Recruit Nearly Slipped Away--on Paper : College baseball: Erroneous reports placed East L.A. pitcher Kempton anywhere but at CSUN.

Until Wednesday evening, Cal State Northridge baseball Coach Bill Kernen was certain that Kevin Kempton had accepted a scholarship offer to play for the Matadors.

But over the next 12 hours, he started to wonder.

First, while attending the City Section baseball championship game Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium, he was approached by a friend who said he thought Kempton had signed with Chapman.

On Thursday morning, Kernen got a call from a coach who said he had just read in a newspaper that the East Los Angeles College right-hander was going to Lewis-Clark State in Idaho.

Kernen looked in his newspaper. Sure enough, in small type, under the heading “Transactions,” Kempton was listed as signing with Lewis-Clark.

“I thought maybe we had a habitual letter-of-intent signer on our hands,” Kernen said later. “I was thinking, ‘Geez, do I know any insurance salesmen? Maybe I better get them together with this guy. . . . He’ll sign anything.’ ”

Kempton also was receiving phone calls, first from friends and then from Kernen.

“I don’t know what happened,” Kempton said Thursday afternoon. “I never signed anything from Lewis-Clark. I don’t even know the name of the coach there.”

Meanwhile, in Lewiston, Ida., Lewis-Clark assistant Chip Damato was at a loss to explain the mix-up.

“We didn’t even send him a letter,” Damato said. “We didn’t sign him, but it would be nice if we did.”

For the record, Kempton signed with Northridge more than a month ago. Kernen is sure of it.

“I know it was a long time ago because it was on a Sunday after we won a game,” Kernen quipped. “And you know it’s been a long time since that happened.”