Small Thinks Small, Comes Through Big : College baseball: Northridge third baseman, looking only to hit ball hard, smashes grand slam as Matadors romp, 11-4.

Andy Small doesn’t think about home runs. Not only that, the Cal State Northridge third baseman forgets about the ones he hits. He says he doesn’t know if the grand slam he belted Friday is the first of his college career.

Perhaps he’ll remember this one, considering the Matadors were leading by only a run when he broke the game open in the fifth with his team-high 10th home run.

Northridge (24-11) scored five more times that inning in an 11-4 triumph over visiting Chapman, a Division I independent that fell to 18-22.

Small, a senior transfer from San Bernardino Valley College and Washington State, sandwiched his slam between two fly outs to the warning track in center field.

“I wasn’t thinking home run,” Small said. “I was thinking ‘hit the ball hard.’ ”

David Prosenko and Greg Shepard were aboard on walks preceding Chris Olsen’s single to set the stage for Small’s heroics.

After Small’s blast, Mike Sims walked, Andy Hodgins doubled, Keyaan Cook lashed a two-run single, Jason Shanahan hit a run-scoring single and Prosenko scored on Small’s groundout as Northridge (24-11) gained an 11-1 lead.

Northridge’s other runs were scored in the first. With Olsen on after a single, Sims rapped a 3-and-1 slider over the left-field fence.

“I just stayed back and saw the pitch really well,” Sims said. “Luckily, I got it all.”

Sims, along with center fielder Joey Arnold, figured in a key play in the third inning. On Chris Briones’ single to center, Octavio Medina tried to score from second base.

Medina beat the throw home, but Sims planted his foot in front of the plate, leaving the Chapman first baseman with nowhere to slide.

“It was a perfect throw,” Sims said. “Any other kind of throw and we wouldn’t have had him.”

Northridge Coach Bill Kernen said: “It was a big play at the time. You don’t know you’re going to get nine runs in the fifth inning.”

Kernen’s goal for the three-game series is to win while keeping his pitchers fresh, but not to the point where they will be worn out for the Matadors’ upcoming Western Athletic Conference series against Fresno State.

Keven Kempton (7-2) met that prescription in notching his ninth complete game with fewer than 115 pitches.

“I wouldn’t have let him labor or throw an inordinate number of pitches,” Kernen said. “I wanted to keep close tabs on how hard he had to work.”

Matador notes

CSUN Coach Bill Kernen was pleased with his team’s effort against Chapman starter Corey Giuliano. “I’m happy we were able to hammer a left-hander with off-speed stuff because we’ve had trouble with them,” Kernen said. The fifth-year coach singled out switch-hitting first baseman Jason Shanahan for his opposite-field single to right. With a full count, Shanahan fouled off three pitches down the left-field line before ripping his run-scoring hit . . ..

Although shortstop Andy Hodgins ran through Coach P.C. Shaw’s stop sign at third base on Keyaan Cook’s single in the fifth, Kernen was not upset with Hodgins, who was safe on a close play at the plate.

“The sign was maybe given to him too late,” Kernen said. “It was the right decision to hold him, but he was almost halfway to the plate. It would have taken him five to six feet to hold up and then he would have had trouble going back to third. P.C. was caught in the middle.”