THE COLLEGES : Kernen Showing Off Northridge Baseball

It seems that Bill Kernen, who uses the no-nonsense approach in guiding the Cal State Northridge baseball team, has a little P. T. Barnum in him.

This week, Northridge offered promotions inviting high school baseball teams to Matador Field to see CSUN play UC Santa Barbara and USC. As a result, the Matadors played before more than 1,200 fans in the two games--both victories.

Expect to see similar promotions over the course of the season.

Next up, on Feb. 17 when Northridge plays host to Cal State Fullerton, is Little League Day. Youngsters, numbering perhaps as many as 1,000, from three Valley-area leagues are expected to attend. The listed capacity for Matador Field is 1,200.

Kernen and a small group of advisers are not stopping there, either. They plan to send the youth players out onto the field toting American flags for the national anthem.

“We feel like we’re sitting here in the middle of an area with tremendous baseball interest,” Kernen said. “We’d like to get as many people as possible out here to see us. That way they can see the place, see a game, have a fun outing and it’s kind of a kickoff thing for them.”

It makes sense, which leaves a question as to why Northridge officials have not organized similar promotions for other school teams.

Kernen’s goal is to make Matador Field the centerpiece for baseball in the Valley region. “(NCAA) Division I is the top level of amateur baseball and we represent that out here,” Kernen said.

It is hoped that promotions such as Little League Day also will highlight Northridge’s--and the Valley’s--need for a first-rate baseball facility. “I hope 1,000 Little Leaguers show up and there’s no way we can possibly handle it,” Kernen said. “Maybe we’ll get some people looking around and thinking, ‘Gee, maybe we need a stadium out here.’ We’d like to get this place overflowing.”

The baseball team also has events designed for Northridge students and other athletes.

Also tentatively scheduled is a day when sororities will have a banner competition and fraternities will participate in a home-run derby. These plans, Kernen said, “are the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we’re going to try to do.”

“There isn’t any central focus for baseball in the Valley,” he said. “I think we need to take a kind of leadership role.”

Doubleheader: Today at 1 p.m., while Northridge is playing USC at Dedeaux Field, CSUN baseball representatives will join forces with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for a benefit softball game featuring such major league baseball players as Lance Parrish and Mike Scioscia at Matador Field.

On Sunday evening, the Pinnacle of Success Baseball Awards Dinner will take place at the Warner Center Marriott Hotel, benefiting the foundation and CSUN baseball. Former Angel third baseman Doug DeCinces will be honored after the dinner.

Reserve plan: No doubt the insertion of three Northridge reserves with 45 seconds left in the Matadors’ basketball game against USC on Monday at the Sports Arena was well-intentioned. But in the end it was not fair to anybody.

Northridge trailed the Trojans by 11 points when Matador Coach Pete Cassidy brought in three players who had not played. Largely as a result of those substitutions, USC increased its margin an additional six points by the end of the game.

Cassidy might have thought he was being kind, allowing three players who practiced with the team all season to be able to say they played against USC at the Sports Arena. In reality, those players probably are not all that proud about being stuck in for the final seconds in a move that was obviously sentimental.

In the meantime, Northridge lost a chance of reducing the Trojans’ margin of victory to single digits. That would have appeared much more impressive to both recruits and the casual fan, especially in light of USC’s upset of Arizona on Thursday.

Nor was the move particularly fair to the Northridge players who had spent the previous 39 minutes 15 seconds battling against a vastly more talented team.

Briefly: Ventura College will retire No. 31, the number worn by former Pirate basketball standout Cedric Ceballos, before its Western State Conference showdown tonight against Moorpark. Ceballos, who played for Ventura in the 1986-87 and ‘87-88 seasons, is a rookie with the Phoenix Suns. . . .

Canyons Coach Len Mohney said a magnetic resonance imaging examination revealed torn cartilage in the left knee of first baseman-catcher Mike Kerber and that Kerber likely will need an operation.