Time Is Running Out for CSUN Baseball Team

Forgive Andy Lopez if he seems oblivious to the calendar.

He can afford to be.

The Cal State Dominguez Hills baseball coach, his team rated fifth in Division II, has been a model of consistency with his postgame comments the past month.

In that time, Dominguez Hills and Cal State Northridge have met three times. Northrige won the first game to open the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. season. Dominguez Hills came back two weeks later to even the score.

On both occasions, and again on Friday after the Toros beat the Matadors, 3-1, in a conference game played at Northridge, Lopez’s outlook was unchanged.

“It’s still early,” he said.

It is. Lopez, the 1985 CCAA Coach of the Year, has his team atop the conference standings at 5-2, but the enduro is long from over with 23 games left.

For Northridge, however, it is getting late.

The loss dropped the Matadors to 12-16, 4-7 in conference--five games behind the Toros (17-9-1 overall) in the loss column.

With only two teams from the West advancing to the 20-team NCAA playoffs, and no automatic berths, Northridge is looking less like a candidate for postseason play.

In fact, a description of Jon Beuder’s long fly ball to left field in the first inning Friday and the Matadors chances at reaching the playoffs are almost the same.

Going . . . going . . . gone.

“I’m not foolish enough to think that Northridge, or anyone else, is out of it,” Lopez said. “The way things are going in this conference, 16-14 might win it.”

That might be CSUN’s only hope.

“When you’re running out of time to get even and you lose one, it’s obviously another step you have to take back,” Matadors Coach Terry Craven said.

“They had the one swing for three runs, and that was their offense. But you can’t take it away.”

Dominguez Hills got the only swing it needed in the first inning when Beuder took one of the few bad pitches made by Northridge junior Tony Estrada over the left-field fence for a three-run home run.

The Toros left the rest to pitchers Mike Asprey and Don Spadoni, who combined on a six-hitter.

Asprey (3-0) left after Craig Burns and Scott Stewart singled to open the seventh. Spadoni, from Van Nuys High and Valley College, got the final nine outs for his first save.

Estrada and Randy Cina limited Dominguez Hills to six hits as well. The only difference, as it turned out, was that the Toros got the key hit when they needed it.

Northridge, on the other hand stranded four runners, left two at third base and one at second as its rally efforts came up short.

In fact, both of the Matadors runs were scored on plays in which the bat never touched the ball.

Northridge got its first run in the fourth inning when Chris Pinsak doubled, went to third on John Balfanz ground out and scored on a passed ball.

In the seventh, consecutive hits by Burns and Stewart to open the inning were followed by a strikeout and a ground out. Burns then scored when Dominguez Hills catcher Chris Plank threw wildly as Stewart stole second.

Said Craven: “If we get one of those other runners in from third, it’s a tie game. If we get both, we go home as winners.

“It doesn’t even take a hit to score people. But guys who you think are going to do it didn’t do it.”

Northridge threatened in the eighth when Gary Williams singled with one out. He was followed by Chris Pinsak, who won Wednesday’s game with a home run and who has been the Matadors’ most consistent batter.

On a 2-2 pitch, Williams was caught stealing, and Pinsak went down swinging.

“With Pinsak up and the guy pitching around the plate, I don’t expect him to strike out. I expect him to make contact, and it’s a good time to send the runner, but we didn’t do it,” Craven said.

“Plus, the catcher hadn’t thrown the ball well before that. As it turned out, it’s a double play in the eighth, which isn’t good.

“But that’s the chance you take when you’re trying to make something happen.”

Only the wrong thing keeps happening.

Notes

Northridge hosts Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on Sunday in a conference double header . . . Jeremy Hernandez (4-4) will start the first game providing his sore right shoulder checks out in practice today. Dan Gonzalez (1-5) is the other scheduled starter. If Hernandez is unable to go, John LaRosa (1-1) would be his likely replacement.