Northridge Wins 2 in Bakersfield : Softball: Lady Matadors boost CCAA title hopes with doubleheader sweep of defending national champions.

The celebration started the instant the ball plunked into second baseman Lesley Plank’s glove.

Plank hugged first baseman Danielle Wood. Shortstop Anna Getherall hugged pitcher Debbie Dickmann, and then Dickmann was swallowed up in a sea of Matador black as the rest of the team jubilantly reached the infield.

Plank had just recorded the final out of what Cal State Northridge Coach Gary Torgeson called the “second-biggest comeback in the school’s history.”

Northridge’s 5-4 victory Saturday over two-time defending NCAA Division II softball champion Cal State Bakersfield completed a doubleheader sweep and moved CSUN into position to win its eighth consecutive California Collegiate Athletic Assn. championship.

Northridge (34-17 overall, 9-1 in CCAA play) won the opener, 1-0, behind Dickmann’s four-hit pitching. The Matadors, who will play host to Cal State Dominguez Hills today at noon in a CCAA doubleheader, lead Bakersfield (31-8, 10-6) by five games in the loss column and have eight CCAA games remaining.

“We know we can do it after coming back like that,” said Getherall, whose two-run, seventh-inning double was the game-winning hit in the second game.

Northridge appeared headed for a split after Bakersfield rallied for four runs in the fifth inning to take a 4-0 lead into the sixth. The big blow in the two-out rally was Dara Ferris’ three-run double over left fielder Erin McGuire’s head.

Torgeson gave his club a pep talk between innings, however, and the Matadors responded.

Denise Swank led off the sixth with a walk. Lisa Erickson followed with a bunt, but first baseman Ferris fielded the ball and overthrew Barb Santa Cruz at first, moving the runners to second and third.

Getherall and McGuire fouled out, but Ferris’ momentum carried her out of the playing area after the second out and, under the “catch-and-carry” rule, the runners were allowed to move up a base. That brought Swank home with Northridge’s first run and moved Erickson to third.

Wood followed with a grounder that went under shortstop Lisa Uranday’s glove for an error, scoring Erickson.

In the CSUN seventh, Lisa Ferracone led off with a bunt single and Plank worked Lisa Drollinger (10-4) for a walk after falling behind 0-2 in the count. Pinch-hitter Krista Miller moved the runners over with a bunt and pinch-hitter Patti Pearson grounded a single up the middle to score Miller.

After an intentional walk loaded the bases, Getherall sent Drollinger’s first pitch into right, where Anna Martin failed to make an over-the-shoulder catch.

“I’m so excited we beat them,” Getherall said. “When people walk the person in front of me, I get really upset.”

Dickmann relieved De Dow (6-4) in the seventh and recorded her third save, allowing only a bloop single to Santa Cruz.

Dickmann (16-7) notched her 11th shutout in the opener and Northridge scored the game’s only run in the third when Erickson walked with two out, went to third on pitcher Cathy Lewis’ fielding error and scored on a single by Wood.

Torgeson ranked the comeback in the second game to only CSUN’s 6-5 come-from-behind win over Bloomsburg, Pa., in the 1986 Division II tournament.