THE COLLEGES / MIKE HISERMAN : CSUN’s Losing Streak in Baseball Actually Has a Winning Look

There are at least two ways to look at almost anything and Cal State Northridge’s most recent baseball trip was no exception.

In a 12-day span, Northridge played nine games--all but one on the road.

The itinerary: Three against Cal State Fullerton (one at home), a day off, two at Arizona, a day off, three at San Jose State, a day off, one game at UC Santa Barbara.

You could say that Northridge has won seven of nine going into today’s 2 p.m. game against the University of San Diego at Matador Field.

You also could say that the Matadors have lost two in a row.

“It was a good stretch,” said Bill Kernen, Northridge’s coach. “If someone said before the season we would have a 13-6 record right now I’d have taken it.”

Of Northridge’s 19 games only three have been at Matador Field, leading Kernen to add, “I wouldn’t have any right to expect us to be in any better position.

After winning seven in a row, Northridge slumped offensively, losing to San Jose State, 3-2, Sunday, and getting shut out for the first time in 140 games, 3-0, by Santa Barbara on Tuesday.

The Matadors might have been tired, but Kernen has another line of thought. “Everyone recognizes that hitting is a very high-maintenance skill,” he said. “We had 11 days in a row without batting practice.”

Indeed, instead of taking 200-300 swings per day during practice, Northridge players were each relegated to 15 cuts before road games.

Even so, the team batting average is a healthy .290. “I don’t know who else is out there, but I don’t think there is anyone we can’t tee it up with,” Kernen said.

Meanwhile, the pitching department, the team’s alleged Achilles’ heel, continues to improve. CSUN’s team earn-run average is a respectable 3.44 and over the past 12 games it is under 3.00.

In the loss to Santa Barbara, all three runs were unearned. The Matadors committed three costly errors, giving them 30 for the season. Still, Kernen said, “We haven’t played one team that I’d trade lineups with, top to bottom.”

Stringing along: For Denny Vigo, Northridge’s third baseman, right hamstring pulls have become a chronic problem.

Last year, during a sophomore season in which he hit 19 home runs, Vigo experienced periodic hamstring soreness and he pulled up lame running to first in the Division II World Series.

Tuesday against UC Santa Barbara it happened again, although the injury apparently is not as serious. Kernen, who recruited Vigo out of El Camino Real High, might have feared such consequences on first impression.

“The first time I went to see him in a summer game he pulled a hamstring during infield and I never even saw him play,” he said.

If Vigo cannot start against San Diego, his replacement likely will be Andy Hodgins.

Cutting corners: Rich Hill, Cal Lutheran baseball coach, said he thought that by using the “invisible double squeeze” he simply was applying baseball lore to his advantage. He since has learned otherwise.

With runners at second and third early in a recent game against Chapman, a Kingsman batter pushed a bunt up the first-base line. While the base umpire watched the play at first and the home plate umpire followed the runner from third coming toward the plate, the runner at second cut inside third base--ignoring the formality of actually touching the bag--and scored too.

Cal Lutheran went on to a 14-0 win, but Hill says his team will not use the play again.

“I thought the play was along the same lines as picking signs and the hidden-ball trick,” he said. “The invisible double squeeze might cross the line between baseball lore and gaining an unfair advantage.

“That play is totally out of our offense. I’ll never coach it again.”

Against the clock: For Northridge’s John Kunishima, qualifying for the NCAA Division I swimming championships has been a matter of time and timing--both of them bad.

Last season, competing in the Division II nationals, Kunishima won two events, placed second in two others and swam fast enough to meet qualifying standards for the Division I meet. However, he was not allowed to go because of CSUN’s Division II status.

This season, with Northridge competing in Division I for the first time, Kunishima figured he was bound for the major college championships, March 28-30, in Austin, Tex.

Wrong. A chronic shoulder injury kept Kunishima dry for a month during peak training time. Then he got strep throat.

The result of injury and illness became apparent at the Pacific Conference Championships last weekend in Las Vegas.

The closest Kunishima came to meeting Division I championship requirements was in the 50-yard freestyle, which he won in 20.40 seconds--0.06 shy of the qualifying standard. “It has been a wacky year, illness and injury-wise,” Kunishima said.

Fortunately, it was his junior year. He still has one shot left.

Go figure: Kathy Ruiz won two individual races and participated on two championship relay teams for the Northridge women’s swimming team in the Pacific Conference Championships.

Her response: frustration rather than elation. Ruiz, a junior, said that she is retiring because her winning times were too slow.

“I just worked too hard to do so bad,” she said.

Wish list: Janet Martin, the Northridge women’s basketball coach, has been camped out at the women’s state junior college tournament at Valley College this week despite having 12 players on this season’s Matador squad set to return next season.

Northridge was 10-17 in its first Division I season, and Martin is looking for aggressive recruits who can “take the ball to the basket.”

Briefly: If Northridge doesn’t play the three baseball games it has scheduled against the University of San Diego this weekend, it won’t be from lack of effort. More than 1,000 gallons of water was pumped off Matador Field on Thursday and again on Friday. . . .

I fear Percy Fisher has become the Benoit Benjamin of Northridge basketball. His brief flashes of brilliance often are followed by total lapses of concentration. . . .

Perhaps the Northridge men’s basketball team is ochlophobic. Going into Friday night’s game against Southern Utah State, the Matadors were 7-5 when playing before gatherings of less than 1,000, 1-13 when the crowd reached quadruple digits. . . .

Attention Master’s College basketball fans: Remember, you were told not to make airline reservations for Kansas City. No matter how many transfers Mel Hankinson seems to attract, the team is never quite good enough to live up to its coach’s hype. The Mustangs are, however, crawling closer every year--to the NAIA tournament, that is, not the hype. . . .

Craig Clayton has a hit in all but two of Northridge’s 19 baseball games, including the past 10 in a row. Teammate Greg Shockey had an eight-game hitting streak stopped last Saturday at San Jose State. He has hit in all but three games. . . .

KNBC showed up at Northridge on Wednesday night for the Matadors’ Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. match against top-ranked USC. But did the station show highlights of the match?

No. Instead it ran footage of a pre-match soft taco-eating contest. At least Northridge beat the Trojans in that one.

One of Northridge’s most popular basketball players, forward Kirk Scott, played in front of a home crowd for the last time on Friday night and unfortunately CSUN missed an opportunity to give him an appropriate send-off. On a night in which the Matadors honored their senior players, Scott, the team captain and inspirational leader, should have been in the starting lineup.