CSUN Loses as Contreras Takes Walk on the Wild Side : College baseball: Home run follows two walks and Sacramento deals Matadors second consecutive one-run loss.

Cal State Northridge Coach Bill Kernen did not want to be second-guessed for letting Marco Contreras continue to pitch after he issued consecutive walks with the score tied in the eighth inning of Saturday’s Western Athletic Conference game against Cal State Sacramento.

“We don’t bail guys out around here,” Kernen said. “You either win it or lose it on your own when you go that far. He gave it away.”

And Sacramento’s Will Fitzpatrick took it.

Faced with an 0-2 count, Fitzpatrick fouled off two pitches then drilled a three-run home run to cash in Contreras’ walks and help the Hornets to a 5-4 victory.

Northridge (9-2, 0-2 in the WAC) dropped its second consecutive one-run decision to Sacramento (12-3, 2-0).

Contreras threw 127 pitches, but Kernen said the junior right-hander is in condition to do so. Kernen was irked by the walks, not the home run that gave Sacramento a 4-1 lead.

After Contreras walked three in the seventh inning and escaped a bases-loaded jam, eight of his first nine pitches in the eighth were balls.

“I felt maybe I’d lost a little bit, but that’s no excuse for not throwing strikes,” said Contreras, who came into the game having not allowed an earned run in 18 2/3 innings. “I guess I choked.”

Contreras’ pitches to Josh Kirtland, the second batter in the eighth, all were low and just off the outside corner.

“Maybe I was too fine,” he said. “Once I walked the first guy I should have challenged the second guy.”

Sacramento scored what proved to be the winning run when Matador freshman reliever Evan Howland allowed a walk, a two-base wild pitch and a run-scoring single.

Northridge showed resiliency in the ninth. Catcher Mike Sims led off with a single to center and sophomore pinch-hitter Jonathan Campbell followed with his first hit as a collegian.

One out later, Jason Shanahan crushed a fastball over the right-field fence, pulling Northridge within one run. But Andy Hodgins and Prosenko both popped out.

Northridge trailed, 1-0, and was completely stymied until the seventh when a sinking line drive to left by Keyaan Cook broke up the no-hit bid of Sacramento’s Roland De La Maza, a former St. Genevieve High and College of the Canyons standout. De La Maza (4-0) weathered the ninth to pitch a complete game.

In the eighth, Northridge’s David Prosenko reached second on a two-base throwing error and came around to score on Greg Shepard’s single to left, tying the score, 1-1.