Bizarre isn’t quite an adequate enough word to describe what happened last night at Husky Ballpark.

The first three innings were a slugfest of epic proportions as Washington and California swung their offenses into a new gear, hitting a combined seven home runs.

Then both sides grew silent at the plate for most of the rest of the game until the eighth inning, when the Huskies added a couple of runs to defeat the Bears 9-8 in the first game of a three-game series.

It was a home-run derby from the get-go when Cal center fielder Brett Jackson knocked out a two-run shot off UW starter Aaron West in the first inning.

The Huskies answered right back in the bottom half of the inning when Kyle Conley reclaimed the Pac-10 lead with his 12th home run of the season, a mammoth grand slam that cleared the scoreboard in left field, to put the UW up 4-2.

When Washington (12-19, 2-5 Pac-10) went ahead 6-2 after Caleb Brown hit a one-out, two-run shot — driving Bears’ pitcher Matt Flemer from the game after he threw just one-third of an inning — early prospects for a UW victory seemed ripe.

However, West and the Dawgs couldn’t hold the lead in the second inning as Danny Oh answered Conley’s grand slam with one of his own, tying the game at 6-6 going into the third frame.

“When you pitch good, they don’t hit home runs,” said UW head coach Ken Knutson. “When you leave balls over the middle of the plate and lose counts, it’s hard to keep Cal’s big strong guys from hitting home runs.”

After West allowed Cal (15-15, 3-7 Pac-10) two more runs in the third inning, both on solo bombs by Mark Canha and Michael Brady, Knutson pulled West in favor of Ben Guidos.

Conley added another solo shot to get the Dawgs within one in the bottom half of the third.

It was Conley’s 13th round-tripper of the season and the 36th of his career, putting him five behind Zach Clem for second on the UW’s all-time home-run list. Conley had five RBI and also added a single and two walks to a huge night.

“He’s right up there as far as raw power,” Knutson said of Conley. “But he puts a lot of swings on pitches, lifts balls, and he’s starting to heat up. You think he’s going to hit one every time he’s up.”

After one of the most impressive offensive displays at Husky Ballpark in recent memory, the UW and Cal bullpens shut each other down for four straight innings.

Guidos threw 3 2/3 shutout innings while striking out seven, coming back from recent rough outings to shut down the Bears.

“I got ahead in a lot of counts and got to use my secondary pitches,” Guidos said. “I got a few weak swings and got a few punch-outs.”

Andrew Kittredge and Geoff Brown combined to pitch a perfect 1 1/3 innings late, adding three strikeouts to the team’s 15 total.

The Bears trotted out Chris Petrini and Dixon Anderson in the middle innings — giving the Huskies several chances to score — but didn’t allow a run on seven hits in five frames to keep the game at a wire-tight 8-7 until the eighth inning.

“We didn’t execute, we got jumpy, and we rolled over,” Knutson said. “There’s a million ways to score and only a couple ways not to.”

It was then that the Huskies got to Cal reliever Michael Bugary, when Jake Rife lined a triple down the right field line to drive in Conley from first base, which tied the game at eight.

Julien Pollard made it 9-8 on a deep sacrifice fly to center field with closer Brian Pearl coming in to finish off the game in the ninth, a big win for the Huskies who had lost four Pac-10 games in a row.

“It was huge,” Guidos said. “First game of a series is a huge deal.”

Reach reporter Allen Wagner at sports@dailyuw.com.