Sharts’ Doggedness Pays Off in 6-4 Victory Over Irvine : College baseball: Northridge starter makes 169 pitches, survives 10-hit barrage and late uprising, and for good measure he hits his 16th homer.

There are times when Scott Sharts can make baseball look so easy.

For instance, consider his at-bat in the fifth inning of Saturday afternoon’s nonconference game against UC Irvine at Matador Field.

With two out and the bases empty, Sharts jumped on the first pitch thrown to him by right-hander David Bladow and made the ball disappear over the left-field fence for his 16th home run of the season.

And for the rest of the day? Well, there are times when he struggles as much--and occasionally more--than the next guy.

Against Irvine, Sharts had a good day at the plate--two hits and a walk, two runs scored and two runs batted in in four plate appearances--but labored from 60 feet 6 inches away.

Still, 10 Irvine hits, five walks and 169 pitches later, Sharts strode off the mound a winner as Northridge defeated the Anteaters, 6-4.

It was Sharts’ sixth win, all of which have been complete games, in nine decisions. And it came with a triple dose of ninth-inning drama.

Irvine started its last inning with three singles to load the bases, but Sharts pitched out of it by getting Mike Goodcase on a fly ball to shallow right field and the final two batters swinging.

In all, Sharts struck out 12, including Steve Ott, a .347 hitter, on a full-count slider to end the game.

“You throw a 3-2 breaking ball with the bases loaded for strike three and you’re doing something,” Northridge Coach Bill Kernen said. “That takes some heart to do that. He got what he deserved.”

To come up empty after three hits in the final inning summed up Irvine’s afternoon. The Anteaters (13-15) stranded 12 baserunners--all but one in the final six innings.

All the while, Irvine was rather charitable to Northridge, which trailed for most of the game. The Anteaters led, 4-3, before the Matadors scored three times in the bottom of the seventh inning while hitting the ball out of the infield only once.

The hardest-hit ball of the inning was a leadoff single to right-center field by Andy Hodgins. Mike Sims, who because of a deep bruise on his left wrist has trouble swinging a bat, pushed a bunt to the right side of the infield for a single and Craig Clayton bounced a chopper deep into the hole at shortstop to load the bases.

One out later, a walk to Sharts forced the tying run in and brought on Steve May in relief of Bladow.

But instead of dousing the fire, May fanned the flames. His second pitch hit Greg Shockey to force in the go-ahead run. He then walked Denny Vigo to score another and give Northridge its final margin.

“We were on the receiving end of some gifts today, which was nice, instead of giving things away ourselves,” Kernen said.

Which is not to say that the Matadors, and especially Sharts, didn’t work for the win.

Sharts was shaky from the first batter he faced (which he walked), but Kernen stayed with him even though Matador relievers David Eggert and Todd Denhart combined to pitch a game in the bullpen.

“I kept telling myself, ‘I got myself into this, now I’m going to get out of it,’ ” Sharts said.

While admitting that he was tired in the final innings, Sharts said the fact that he threw so many pitches actually pleased him.

“To gut it out like I did even makes me happier,” he said. “I was tired, but I wasn’t coming out.”

Added Kernen: “Sometimes you have to pitch with guts instead of your arm.”

Northridge (22-9-1) has won eight of its past 10 and ran its record to 11-4 against Big West Conference teams--a statistic that could come in handy during postseason selection time.

Irvine will play host to Northridge today at 1 p.m. in the last game of the three-game series. Ken Kendrena (5-1) will start for the Matadors and Joe Sewell (2-4) is scheduled to go for Irvine.

Notes

The home run by Sharts was his first in eight games and 26 at-bats. Before the power shortage, he was averaging a home run every six at-bats. “You expect a guy to do it every time after a while,” Kernen said. “But that’s really not how it goes. A power guy goes through slumps like that.” Though not hitting the long ball, Sharts kept his average up. He is batting .328, third-best on the team behind Clayton (.388) and Shockey (.342).