Northridge Shocked in Opener : College baseball: 11th-ranked Matadors muster only four hits in 5-2 loss to tiny Christ College.
Scott Sarver begged for it, got it, and now might best be advised to never again ask his friend, Cal State Northridge baseball Coach Bill Kernen, the favor of scheduling another game.
Such is the price of success.
Tiny Christ College of Irvine, of which Sarver is coach, accomplished the unthinkable Friday, upsetting Northridge, 5-2, at Matador Field in an opener.
Moreover, the Eagles--an NAIA team--did it in a way that left the Matadors--ranked 11th in NCAA Division I--without an excuse. Northridge, 19-2-1 at home last season, managed only four hits, three of them singles, against Christ College right-hander Mike Adams.
“It wasn’t like we took it for granted,” Kernen said. “We really didn’t. He just carved us up.
“It’s going to happen a handful of times in a season. You just don’t expect it to happen at home, the first game of the season, against an NAIA team.”
Otherwise, Kernen would not have scheduled Christ College as a replacement when Cal State Los Angeles canceled. As it was, he succumbed to the insistence of Sarver, a former associate when both were assistants at Cal State Fullerton in the mid-1980s.
Adams, a senior who was player of the year in NAIA District 3 last season, allowed only five balls to be hit out of the infield. Mixing a knuckleball and curve with a changeup, he often left Matador hitters cork-screwing themselves into the dirt.
“I had to keep them off-balance because I couldn’t throw it by them,” said Adams, who pitched with a sore right shoulder. “I wasn’t going to challenge them.”
Said Sarver: “(Northridge) saw better fastballs in batting practice.”
Mike Solar accounted for Northridge’s only runs. In the fourth inning he hit an Adams changeup to left-center for a solo homer, the Matadors’ only extra-base hit.
Adams then settled down and retired eight in a row until he hit Solar in the head with a knuckleball leading off the seventh inning. Greg Shockey followed with a single up the middle and Denny Vigo walked to load the bases.
But Adams worked out of the jam by striking out Greg Shepard and getting Jason Shanahan on a run-scoring ground out and Andy Hodgins on a fly ball to center.
Christ College managed eight hits, including several well-placed loopers at opportune times, off three Northridge pitchers.
The Eagles scored in the third, fourth and fifth innings, and added two more for insurance in the ninth.
“We did exactly what we needed to do to have a chance to win a game like this,” Sarver said.
Foremost of which was putting Adams on the mound.
“If somebody has a pitcher in this game there is no such thing as a division difference,” Kernen said. “It equalizes the whole thing.”
A lesson the Matadors learned the hard way.
