Northridge Cleans Up Against Nevada

As the final out was recorded in Cal State Northridge’s 9-4 baseball win over Nevada at Matador Field on Sunday, the public address announcer summed up CSUN’s three-game sweep of the Wolf Pack when he said it was time to break out the brooms.

But it was the Matador bats that brushed aside Nevada on Sunday. And it doing so, they improved Northridge’s chances of securing an at-large bid to the NCAA postseason tournament.

Nevada came into the series 22-7-1. And although CSUN has a national ranking to wave at the tournament selection committee, overall records are an important criteria.

“It was a big series for us,” Northridge Coach Bill Kernen said.

In that case, the advantage has clearly swung in CSUN’s direction. The Matadors improved to 22-7-1 over the weekend while Nevada slipped to 22-10-1.

After totaling just 10 hits in the first two games of the series, the Matadors broke loose for 10 more on Sunday. Chris Olson led the attack, going three for four with a home run and three runs batted in.

“It was a lot more like us,” Kernen said of the offensive output. “We kept the pressure on them all the time.”

That pressure included Mike Solar’s team-leading seventh homer of the season. Designated hitter Scott Mowl also homered, his second in as many days.

But Olson, a junior transfer from Cerritos College who entered the game hitting .179, was clearly the star of Sunday’s matinee. After missing a home run by inches in the second inning, Olson ripped a run-scoring single in the fourth, another in the sixth, and then hit a solo homer to left in the eighth. That drive hit a tree some 375 feet away.

“Coach had a talk with me and he said basically that you’ve got to get the job done,” said Olson, who lifted his average to .250 (eight for 32).

CSUN catcher Mike Sims added two hits to give him six in 10 at-bats in the series. Andy Hodgins also had a pair of hits. All that proved more than enough to help starter Kevin Kloek improve to 5-1.

Kloek, making his first start in more than two weeks, overcame a slow beginning to scatter eight hits in recording his fifth complete game. He struck out eight and walked four.

Nevada, which stranded 18 runners in the last two games, jumped to a 3-0 lead on Petie Roach’s run-producing double in the first and Chris Singleton’s two-run single in the second.

But after Solar homered in the second, Northridge took the lead in the fourth with three unearned runs. The key play came when first baseman Roach threw the ball into left field on an attempted force play at second, allowing Hodgins to score.