CS Northridge, Vigo Batter Dominguez Hills Again, 10-9

Same teams, same place, same score, same hero.

Apparently Cal State Dominguez Hills didn’t learn the first time around so it repeated its mistake Thursday against Cal State Northridge.

For the second time this season, the Toros gave Northridge’s Denny Vigo a pitch to drive and it contributed to a California Collegiate Athletic Assn. baseball loss at Matador Field. Vigo blasted a two-run home run in the eighth inning to get Northridge back into the game and Mike Sims added a two-run single to give the Matadors a 10-9 victory.

Northridge has won 11 of its past 13 games to improve to 23-14 overall. The Matadors are third in the CCAA with a 10-6 record. The sixth-place Toros are 12-17, 5-12. The teams meet again today at Dominguez Hills.

Nearly two months ago, the Matadors also beat Dominguez Hills, 10-9, at home. With the Toros leading, 9-7, in the ninth inning of that one, Scott Sharts hit a two-run home run and Vigo followed with a game-winning home run.

“We lost that first game, 10-9, and it hurt,” Dominguez Hills Coach George Wing said. “But that was earlier in the year. We had some hope and more games to play. Now it happens again and it hurts a little more.”

Vigo had two home runs and five runs batted in. His first home run, a three-run shot, gave the Matadors a 4-3 lead in the first inning.

But the Toros didn’t have any trouble scoring runs off Northridge starting pitcher Vale Lopez. He gave up 13 hits and eight earned runs before leaving in the eighth.

Every Toro had at least one hit except Miguel Medina, who managed three RBIs on a pair of ground outs and a scoring fly.

The Toros tied the score, 4-4, in the second and took a two-run lead on Medina’s sacrifice fly and Robert Campbell’s run-scoring ground out in the fourth.

Mike Gabbani led off the eighth with a home run, his fourth in two games, and Bill Keep singled and scored on a squeeze play to give the Toros a 9-6 lead.

Then came the Matadors’ comeback.

Sharts, who ended a six-game slump with a double in the first, walked to lead off the eighth. Reliever John Gutierrez then threw a high changeup to Vigo, who fulfilled his role as a cleanup hitter with a two-run shot over the left-field wall.

Leonard Fletcher (1-1) replaced Gutierrez and, after an out, Eric Johnson singled, Mike Solar walked and both scored one out later on Sims’ two-run single through short.

Reliever Todd Denhart improved to 4-2.