SDSU Defeats Northridge in the 13th, 10-9

Greg Quam scored San Diego State’s first run on a home run Friday night and, four hours later, he scored its last run in the 13th inning on a Bill Dunckel single to lift the host Aztecs to a 10-9 victory over Cal State Northridge.

Both runs came at the expense of Northridge pitcher Scott Sharts, who was rocked for eight runs in the first inning. Then after spending eight innings as the designated-hitter, he returned in the ninth inning to finish the game on the mound.

The winning rally began with Quam’s single. He advanced to second on a Derek Vinyard single to left, then scored when Dunckel’s line drive to right-center rolled all the way to the fence.

The loss ended a seven-game winning streak for Northridge (29-11) and left Coach Bill Kernen two wins shy of 100 for his CSUN career. His record stands at 98-52-2. San Diego State is 27-8.

CSUN trailed, 8-1, after the first inning, but scored five times in the third and once each in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to take a 9-8 lead.

San Diego State tied it in the seventh on a run-scoring single by Marcelino Garcia, his third hit of the game.

After reaching Sharts for eight runs and seven hits in the first inning, the Aztecs could only score one run in seven innings off reliever Pierre Amado, who had pitched just one inning all season before Friday.

Sharts, who has averaged nearly eight innings a start and who entered the game with a 3.56 earned-run average, almost escaped the first with a minimum of damage.

But a two-out throwing error by shortstop Mike Solar opened the way for six runs, turning a 2-1 Aztec lead into an 8-1 advantage .

SDSU followed the error with a walk, a Jason Ledford RBI single, another walk and a bases-loaded double by left fielder Quam, who had homered to lead off the inning. Scott Dennison ended the scoring with an RBI single to left.

In the third inning, the Matadors loaded the bases on a leadoff single by David Prosenko and two walks.

Craig Clayton, Scott Richardson and Andrew Hodgins each followed with run-scoring singles before Mike Sims drove in a pair with a single.

CSUN scored in the fourth on two walks and a single by Kyle Washington, in the fifth on two fielding errors by second baseman Dennison and a single to right by Greg Shockey, and in the sixth on a triple by Clayton and a wild pitch.