CSUN Settles for 2nd-Game Tie After Winning 1st

With one slice of sun still peeking over the Santa Susana Mountains on Tuesday, the host Cal State Northridge softball team was trying mightily to complete a doubleheader sweep of 11th-ranked Minnesota.

As a Minnesota runner bolted for home with the potential winning run in the seventh inning, the Matadors’ Tamara Ivie came through. Ivie’s clean handling of a bunt by Mischel Doerr and a quick throw to first base to beat a diving Doerr forced the game into extra innings.

In the ninth, it was catcher Missy Cress’ turn. She blocked the plate as the Golden Gophers’ Mariann Dukart tried to score and held onto the ball as Dukart ran over her.

But the sun won after 10 innings. With no lights at CSUN’s field, 20th-ranked Northridge (21-17-1) settled for a 1-1 tie.

Coach Gary Torgeson, weary of seeing his team split doubleheaders, called the 1-0 win in the opener and the tie in the finale progress.

“A win would have been good, but a tie in this case is OK because we’re 20th ranked and they’re 11th ranked,” said Torgeson, whose team has split three doubleheaders and been swept in two.

As the coach of the home team, Torgeson had the option of going for the win under tiebreaking rules.

Fearing the Gophers’ speed on the base paths, he chose not to risk a loss and passed on the tiebreaker, which involves starting the 10th inning (and subsequent innings if necessary) with a runner at second base.

Matador shortstop Beth Calcante, who tied the second game in the sixth inning with a solo home run over the center-field fence, was displeased with the fact that Northridge scored only two runs in 17 innings.

“We just get so anxious,” Calcante said. “We can’t hit the ball.”

Calcante, a sophomore from Newbury Park High, was an exception.

She singled in the first game and doubled and homered in the second, raising her batting average 10 points to .325, which ties Ivie for team honors.

The home run was Calcante’s sixth of the season and ninth of her career.

“It was a little inside, almost perfect,” she said. “I got a real good swing on that one. I’m kind of tired of getting up with runners on base and me not being able to get a hit.”

This time the bases were empty and the Gophers (13-10-1) were four outs away from a win when Calcante drove the two-out, 2-and-1 pitch.

“She has legitimate power,” Torgeson said. “She’s our Jose Canseco . . . in a nice way.”

While Torgeson and her teammates urged Calcante to pound the ball, assistant Janet Sherman told her not to put too much pressure on herself.

Northridge pitcher Jackie Volkert took the same approach in getting out of jams in the seventh and ninth innings.

In each case, the Gophers had runners on second and third with none out.

“I kept my emotions at bay and my adrenaline up,” Volkert said. “I knew I had to bear down. I didn’t want to lose and I just didn’t let anything affect me.”

Volkert took over in the third inning and shut out Minnesota while allowing four hits.

Cami Allen started the game but struggled, partly because of a sore neck. After allowing a walk to Dukart and a single to Sandy Scott to start the second, Allen was replaced by freshman Kathy Blake.

An error by third baseman Amy Colton allowed Kelly Norman, a pinch-runner for Dukart, to score, but Blake ended the threat with two strikeouts.

In the first game, Blake pitched a two-hitter and struck out five.