San Diego St. Breaks CSUN’s Domination

Less than 24 hours after overcoming a sub-par performance, Cal State Northridge’s baseball team could not overcome a sub-par performance in a 9-6 loss to Western Athletic Conference host San Diego State on Sunday.

“It was a textbook case of creative suicide,” Northridge Coach Bill Kernen said.

“We had baserunning mistakes, (three) fielding errors, we hit into (three) double plays, and we popped (three) balls up. We did everything we could to self-destruct. It was poor in all three aspects of the game (pitching, defense, hitting).”

San Diego State (10-21, 1-5 in WAC play) ended a six-game losing streak and prevented the 13th-ranked Matadors from sweeping the three-game series.

With a sweep, Northridge (17-4, 3-3) would have moved past Hawaii (2-1 in WAC) and into second place in the WAC Western Division. The Matadors will face WAC West leader Cal State Sacramento (5-1) in a three-game series beginning Friday at Matador Field.

“A chance to sweep on the road doesn’t happen often and we let it get away,” Kernen said. “It could turn out to be significant. Someone is going to sweep on the road, but now the two opportunities we have left are at the toughest places to play (Fresno State and Hawaii).”

Pitching on four days’ rest after downing UCLA, 4-3, on Tuesday, CSUN starter John Bushart lacked speed on his fastball and sharpness on his curve. In five innings, Bushart (4-1) gave up seven runs (four earned) and eight hits.

“He didn’t have the same stuff,” Kernen said. “The UCLA game took it out of him. But if we had done more offensively early in the game, it would have helped him. We had chances for big innings and we ended up with one run.”

Bushart admitted that the UCLA game drained him, but said: “I should be able to do that (pitch on four days’ rest) because in a regional, I might have to go on three days’ rest.”

Northridge stranded 11 runners, five in the first two innings.

Third baseman Andy Small, however, showed his ability to hit in the clutch with three hits, including a double, and two runs batted in. Shortstop Andy Hodgins went two for five to extend his hitting streak to a team-leading 10 games.

The Matadors led, 2-0, after the second inning. But San Diego State capitalized on an error by Small and six hits, including a three-run homer by Heath Hayes, to score five runs in the fifth to take a 7-2 lead.

“Nobody has beat us yet,” Kernen said. “We’ve given away four games.”

Gabe Diaz had three doubles and scored three runs and Mike Winslow and Jeff Berman combined on a seven-hit shutout to lead Cal Lutheran to a 5-0 nonconference win over visiting Linfield (Ore.).

Winslow (3-0) gave up five hits in 6 2/3 innings and Berman gave up two in 2 1/3 innings en route to Cal Lutheran’s fourth shutout, its second in three games.