CSUN Brushes Aside Math, Sweeps Two

Let it be a lesson to those who whip out the calculators and logarithm charts and play ball by the percentages all the time. Sometimes, the best strategy is none at all.

With the tying and winning runs on base with one out in the ninth inning of the second game of a nonconference doubleheader Saturday between Cal State Northridge and Cal State Sacramento, CSUN Coach Terry Craven pulled aside his batter, Pierre Rodnunsky, and whispered in his ear.

Would they squeeze bunt? Would they fake a squeeze and try to rattle the pitcher? They discussed both options while the relief pitcher was warming up. But what Craven actually said this time was to forget all that.

“As I walked away from him the first time I said, ‘Oops, maybe I talked him out of hitting,’ ” Craven said. “So I called him back and told him to go after the first pitch if it was good.”

Good advice. Rodnunsky lined Reid Gunter’s first pitch for a single to left, scoring Chris Pinsak and Mark Anderson and completing the Matadors’ 7-4, 9-8 sweep of Sacramento.

Northridge trailed, 7-4, after five innings of the second game but rallied for three runs in the sixth to tie it. Scott McIntyre, playing with the flu as well as several bumps and bruises suffered in the process of catching 27 of CSUN’s 34 games, started the comeback with a two-run home run. One out later, Lenn Gilmore tied it with a solo homer, his ninth of the season.

Sacramento regained the lead in the top of the ninth thanks to Northridge’s generosity. Mike Brackins struck out but reached base when the pitch got past McIntyre, and scored when Gilmore fumbled a double by Pat Longo down the right field line.

In the bottom of the inning, Pinsak singled with one out before Anderson lined his second ground-rule double of the game over the center-field fence. Had the ball stayed in play and bounced off the wall, Pinsak would have scored easily and Anderson might have had a chance at an inside-the-park home run.

It didn’t matter. The table was set for Rodnunsky, who also had the game-winning hit in the second game of a doubleheader sweep ofCal State Los Angeles last week.

Rodnunsky’s heroics made a winner out of Tony Estrada, who picked up for starter Pablo Suarez in the fifth and tossed five innings of four-hit relief to improve his record to 4-2 and CSUN’s to 23-11. Sacramento, a Division II independent, dropped to 22-17.

It was the second strong outing of the day for what had been a battered Matador bullpen. In the first game, Leo Ramirez earned his first save of the season with three innings of one-hit relief to back up starter John LaRosa (4-1).

Jim Vatcher, Gilmore, Tim Rapp and John Balfanz, the first four hitters in CSUN’s lineup, had two hits each in the first game, as did Rodnunsky. Pinsak and Anderson had three hits each in the second game.