Six College Teams Put Their Playoff Fortunes on Line This Week

There will be little rest for the weary this week as six local college teams, including three from Cal State Northridge, will be busy with playoff action.

Baseball teams from Northridge, Cal Lutheran and Moorpark barely kept their postseason hopes alive last week.

Northridge needed a three-game sweep of Cal State Los Angeles to earn a share of the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. championship and claim the conference’s automatic berth into the NCAA Division II West Regional.

The Matadors (34-20) delivered, then learned late Sunday night that they would play host to UC Davis and UC Riverside in regional action beginning Friday. Northridge, ranked No. 8 in this week’s Division II poll, will debut at 3 p.m. against the loser of an 11 a.m. game between seventh-ranked Davis (28-23) and 13th-ranked Riverside (38-16).

Cal Lutheran also needed three wins to advance, only there was an additional catch: The Kingsmen needed them all in one day.

It took 8 1/2 hours, but Cal Lutheran came through the losers’ bracket to win its first National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics District 3 baseball championship and advance to the NAIA Area 1 championships beginning Thursday in Portland, Ore.

On Saturday, the Kingsmen completed an 11-6 victory over Cal Baptist. The game was suspended because of darkness on Friday. Cal Lutheran then knocked off Azusa Pacific, the district’s regular-season champion, 7-4 and 11-10, to take the title.

Cal Lutheran (32-14) will play Hawaii Pacific (23-19) at 11 a.m. Thursday at the University of Portland’s Farley Field. Lewis & Clark College (28-13) will meet Whitworth (19-17) at 3 p.m. in another first-round game.

Moorpark also worked overtime in junior college regional action, defeating Long Beach City College, 7-4, in 13 innings to post a two-game sweep in its best-of-three series and qualify for the state tournament beginning Friday.

The Raiders (24-12) will play Fullerton College in an 11 a.m. game at Riverside City College. Fullerton (26-14) advanced by upsetting College of the Canyons, 9-5, in the deciding game of its three-game series.

In softball, Northridge advanced to the Division II Championships for the ninth time in 10 years, sweeping its three games at the Midwest Regional in Sioux Falls, S. D.

Led by senior pitcher Debbie Dickmann, Northridge beat Southern Illinois Edwardsville, 1-0, and Nebraska Omaha, 3-0, on Saturday, and defeated host Augustana College, 2-0, on Sunday.

The top-ranked Lady Matadors (49-19) will meet Missouri Southern (36-17) Friday night at 7 at Midland Currie Stadium on the campus of Saginaw Valley State University in Midland, Mich.

Cal State Bakersfield (40-10), runner-up to CSUN in the CCAA and the two-time defending national champion, will play Bloomsburg (Pa.) State (45-5) at 8:30.

Moorpark will try to improve on its third-place finish in last season’s state junior college tournament at the Twin Creek Softball Complex in Sunnyvale, Calif., beginning Friday.

The Lady Raiders (29-9), behind the shutout pitching of Robin Thomas, swept a two-game series against Cerritos, 1-0 and 7-0, in regional action. Moorpark will meet Sacramento City College (41-4), champion of the Camino Norte Conference, at 10 a.m. in the first round.

In golf, Northridge will be competing at the Division II nationals in West Palm Beach, Fla., beginning today.