COLLEGE BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Northridge Win Streak Snapped at 8 Games

Fresno State took advantage of five errors to score four unearned runs and beat Cal State Northridge, 10-1, in a nonconference baseball game at Pete Beiden field in Fresno on Tuesday.

Northridge was held to four hits and the Matadors’ eight-game winning streak was snapped.

Fresno State pounded four CSUN pitchers for 15 hits as the Bulldogs, ranked 23rd in the nation by Baseball America magazine, improved to 23-11.

Northridge (20-13) tied the score, 1-1, in the third when Craig Clayton drove in Mike Solar with a sacrifice fly. Solar and Kyle Washington walked to lead off the inning, and Solar went to third on Mike Sims’ fielder’s choice.

Eric Spellman (1-2) took the loss in relief. Starter John Bushart allowed three hits and an earned run in three innings.

In other baseball games:

Valley 5, Ventura 3--Valley Coach Chris Johnson had previously turned to Mike Roberts for relief. Now Johnson realizes he has been wrong from the start.

Johnson started Roberts, a reliever, and the sophomore picked up his second win in as many tries in a Western State Conference game at Ventura.

Roberts, scattered four hits in five innings and Dan Carroll mopped up in relief, striking out five in four innings. It was the third consecutive win for Valley (11-15-2, 7-6).

“We didn’t hit the ball particularly well today, but our pitching has come through for us,” Johnson said. “We’ve been shuffling our pitchers around trying to find something that worked. We were down to the point of picking names out of a hat. Roberts hung in there and Carroll did a great job.”

Chad Ratliff, E. J. Pape, Ed Aguilar and Kevin Thomas each had two hits for Valley, which is alone in fourth place in the conference standings. The top five teams advance to the WSC tournament.

“We’ve been inconsistent,” Roberts said, “but now we’re starting to gel. Everybody is playing up to their potential.”

With his team leading, 5-3, in the bottom of the ninth, Carroll surrendered consecutive walks to Ross Gotwals and Dan Madsen after retiring the first two batters on fly balls. Carroll then struck out Gabe Diaz to end the game.