has any motivation been lost? I don't think so. We still feel like we can take on anybody. It doesn't matter."

That determination was echoed by Krist, who's used to getting his cage rattled behind the dish, going home with stitch marks on his arms and bruises on his chest. Giving up now just wouldn't be this team's style.

"We've learned a lot of things," Krist said. "If life doesn't happen the way you want it to at first, you just keep grinding, and good things will happen."