Northridge Leading in Fourth at Hawaii, 6-4 : College baseball: Matadors score five runs during third inning in opener of three-game Western Athletic Conference series.

In the first of a three-game Western Athletic Conference Western Division series, Cal State Northridge scored five runs in the third inning, but Hawaii answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning to cut the lead to two runs, 6-4, when this edition went to press late Friday.

Hawaii, the defending WAC champion (24-11, 2-1 in the WAC entering play), put a 12-game winning streak on the line.

With more than 3,000 spectators looking on at Rainbow Stadium, the Matadors took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning.

Greg Shepard led off with a single to left field, took second on Andy Small’s one-out single to center and scored on Andy Hodgins’ two-out single to left. Keyaan Cook drew a walk to load the bases, but the runners were stranded when Chris Olsen hit a dribbler in front of the plate and was thrown out at first by catcher Tyler Cheff.

Hawaii took advantage of Keven Kempton’s lack of control and answered with two quick runs.

Kempton (4-1), coming off his only poor performance of the season, walked the leadoff batter, Corey Ishigo, on consecutive pitches, and walked Sy Farinas on a full count. Kempton also went to a full count on the third batter, Franz Yuen, but struck him out on a curve. With an 0-and-1 count on cleanup hitter Kenny Harrison, Kempton gave up a double to the wall in right field that scored Ishigo. In a collision at home plate, Farinas was tagged out by catcher Mike Sims, who took a perfectly thrown relay from second baseman Olsen and sealed off Ishigo.

The inning should have ended on the next play, Dean Hashimoto’s grounder to Hodgins at shortstop, but Hodgins’ throw was too low for first baseman Jason Shanahan to dig out and Harrison scored for a 2-1 lead.

But the Matadors erupted for five runs in the third inning, chasing starter Andrew McNally, a right-handed freshman from Perth, Australia, and reliever Mitchell Miyoshi.

McNally (5-2, 2.24 earned-run average) had allowed only one earned run in his previous 27 innings, but he got into trouble immediately in the third inning when he walked leadoff hitter Small on a full count.

Sims followed with a single to right and Hodgins drove in Small with a double to center. Cook kept the rally going with a two-run single to center that drove McNally, who had a bruised toe, out of the game.

Olsen greeted Miyoshi with a double inside the right field line, Shanahan walked and David Prosenko delivered a sacrifice fly to right that scored Cook. Shepard drove in the final run of the inning, belting a high pitch to right to score Olsen for a 6-2 lead.

The Rainbows answered in the bottom of the inning with two runs on a two-out double by Hashimoto.