CSUN Makes 7 Hits Count in 10-3 Win : College baseball: USIU turns off most of Northridge’s power but Sharts blasts his 21st homer.

Despite being no-hit and shut out over the final five innings and outpowered for one of the few times this season, Cal State Northridge routed host U.S. International, 10-3, Saturday in a college nonconference baseball game.

Scott Sharts hit his 21st home run of the year--a towering two-run shot over the left-center-field fence in the third inning--but it was one of only two extra-base hits and seven total for Northridge. USIU had two homers, a double and three singles.

“I don’t think we’re entirely happy with the way things went, but we’ll take it,” said junior right-hander Ken Kendrena, who won his seventh in a row and improved to 9-1.

The opportunistic Matadors converted seven hits, four USIU errors and eight walks into a third consecutive double-digit run total.

Fifteenth-ranked CSUN (33-12-1) defeated USIU, 10-1, Friday on 20 hits and UCLA, 15-1, Wednesday on 16 hits. Saturday’s second game of a three-game series was a different story.

CSUN scored two in the first inning on no hits and six in the fourth on four hits. Of the Matadors’ 10 runs, only five were driven in. Sharts had three runs batted in, giving him a team-leading 59, and Scott Richardson drove in two with a fourth-inning single.

It was 1-0 CSUN before a ball was hit in fair territory. Craig Clayton, who led off Friday’s game with a home run, walked in his first trip Saturday. No. 2 batter Richardson also walked. Two pitches later, Clayton scored from second and Richardson moved to third on a double steal and a throwing error by catcher Ed Crabtree. Richardson scored on Sharts’ ground out to short.

In the third, Richardson walked and Sharts homered. USIU (11-30) pulled within, 4-1, in the bottom of the third as Greg Shepard’s first home run of the year just cleared the left-field fence.

With a six-run fourth inning, CSUN took a 10-1 lead and all but put the game out of reach. It was one of those innings--six runs on four hits, two errors, two walks, two stolen bases and a passed ball. CSUN went hitless from there, and USIU scored single runs in the sixth and seventh innings--the latter coming on Mike Vallarelli’s fourth home run.

“We’re just glad the home runs they hit were single home runs instead of the three-run kind,” CSUN Coach Bill Kernen said.

Kendrena struck out nine, walked two and pitched his seventh complete game.