Hernandez Survives on Grit, CSUN Home Runs

Jeremy Hernandez had a feeling he might be in for a rocky outing as he was warming up Friday before Cal State Northridge’s game against UC Riverside.

The major-league quality fastball, the one that usually went pop into the catcher’s mitt, instead was going plop.

Hernandez’s feeling was reinforced when his first pitch went hissing off the bat of Riverside’s Joe Koh and safely into left-center field.

“Yeah,” Hernandez said later, “that’s pretty much when I knew for sure.” But, even though he allowed six more hits and struck out five, Hernandez managed to survive on a large measure of grit in pitching Northridge past the Highlanders, 8-2, at Matador Field.

Three home runs by Northridge didn’t hurt, either, but then that’s becoming commonplace. The Matadors have hit 65 homers in 37 games and this time there wasn’t even much of a wind to help.

A two-run blast by Jim Vatcher in the sixth inning was the game-winner among Northridge’s 13 hits. It gave the Matadors a 3-2 lead that they increased ain the seventh with one run and in the eighth with four more.

Tim Rapp, who earlier made two marvelous defensive plays at third base, led off the eighth with his fifth homer, which was followed by doubles from John Balfanz and Chris Pinsak and a two-run homer by Mark Anderson.

“You don’t always get good pitching or play good defense, but if you’re consistent in the run-scoring department it will keep you in a lot of ballgames,” Northridge Coach Terry Craven said after the game.

“Today wasn’t the time to go out and try to be outstanding,” Hernandez said. “It was more just trying to get by.”

He did that very well, stranding 11 baserunners and enabling the Matadors to stay a game behind first-place Cal State Dominguez Hills in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. The Matadors are 25-12 overall and 9-4 in the CCAA going into an important doubleheader at third-place Cal Poly Pomona (21-9, 7-4) today.

Jack Smitheran, coach of Riverside, was impressed with the struggling Hernandez. “He’s one of the best pitchers in Southern California and he demonstrated that today,” he said. “We had him on the ropes a few times, but when he needed to get the job done, he did.”

Riverside (20-12, 3-7) left the bases loaded in the third and had a runner on base in every inning but the seventh.

The Highlanders took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when John Sarina singled home Koh, and for three innings that looked like all Riverside starter Royal Clayton would need. The Arizona State transfer had a no-hitter until Vatcher led off the fourth with a single.

Ten more hits followed over the next four innings, however, and Clayton (2-4) left in the eighth after Pinsak one-hopped a line drive over the fence in right-center. Reliever Bruce Babcock’s first pitch was promptly driven over the left-field fence by Anderson.

Clayton “throws a flat ball so I knew we’d get to him,” Anderson explained.