Johnson Emerges as CSUN’s Newest Star in 7-4 Win

The Cal State Northridge baseball team tapped another source of power Wednesday in a 7-4 victory over host Cal Poly Pomona.

Eric Johnson drove in four runs with three hits, including his first home run, as CSUN defeated the Broncos for the second consecutive day. Northridge improved its record to 7-5, 2-0 in California Collegiate Athletic Assn. play; Pomona, experiencing a rebuilding year, is 3-11, 0-5.

In their conference opener Tuesday, the Matadors collected 18 hits to drub Pomona, 13-0, at Northridge. CSUN Coach Bill Kernen feared the one-sided score would give Pomona incentive to play harder on its field.

But CSUN jumped to a 2-0 lead against losing pitcher Kevin Chavez (1-3) in the first inning. Johnson extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a run-scoring double and scored on Craig Clayton’s sacrifice fly to center.

Johnson added a two-run single in the third and then hit the first pitch from reliever Rick Rohde in the seventh over the right-field wall to give CSUN a 7-1 lead.

“I decided if I saw a pitch high in the strike zone, I would take a hack at it,” Johnson said of his solo home run. “I’ve been feeling relaxed, really comfortable at the plate, and I decided to take a chance.”

Winning pitcher Clayton (3-1) gave a workmanlike performance before tiring in the ninth. Throwing his first complete game in college, Clayton allowed two earned runs on seven hits and four walks. Clayton also had three hits and two runs batted in.

Pomona, which had been outscored, 29-1, in its previous three games, managed a run-scoring double in the fifth. The Broncos parlayed two hits and two errors in the ninth into three runs to make the score close.

“It’s extremely important to the team to have a different player step forward and carry the offensive load,” Kernen said. “We can’t count on two or three guys because they have their bad days too.

“Eric has been hitting the ball well, but his stats have been buried in the shuffle. Today, he had the key hits.”

Kernen was humble about sweeping the two-game set from John Scolinos, one of the winningest coaches in college.

“Any time you play Scolinos, you better be prepared to play your best game no matter how much they’re struggling,” Kernen said. “In the ninth inning, no one thought for a second we had the game wrapped up. He (Scolinos) was still arguing calls, fighting for his team until the last out.”