Late Rallies Lift CSUN to 9-3 Win

The score would indicate Cal State Northridge defeated St. Mary’s by a mile Wednesday.

Actually, the game was decided by a matter of inches.

Northridge won, 9-3, but the Matadors did so only by scoring seven runs in the last two innings.

The key hit was delivered by Chris Olsen, a flare that landed in front of the Gaels’ charging right fielder, Bill Horvat, with two out in the eighth inning.

It appeared that Horvat might have caught the ball had he dived. As it was, Scott Mowl and Mike Solar scored on the play, breaking a 2-2 tie.

Mowl started the inning by reaching base on an error, making both runs unearned.

Left-hander David Eggert (7-0), the winning pitcher, scattered 10 hits and allowed only two earned runs in a complete-game effort. The Matadors (30-8-1) have won 11 of their past 12 games. St. Mary’s dropped to 19-24.

The Gaels scored in each of the first two innings to take a 2-0 lead, but after Northridge tied the score with runs in the third and sixth, Eggert settled down. He allowed only two hits that left the infield after the second inning.

Yet the Matadors could do no better than a tie before St. Mary’s started its eighth-inning charity act.

Mowl led off with a fly ball to shallow left that St. Mary’s outfielder Chad Stark dropped after a near-collision with shortstop Tim Shaffer.

Solar followed with a single and two outs later pinch-hitter Mike Sims was intentionally walked to load the bases and bring up Olsen.

“I took that personally,” Olsen said of the intentional pass to Sims. “I knew what they were going to do--go right after my weakness and throw sliders.”

Lance Scott, the fourth of six St. Mary’s pitchers, got two quick strikes against Olsen. But after working the count even, Olsen hit a slider on the outside corner and sent a soft liner that Horvat charged before pulling up and stopping the ball on one hop.

Olsen, who was screaming “sit, sit, sit” as he sprinted up the first base line, thought Horvat was going to make the catch.

Northridge took Horvat, a former Alemany High player, at least partially off the hook by scoring five runs on five hits in the ninth.

Scott Richardson started the inning with a single and Mowl followed with a run-scoring double, chasing Scott and bringing on Nick Lymberopoulos, the ace of the Gael pitching staff.

Lymberopoulos, a senior transfer from Mission College who also played at Poly High, was greeted rudely. Solar hit his fourth pitch over the center-field fence--407 feet away--his 11th home run.

Were it not for some advice from Coach Bill Kernen, Solar would have been bunting.

“I came up to him in the on-deck circle and he says, ‘I think I’m going to drag,’ ” Kernen said. “I said, ‘When is the last time you dragged for a hit?’ He says never. I said, ‘Get a fastball and swing the bat.’ ”