COLLEGE SOFTBALL : NCAA REGIONAL PLAYOFFS : Fresno State Ends Northridge Season With Power, Finesse

One day after beating itself with errors, the Cal State Northridge softball team lost again. This time Fresno State combined power hitting with finesse pitching to thoroughly dominate the Matadors.

In handing Northridge a 6-0 loss Saturday behind Marcie Green’s crafty two-hitter, the Bulldogs hit three doubles and freshman Tiffany Martinez belted a two-run home run.

It wrapped up the best-of-three NCAA regional series for Fresno State (50-14) and sends the Bulldogs to their sixth consecutive College World Series.

Northridge, which lost the first game of the series, 3-0, Friday, ended its season 45-25-1.

In earning the regional berth, Coach Gary Torgeson’s team joined the 1991 baseball team as the only CSUN teams to advance to an NCAA Division I championship tournament since the university moved to Division I in August, 1990.

“I’m proud of these guys,” Torgeson said. “Our goal was to get here and we did. We have to set our goal higher next year.”

Northridge, an independent, will play in the Western Athletic Conference next season, and the Matadors lose only three starting seniors--left fielder Kim Oakes, catcher Patti Pearson and pitcher Cami Allen.

Allen would liked to have ended her career on a more successful note. Although she said she felt “totally on,” she was pounded in the second inning.

Former Buena High standout Kim Maher started the outburst for Fresno State with a leadoff double to the left-field fence on a 3-and-0 count. “If I had known she was going to swing at a 3-and-0 pitch I would have walked her,” said Allen, who threw the ball over the middle of the plate.

Maher, who has been given the green light on 3-and-0 counts all season, according to Coach Margie Wright, reached third moments later on Michelle Bolt’s single to left. Michelle Bento drove in Maher with a flyout to center field and Misty Poplawski followed with a double to the left-field fence, driving in Bolt for a 2-0 lead.

“I guess they had their hitting shoes on,” said Allen, who was victimized primarily on her rise ball.

The barrage continued when Melissa Thatcher, a freshman from Agoura High, duplicated Poplawski’s effort with a run-scoring double to left.

Allen was replaced by freshman Kathy Blake, who promptly surrendered a home run to left by Martinez, a .153 hitter.

The Matadors could not handle the off-speed offerings of Green. In recording her 15th shutout, Green demonstrated that her last effort against Northridge, a 6-1 loss in which she surrendered a school-record 15 hits, was an aberration.

Amy Colton was the only Matador to solve Green, hitting a double and single. The only other Northridge players to reach base were Pearson and Missy Cress, each of whom walked in the second inning.