Pepperdine Wins, But Northridge Looks Fine

There may be no such thing as a moral victory, but this came close.

The Cal State Northridge baseball team, which looked bad in winning Thursday, looked good in losing, 1-0, to visiting Pepperdine on Friday.

With sophomore Jeremy Hernandez pitching a five-hitter and the Matador defense committing just one error--after making seven against Cal Lutheran on Thursday--CSUN played well enough to win.

And that was almost enough to satisfy CSUN Coach Terry Craven.

“A definite improvement over yesterday,” Craven said. “It was a real baseball game. Everything was happening like it should.

“It was definitely the type of ballgame you want to have people play. The thing is, there are little things that make a difference.”

Two little things--a pair of misplayed fly balls in the sixth inning--were the difference in this game.

Pepperdine second baseman Chris Sloniger led off with a single to center field and went to second base when a bad hop eluded Todd Mustin. Sloniger scored two outs later when freshman Rick Hirtensteiner hit a line drive to left that was turned into a double when Mark Anderson fell down in pursuit.

That was all the Waves needed behind the six-hit pitching of Mike Fetters, who struck out eight. Fetters, a preseason All-American who had struggled in his previous outings this season, retired 15 of the last 16 batters he faced.

“He pitched the way he’s capable of today,” said Pepperdine Coach Dave Gorrie, whose team improved to 4-6-2. Four of the losses have been by one run.

This time, however, it was Northridge (5-5) that only came close.

“Had we had a lesser pitching performance against us, I think everything we did probably would have brought us a victory,” Craven said. “But we did have that kind of performance, and we made a couple of mistakes to cost us the ballgame.”

Hernandez allowed hits in only three innings, and none over the final three.

“I thought Jeremy pitched the best game he’s thrown for us,” Craven said.