CS Northridge Reaches Magic Number: 40 : College baseball: Kendrena bolsters Matadors’ argument for playoff berth with a 5-2 win over seventh-ranked Pepperdine.

Eddy D. Field Stadium, where the surf breaks just beyond the outfield turf, is both home to the Pepperdine University baseball team and one very inspiring piece of real estate.

But for a baseball purist such as Pepperdine Coach Andy Lopez, the most spine-tingling sight during Tuesday’s nonconference game was a 5-foot-10 dynamo bouncing around the pitcher’s mound dressed in the visiting gray uniform of Cal State Northridge. His name: Ken Kendrena.

“If there was a young guy here today who wanted to see determination without looking it up in the dictionary, all he had to do was look at Kendrena,” Lopez said.

To that end, anyone watching had an extended opportunity. Kendrena, a junior right-hander, threw 149 pitches but was still around at the end to enjoy his 11th win in a row, a 5-2 decision over the seventh-ranked Waves.

It marked the 40th victory (against 15 losses and a tie) of the season for 12th-ranked Northridge, a presumably magical number come Sunday when the NCAA playoff committee determines fields for Division I regionals.

The Matadors, who have a three-game series left this weekend at Cal State Sacramento to pad their win total, are taking nothing for granted.

“We’ve done our part,” Northridge Coach Bill Kernen said. “We just can’t ask these guys to do more than they’ve already done . . . but there’s still nothing automatic about it, either.”

If it was up to Lopez it would be.

“If Northridge doesn’t make the regionals,” he said, “it’s a travesty.”

The rest of Lopez’s praise was saved for Kendrena, whom Lopez recruited four seasons ago when he was coach at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

“He’s got the heart of a bulldog,” Lopez said of Kendrena. “He’s the type that keeps you in coaching.”

With his normally darting split-finger fastball a bit flat, Kendrena (12-1) mixed his fastball with a variety of breaking pitches to keep Pepperdine off balance.

Northridge gave him a cushion early, scoring four times in the first three innings. A two-out double by Mike Sims scored Andy Hodgins to give the Matadors a 1-0 lead in the second. Northridge added three more in the next frame on a run-scoring double by Greg Shockey and a two-out two-run single by Mike Solar.

Pepperdine (40-13-1) scored single runs in the fourth and ninth innings, the only innings in which the Waves managed more than one hit against Kendrena, who struck out six and walked two.