Home Baseball Schedule Puts CSUN Ahead in Count

The season has not yet begun and already the Cal State Northridge baseball team has managed to tip the scales in its favor. The Matadors are scheduled to play 29 of their 56 games at home.

Many teams would consider that a plus. For Northridge, which will open Friday at home against Christ College of Irvine, it could be a distinct advantage.

The Matadors were 20-2-1 on their home field last season--their first in Division I--compared to 17-12 on the road and 7-4 at neutral sites.

“In our second (Division I) season I think being balanced was the best we could hope for,” Northridge Coach Bill Kernen said. “Teams that have big stadiums and ways to make money, they’re not going to go on the road. . . . A Miami or Texas or somebody like that, why would they ever go out on the road when they can pack their stadium and make money at home?”

The ability to schedule more than half of its games at home puts the baseball team on ground that few of Northridge’s Division I teams have trodden. The men’s basketball team, for example, plays only 11 of 28 games at home.

In addition to quantity, the Northridge baseball team has managed to bring home quality.

The home schedule includes games against four 1991 playoff teams--USC (Feb. 18), Portland (March 12), Cal State Long Beach (April 28) and Pepperdine (May 12)--and a March 25 date with Cal State Fullerton, which is ranked fifth in Collegiate Baseball magazine’s preseason poll.

Northridge, ranked 11th, will spend almost the entire month of April at home. When the Matadors play host to UCLA on April 1, it will mark the start of a stretch during which Northridge will play 13 of 16 games at Matador Field.

Northridge has 21 road games and an additional six in the Fresno State tournament, March 16-21. The Fresno tournament field includes two teams that advanced to the 1991 College World Series--the host Bulldogs and Creighton, last season’s Fresno tournament champion.

Other 1991 playoff teams Northridge will face on the road are USC (Feb. 25), Long Beach (March 4), Cal (April 21), Pepperdine (May 5) and North Carolina (May 16).