Cal Lutheran Hitters Gang Up on CS Northridge, 18-3

“Hitting,” Cal Lutheran baseball Coach Rich Hill said, “is contagious.”

If that’s true, then CLU has apparently been hit by a plague of epidemic proportion because Sunday the Kingsmen battered Cal State Northridge, 18-3, in a nonconference baseball game at CSUN.

That outbreak comes on the heels of a 23-1 season-opening win over Whittier. In two games, CLU has scored 41 runs and collected 34 hits, not bad for a team that finished last in the seven-team NAIA District 3 in hitting last season.

CLU (2-0) did most of its damage Sunday in a 12-run fifth inning, sending 16 men to the plate. Eight of them got hits, including Leonard Matsumoto, who hit the first pitch of the inning for a home run.

Matsumoto finished with two home runs, two walks and four runs scored before leaving in the eighth inning. Peter Washington, a junior transfer from College of the Canyons, also had a big day with two doubles and a single in five trips.

The Kingsmen started quickly when Dave Leonhardt, the second batter of the game, lofted a home run to the opposite field off CSUN starter Monte Jones (0-1). Three walks and a double later, Jones was lifted in favor of Eric Spellman, who yielding a run-scoring single before ending the inning with CLU ahead, 4-0.

After the 12-run fifth, the Kingsmen scored twice more in the sixth, then cleared their bench.

CSUN (3-4), held to seven hits by four CLU pitchers, scored single runs in the third, sixth and seventh innings, the middle score coming on a Scott Sharts home run.

CLU starter Craig Anderson (1-0) got the win.