Cal Spoils Fine Effort by CSUN’s Kendrena : College baseball: Matador senior throws 176 pitches in 3-1 loss to Golden Bears. Kloek victimized by home run in 13th.

Spring is in the air. Split-finger fastballs are diving into the dirt.

With the playoffs just around the corner, it is Kenny Kendrena season.

Lately, the Cal State Northridge right-hander has mimicked the form he flashed about this time last season when he won 11 consecutive decisions.

Kendrena was Collegiate Baseball magazine’s co-player of last week after striking out 17 in shutting out Chapman.

On Tuesday, matched against California, the hottest club in the Pacific 10 Conference Southern Division, the Matador senior was no less unbeatable.

For 176 pitches over 12 innings he thoroughly frustrated a solid-hitting Golden Bear lineup--one stacked with seven left-handed batters.

It wasn’t enough.

For all Kendrena’s efforts, Cal defeated Northridge, 3-1, on Nate Brown’s two-run home run off reliever Kevin Kloek in the 13th inning.

Northridge (29-8-1), ranked eighth in the nation, had won 10 in a row. But against Cal, the Matadors’ only victory might be of the moral variety.

“We played well today, not only pitching but also defensively,” Northridge Coach Bill Kernen said. “And it’s always nice to play well in front of someone who’s on the nine-man selection committee.

That would be Cal Coach Bob Milano, a member of the NCAA committee that will select the 24 at-large teams for the regional playoffs next month.

Indeed, Milano said afterward that what started off as a “nice mid-week game for us” ended up something far more competitive. “You could feel it,” he said. “It reminded me of a playoff-type game.”

In the end, Cal’s pitching depth won out. A quartet of Golden Bear pitchers scattered 10 hits and left 13 Matadors stranded on the basepaths.

Northridge’s only run came on Kyle Washington’s fourth home run, a solo blast to left-center leading off the third inning.

Cal got even in the seventh, scoring its only run off Kendrena on a sacrifice fly by Geoff Blum that scored Matt Luke. The Matadors had a chance to regain the lead when they loaded the bases with one out in their next at-bat, but Mike Solar bounced into an inning-ending double play.

Northridge also had a potential go-ahead run in scoring position in the 12th, but Brown made a sliding catch of a soft liner off the bat of pinch-hitter Jason Shanahan.

CSUN’s Scott Richardson and Andy Hodgins each hit balls that were caught on the warning track in the 12th inning. However, the Matadors weren’t the only ones coming up empty in key situations.

Cal (25-18), winner of seven of its past nine Southern Division games, had runners on against Kendrena in nine innings but scored only once. “There were a couple of times I thought we were going to win it, but he battled out of it each time,” Milano said. “He battled his tail off.”

Kendrena gave up nine hits, struck out eight and was supported by flawless defense--including a sprawling over-the-shoulder catch by center fielder Greg Shockey as he slid into the outfield fence in the sixth inning.

Kloek (6-2), making a rare relief appearance, was not as fortunate. Brown hit his homer--his first of the season--to left-center, where the ball carries well.