THE COLLEGES / MIKE HISERMAN : Upstart Northridge Deserves Berth in NCAA Baseball Regionals

On Monday morning at 10:30, the NCAA is scheduled to announce the 48-team field for its baseball regionals in a live cable television hookup.

Players and coaches from teams across the country will watch intently. Some will have cause to celebrate. Others will be left in stunned silence.

Their fate will be decided by nine members of a playoff committee using a power-rating formula that even they might not fully understand.

Northridge, boasting a record of 40-15-1 (its last two regular-season games are today), should feel safe planning a party.

When he became coach of the Matadors three years ago, Bill Kernen told anyone who would listen that the remainder of Northridge’s Division II schedule would be played merely for practice.

The team’s goal was to be competitive in its first Division I season, Kernen said.

He was asked to define competitive.

Making the regionals was his reply.

Some said such talk was the equivalent of a demolition-derby entrant rambling on about winning Indy.

But the players--were they too young to know?--fell for it hook, fastball and sinker.

The Matadors, with a lineup of freshmen and sophomores, last season advanced to the Division II championship game before falling to Jacksonville (Ga.) State.

Suddenly, there came a wave of optimism entering their first season of Division I play. Before this season Northridge was listed in the Top 25 by two national polls.

All the Matadors had to do to stay there was survive an early-season schedule in which 16 of their first 19 games were to be played on the road. USC, Arizona and Cal State Fullerton just happened to be among the opponents.

Reality hit hard.

The Matadors hit harder.

Northridge won 9 of the 16, taking two from Arizona in Tucson and two from Fullerton, a team that went on to become co-champion of the Big West Conference.

In the past few weeks the Matadors have crept steadily higher up the list of the nation’s best teams and are now ranked 12th. On Tuesday, they defeated seventh-ranked Pepperdine, 5-2. They are 2-0 against the Waves.

To deny this team a bid would be a shame. To wit:

Northridge has 12 wins over teams that are currently ranked or were ranked when they played the Matadors.

Northridge has the best earned-run average, 2.91, of any major-college team.

Northridge has college baseball’s home run leader, Scott Sharts, who has 22.

Northridge has two players--Sharts and Craig Clayton--who are being considered for national player-of-the-year honors.

The odds certainly would seem to favor Northridge’s inclusion in the regional field. But one never knows.

Ask Cal Lutheran, which was denied a bid to the NAIA District 3 tournament two weeks ago despite having the best record in the district.

The point is, the success of Northridge baseball, for this year anyway, should not be judged on whether the Matadors play in the regionals.

Northridge has reason to celebrate, no matter what.

Can you name the last Northridge team to participate in an NCAA Division I playoff?

If so, you’re wrong.

No Matador team--not even men’s volleyball, which has competed at the major-college level since 1984--has ever come so close.

Northridge baseball players, no doubt, would argue that making the regionals would be prematurely judging their season a success.

Their sights are set on loftier goals than to simply qualify to play in the postseason. The College World Series looms on the horizon.

They hear that Omaha is lovely in June.

Parting shot: Northridge announced the signing of two athletes this week, a baseball player and a men’s basketball player.

Both have impressive statistics but the comparisons end there.

The baseball player chose Northridge over Cal State Fullerton, San Jose State, Nevada Las Vegas and Arizona State.

The basketball player signed with the Matadors after considering offers from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, UC Davis and Westmont.

San Luis Obispo and UC Davis compete at the Division II level and Davis does not grant athletic scholarships. Westmont is an NAIA school.

Some Northridge programs remain Division I in name only.