CSUN Scores Seven in 10th to Finish Off San Diego State : College baseball: After struggling to complete his previous start, Contreras is provided with a large cushion in extra inning of 10-3 victory over Aztecs.

Even though his teammates broke the game open with seven runs against five San Diego State pitchers in the top of the 10th inning Saturday night, Cal State Northridge pitcher Marco Contreras was nervous.

Foremost in his mind was his last outing, March 13. After allowing one run and two hits through eight innings, he fell apart in the ninth and gave up seven runs in a lopsided Northridge victory.

This time, Contreras shut down the opposition in the final inning, preserving a 10-3 Western Athletic Conference victory at Charlie Smith Field.

Contreras (4-1) fell behind, 2-0, to the leadoff batter, then struck him out. “(Catcher Mike Sims) helped me,” Contreras said. “After I threw the first two balls, he told me to gear it up.”

The junior from Citrus College walked the next batter on a full count, induced a groundout, gave up another full-count walk and got a flyout to notch his fifth complete game and help the 13th-ranked Matadors improve to 17-3, 3-2 in the WAC.

“It was all in my head,” Contreras said. “I told myself, ‘Don’t be so fine. Make them swing the bat.’ ”

Contreras finished with a seven-hitter, including 10 strikeouts and four walks.

“He kept it together really well,” said Northridge Coach Bill Kernen, who had Contreras warm up twice while the Matadors were batting for 25 minutes in the top of the 10th.

Sims and Andy Hodgins drew walks and Jason Shanahan was hit by a pitch to begin Northridge’s winning rally, loading the bases for Chris Olsen.

Olsen punched a single to left, scoring Sims for a 4-3 lead.

“I was looking for a fastball inside and I got it,” Olsen said. “I had enough on it to get it through the infield.”

After Hodgins scored on David Prosenko’s ground out, Keyaan Cook drew a walk and Matador hitting leader Greg Shepard ended an 0 for 10 slump by lining a 1-2 pitch to right, scoring Shanahan and Olsen to give Northridge a 7-3 advantage.

Joey Arnold followed with a walk and Andy Small, who is suffering from the flu, belted a two-run single to left, scoring Cook and Shepard to make it 9-3. Arnold scored the final run on Sims’ groundout.

Sims played a key role in the first and third innings, driving in the Matadors’ first two runs with a pair of two-out doubles.

“It’s about time is all I gotta say,” said Sims, who entered the game with a .257 average after hitting .296 last season. “My contributions to the team offensively haven’t been there. It was a key game for it to happen.”

San Diego State (9-21, 0-5) took a 3-2 lead in the third on a two-run double by Heath Hayes, who scored on right fielder Shepard’s first error of the season.

In the sixth, Olsen was hit by a pitch, reached second on Prosenko’s bunt single and scored on Arnold’s two-out single to right to tie the score, 3-3.

“Joey was clutch,” Kernen said. “We don’t get to the 10th inning without that.”

The Aztecs threatened in the bottom of the sixth when Pat Mummy doubled to left and took third on a groundout, but Contreras struck out the next two batters.