Sims Sparks CSUN Sweep With Homers

Mike Sims calls a good game at catcher. It’s expected.

Mike Sims throws out baserunners. It’s expected.

Mike Sims is an emotional clubhouse leader. That too is expected.

But Mike Sims hit home runs?

For Cal State Northridge, it was a pleasant surprise Saturday when Sims, the Matadors’ Sultan of Squat, turned Sultan of Swat in the first game of a doubleheader against Grand Canyon.

Sims, a junior who is known as a solid defender and a good contact hitter, hit two homers in leading the eighth-ranked Matadors to a 7-3 victory over the Antelopes at Brazell Stadium in Phoenix.

Northridge scored five runs in the ninth to blow open a close game and win, 11-5. The victory was Northridge’s 10th in a row over Grand Canyon in the past three seasons and improved the Matadors’ mark this season to 35-10-1.

The Matadors trailed, 3-0, after two innings of the second game but came back with two runs in each of the third, sixth and eighth innings in support of left-hander John Bushart (5-1), who pitched a seven-hitter.

In the first game, a two-run blast by Sims highlighted a five-run third inning as Northridge backed right-hander Kevin Kloek with a 12-hit attack and errorless defense.

Kloek (8-2) went the distance, scattering nine hits, striking out eight and walking six. He retired Grand Canyon in order only once, in the fourth inning. The Antelopes (24-30) stranded 12 baserunners.

Doug Kimball’s seventh home run staked Grand Canyon starter Bob Brennan to a 1-0 lead in the first, but Northridge’s five-run third was all Kloek needed.

The Matadors scored three runs before an out was recorded in the inning. Greg Shockey led off with a single. He went to second on a wild pitch and scored when Andy Hodgins singled and got caught in a rundown between first and second.

Hodgins, who had been hitless in his previous 14 at-bats, eluded the tag of Grand Canyon first baseman Rich Seminoff as Shockey broke for the plate. While Shockey was beating Seminoff’s throw, Hodgins took second.

Scott Richardson followed with a single, moving Hodgins to third, and both runners scored when the next batter, Scott Mowl, doubled to the gap in left-center field.

Two outs later, Sims slugged a homer into the screen above the 12-foot fence in left-center. Two innings later, he added a solo blast to the same spot, his sixth home run.

Northridge added an insurance run in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Richardson that drove in Chris Olsen.

Sims and Shockey each had three hits for Northridge in the first game.

Mowl had three hits, including two doubles, and three runs batted in in the second game. Mike Solar and Mowl each had two-run doubles in the ninth.