Defense Disappears as CSUN Fades, 12-8

Strange things happen when the wind is blowing out at the Cal State Northridge baseball field, which, lately, has become a common occurrence.

Infield flies become home runs, foul balls drop fair and pitchers’ earned-run averages inflate faster than the national deficit. Matador Field is to baseball what the Bermuda Triangle is to travel. Pity the person standing in the middle of the triangle, or, in this case, diamond.

Jeremy Hernandez, a junior, was the man on the mound for Northridge on Friday in a nonconference game against Cal State Sacramento. He had pitched five innings and was relatively unscathed, having struck out seven and allowed only four hits. And he led, 5-1.

The calm before the storm.

In the next two innings, he gave up nine unearned runs and Northridge lost, 12-8.

Northridge committed six errors, including three key ones during the seventh and eighth innings. And on this day, even the wind couldn’t be used as an excuse. The errors came on three muffed ground balls, two errant throws by catcher Scott McIntyre and a phantom tag by third baseman Tim Rapp.

The tag, or rather the miss, by Rapp cost the Matadors five runs. With two out and the bases loaded in the sixth, Brian Casteel hit a one-hopper to Rapp, who tried to tag Scott Sellner between second and third, rather than throw to first for the force. Rapp’s swipe at the runner missed, a run scored and the bases were still loaded before the next man up, Brian Grose, emptied them with a grand slam to give Sacramento a 6-5 lead.

Hernandez got out of the inning with no further damage but was done in by another error, his own wildness, and a three-run double by Casteel in the seventh.

“He pitched well enough to win,” CSUN Coach Terry Craven said of Hernandez. “He was making the pitches he needed to make and they were hitting the ball where he wanted to, but we weren’t making the plays. I don’t care if you’re playing Molly Putz’s Raiders, you have to make routine plays to win, and we didn’t.”

For Casteel it was sweet revenge. He was recruited by Northridge three years ago out of Diablo Valley College but got cut before the season started. All he did upon return was go 3 for 5 with a home run and 4 runs batted in.

Winning pitcher Rocco Buffolino (6-2), a senior from Valley College, gave up eight hits and all eight Matador runs. Dave Olson picked up his fourth save with 2 innings of relief.

It was an important win for Sacramento, which plays Northridge today in a doubleheader starting at noon.

The Hornets (22-15) are a Division II independent, and not being affiliated with a conference, every victory brings them that much closer to a wild-card berth in the NCAA playoffs.

Northridge (21-11) was led by Lenn Gilmore, who had two wind-blown homers among his three hits. John Balfanz hit a solo homer and Rapp and Chris Pinsak each had two hits.