Sloppy CSUN Loses Pair and Bid for 1st in CCAA

Cal State Northridge didn’t play much like a first-place baseball team Saturday--which is a major reason it isn’t.

Battling for a share of the lead in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn., the Matadors were swept in a doubleheader, 12-5 and 4-3, by their host, Cal Poly Pomona, and dropped to third in the conference.

In the first game, Dan Penner, possibly Northridge’s best pitcher and at least its most consistent, was rocked for 13 hits and 11 runs in 6 innings. The Matadors backed his performance with four errors.

In the second game, the Matadors managed to waste a solid pitching performance by reliever-turned-starter John LaRosa when left fielder Craig Burns took two little steps forward instead of one big one back. His misplay came on a line drive by Dave Hajek with two out and a runner on second in the eighth inning.

The runner, Jim Stowell, who had doubled, carried the winning run home when Hajek’s drive sailed over Burns’ head.

Burns, who also danced a long fly into a double in the first game, tiptoed off to catch a ride immediately after the game, leaving his beleaguered pitcher to describe what happened.

“I thought it was right to him and it was no problem, but I guess he misjudged it,” said LaRosa, whose record dropped to 4-2.

Pomona Coach John Scolinos said Burns simply didn’t follow the book on playing the outfield.

“I tell my guys that the first rule in the outfield is that your first step is back,” Scolinos said. “What did he do? He takes two steps in and that’s the ballgame.”

The loss dropped Northridge to 25-14 and 9-6 in the CCAA, two games behind first-place Cal State Dominguez Hills and only 1 1/2 games up on fourth-place Chapman. Pomona (23-9, 9-4) climbed into second. The Matadors play host to Pomona on Tuesday.

Northridge had swept its previous three weekend doubleheaders, scoring 65 runs in the six games, but the Matadors managed a comparatively meager 16 hits against Bronco pitchers Rene Isenhart and Charlie Webb.

Isenhart, who had an earned-run average of 5.98 going into game No. 1, allowed seven hits--only three of which came after the second inning. Northridge scored three times in the second on two walks and four singles to take a short-lived 3-2 lead, as Pomona came back for two in the third, one in the fourth, three in the sixth, three more in the seventh and another run in the eighth to hand the Matadors their most lopsided conference loss.

Northridge’s only other runs came on solo homers by Vatcher in the fourth and Burns in the fifth.

LaRosa had a four-hitter for seven innings in the second game, which might have been good enough to win if three of them hadn’t come clustered in the third when Pomona scored three times.

It still would have been good enough if Craig Tippings, the Broncos’ center fielder, hadn’t robbed CSUN’s Jimmy Mitchell of a two-run double in the sixth inning. Tippings, who was playing Mitchell toward right-center, ran down his hooking drive and made a diving catch in left-center.

The Matadors wasted another chance in the top of the eighth when Burns led off with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Pierre Rodnunsky. Mitchell and Scott McIntyre couldn’t pick him up from there, however.

“We hit the ball OK, we just didn’t get it to fall when we had to,” Craven said. “They made a good play when we should have scored two, then we don’t make an average play and they end up scoring.”

A short time later Scolinos, who has probably seen it all in close to 2,000 games as a college coach, shook his head and grinned. “Baseball--it’s a crazy game,” he said.

Craven, however, wasn’t smiling.