CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE PLAYOFF PREVIEWS : Dogged Lopez Shows Knack for Survival : Baseball: CSUN pitcher is 9-4 and has not lost in two months despite owning a 5.32 earned-run average.

Knocking out Vale Lopez is like eating with chop sticks. It looks, oh, so easy.

Until you try.

Hitting Lopez isn’t the problem. Beating him is.

He bobs. He weaves. He teeters on the brink of collapse.

But he rarely goes down.

Somehow, whether he uses finesse, moxie, or a full-count slider, he survives.

It has been that way since he signed a letter of intent to pitch for the Cal State Northridge baseball team two years ago.

Lopez was recruited out of Oxnard College by Dan Penner, a soon-to-be former assistant coach at CSUN. Head Coach Terry Craven had resigned under pressure in May, 1988, leaving Penner and another assistant in charge of securing prospects.

Five players signed before Bill Kernen was hired as coach in June. Three of them quit before the end of fall practice. Another made it through last season, then quit.

Lopez was the odd man in.

He seems an unlikely choice. Lopez, a senior, is of average height and weight, a right-hander whose best pitch is whatever happens to work. Just as long as he doesn’t mistakenly throw it over the middle of the plate.

“When that happens, he has some problems,” says Dave Weatherman, CSUN’s pitching coach.

“When (opponents) see me, they’re like, ‘Hey, let’s go take a hack at this guy,’ ” Lopez says. “But it’s different after they’ve gone against me a few times.”

Indeed, Lopez is as hittable as George Foreman and his earned-run average and pitching ratios are almost as fat. In 132 innings, Lopez has allowed 207 baserunners--158 hits, 35 walks and 14 hit batters. His earned-run average is 5.32.

His record is nine wins, four losses. He has not lost in two months. Go figure.

Lopez’s best outing: a 4-3, complete-game decision over USC, then the top-ranked Division I team, in CSUN’s opener.

Among his best outings: a 12-10 decision over Riverside in which he went 8 2/3 innings. “It was 7-3 going into the eighth and they got two of their runs in the first,” Kernen says. “I thought he pitched real well.”

Lopez throws six pitches and has the background of a winner, having won three of four decisions for Oxnard College in two junior college state championship tournaments.

And when he loses? Well, it is safe to say he doesn’t take it well.

Earlier this season, after one particularly frustrating outing, Lopez doused his new glove with gasoline and set it afire. The ashes were buried behind the mound at Matador Field.

Then he went back to his old one--the one with the wins in it.

Weatherman, who pitched Cal State Fullerton to a Division I Worlds Series title in 1979, said Lopez’s best asset is that “he battles his . . . off.”

Says Kernen: “Vale isn’t a guy who is going to walk out there and shut people down, but he’s in there at the end and the score is in his favor most of the time. That’s what you want. Even if it’s not pretty.”

Pretty? No. But sometimes rather spectacular.

Lopez’s most recent outing, a 9-5 victory over Cal State Los Angeles, was typical. He allowed 12 hits in the first six innings and was in trouble in the eighth before killing the rally by catching a line drive and turning it into a double play.

In the fourth inning, he worked his way out of a jam by making a diving grab of a soft liner and turning it into a 1-3-6 triple play.

“He seems like he thrives in those situations,” Weatherman says. “When things go bad, he doesn’t turn tail and run and say, ‘Oh, I can’t get this stopped,’ or ‘It’s just not my day.’ He’s resilient. He battles in those situations.”

Lopez figures to be at his best when Northridge plays host to UC Davis and Riverside in the NCAA Division II West regional beginning today at Matador Field.

Davis (28-23) and Riverside (38-16) will open the double-elimination regional at 11 this morning with top-seeded CSUN (34-20) meeting the loser at 3 p.m.

The Matadors will play the winner of the first game Saturday at noon in a game Lopez figures to start.

“He’s at his best in the games that are perceived to be the most important,” Kernen says. “The game against USC was a perfect example of that. It was a big game for him and for the program. They were No. 1 and he pitched a great game. This should be his type of situation.”

Lopez’s only playoff loss at Oxnard was against Rancho Santiago, the eventual state champion, which scored four unearned runs in the last two innings to beat him, 6-5.

“Big games are where I usually shine,” Lopez says. “Everybody’s there, the media’s there, and everything is on the line. It’s where I want to be.”