CS Northridge Trips Over the Doormat, 5-1 : College baseball: Matadors fall to San Diego State, last-place team in WAC West.

With the Western Athletic Conference Western Division race slowly passing it by, Cal State Northridge lost, 5-1, at home Saturday to last-place San Diego State.

Aztec left-hander Richie Juarez threw a four-hitter and struck out eight with a variety of off-speed pitches, an occasional fastball and exceptional control.

“Not very many lefties are good at throwing inside,” Northridge Coach Bill Kernen said. “I thought he did a great job.”

Continuing its recent slide, Northridge (21-11, 7-7) dropped further behind Hawaii (5-3), Cal State Sacramento (8-6) and Fresno State (4-3) in the division. San Diego State is 14-26, 2-7.

“We’re progressively proving we’re a pretty average team,” said Kernen, whose squad is 4-8 in the last three weeks.

Northridge starter Marco Contreras (4-3), fully aware of the magnitude of the game, gave up one run in the first inning on a walk, a stolen base and a bloop double, then four in the sixth on five hits and two walks.

“I feel like I let everyone down today,” Contreras said. “This game was real important to us.”

Juarez’s dominance notwithstanding, the Matadors had their chances.

In the second inning, with Keyaan Cook and Chris Olsen aboard on a walk and a single, Jason Shanahan struck out swinging and Jonathan Campbell hit a flyout to right.

Olsen drew a two-out walk in the fourth, but Shanahan struck out, extending his hitless streak to 13 at-bats.

David Prosenko was hit by a pitch with one out in the fifth, but Greg Shepard (groundout) and Andy Hodgins (flyout) were unable to do any damage.

Cook ended Juarez’s shutout bid in the sixth with a home run, but the Matadors were held to one hit--a one-out single by Hodgins in the eighth--the rest of the game.

After Hodgins’ single, Juarez struck out Small and got Mike Sims to fly out to left.

Against Small, Juarez was masterful. He threw a curve for strike one, made Small swing and miss on a curve outside, then struck him out on an inside fastball that Small froze on.

“I don’t think Small can hit a fastball inside,” Juarez said. “He proved that today. He just looks at it.”

It was the sixth called third strike against Small in the last six games and his 10th strikeout in the last seven.

Matador Notes

The Matadors are 4-8 since assistant Stan Sanchez resigned, but catcher Mike Sims believes the team’s tailspin and Sanchez’s absence are coincidence.

“It was sad to lose him,” Sims said. “He’s a great coach. But we control the way we do things. We’re all leaders. I call the pitches. They (coaches) plan it that way because if you go to pro ball you have to do it yourself. Things might have been kind of weird, but we’ve gotten used to him being gone. We’re comfortable with P.C. (Shaw) coaching third and everything is back to normal.” . . .

The bottom of the order went 0 for 9 with four strikeouts Saturday. Left fielder David Prosenko is two for 31 in his last nine games, center fielder Jonathan Campbell is three for 19 in his last 10 games and first baseman Jason Shanahan is two for 22 in that span. Of his slump, Prosenko said: “You don’t want to get out of control and try to put two at-bats in one. I gotta go up and pick out a pitch I’m capable of hitting. If I have the right mental approach, I think I’ll get out of this.” . . . Northridge reliever Johnny Najar limited the Aztecs to one hit over three innings . . . The series ends today with a 1 p.m. game at Matador Field.