CSUN Thwarts Rally, Trips Sacramento : College baseball: Kloek weathers two ninth-inning home runs, ends game with 15th strikeout in 8-7 victory.

For the Cal State Northridge baseball team, it was a game of halves. Not coincidentally, this almost made the Matadors have-nots.

Northridge scored all of its runs in the first three innings Saturday, then weathered some late-inning fireworks to hold off feisty Cal State Sacramento, 8-7, at Matador Field.

CSUN (32-8-1) scored five runs in the second inning to take a 7-1 lead, then shifted into cruise control. Sacramento, on the other hand, went down kicking and screaming. But then, who was doing the kicking was a matter of opinion.

Sacramento (27-19) trailed, 8-4, entering the ninth but soon dropped the hammer on Matador starter Kevin Kloek. After pinch-hitter Kui Souza walked to open the inning, Jon Beauchemin came off the bench and belted a home run over the wall in left to trim the lead to 8-6.

As Beauchemin crossed the plate, his feet became entangled with those of CSUN catcher Mike Sims, which caused the Sacramento bench to loudly claim that Beauchemin had been intentionally tripped. Beauchemin and Sims were teammates at Alemany High, from which both graduated in 1989, but their relationship has soured.

“I don’t think they’re the best of friends,” Northridge Coach Bill Kernen said.

Said Sims, in what could be construed as either an admission of guilt or a profession of innocence: “He stopped before he got to the plate. He was showboating. I was walking back to my position when he tripped. That’s the way I saw it.”

Kloek (7-2) saw red a few seconds later when Tony Turnbull ripped a solo home run over the wall in left to pare the lead to 8-7. However, Kloek settled down and struck out pinch-hitter Darren Brown and Bruno Haro to finish off the Hornets.

Haro, who played at Citrus College with Kloek last season, was the right-hander’s 15th strikeout victim. Kloek, who fanned seven in a row during one stretch and allowed 10 hits, looked skyward after the final pitch and let out a considerable sigh.

It was contagious. After the way the Matadors played in the second half of the game, Kernen seemed relieved that Northridge had held on for the victory and admitted that the effort was half-hearted.

“We were real soft on offense,” Kernen said. “We got a lead and we tried to sit on it . . . All in all, we played a pretty mediocre ballgame.”

Facing reliever Dave Paulk, CSUN managed only one hit over the final five innings, but thanks to an early assault it was enough. CSUN pounded freshman left-hander Chris Nave (2-2) for five runs in 1 1/3 innings and right-handed reliever Mark Snow didn’t fare much better.

With two runs in and a runner on first with one out in the second, Snow was inserted to face right-handed batters Andy Hodgins, Scott Richardson and Mike Solar. He surrendered consecutive singles to the trio, committed a throwing error, and was yanked with CSUN leading, 7-1.