No Day at Beach for CS Northridge in Loss at Malibu : College baseball: Pepperdine roughs up Matador pitching for 19 hits in 14-2 nonconference victory.

There might be something about the Pacific Ocean beyond the outfield walls that turns visiting teams into lambs when they play at Pepperdine’s Eddy D. Field Stadium.

Cal State Northridge was the latest to come to slaughter. The Matadors’ five-game winning streak ended Tuesday with a 14-2 nonconference loss to the defending NCAA champions, who improved to 21-3 at their seaside stadium, 28-12 overall, including seven consecutive victories.

“It’s disappointing to come out as flat as we did,” Northridge catcher Mike Sims said. “That’s how it has been all season. We have to learn how to come out the same every day.”

With the Matadors trailing, 3-2, in the sixth, the Waves broke open the game with three runs on five hits. Pepperdine added five runs in the seventh and three in the eighth.

Three second-line pitchers, including Chad Nichols, formerly of Crespi High, held Northridge (26-12) to five hits. They stopped a streak of four games in which the Matadors reached double figures in hits and runs.

“They were a lot better than the guys we saw last weekend,” Northridge Coach Bill Kernen said. “They got the ball down in the strike zone. That says something.”

Northridge countered with Evan Howland, Marco Contreras and Jason Van Heerde, who gave up 19 hits--four by Eric Ekdahl, who also stole three bases.

Contreras hit the leadoff batter and gave up three hits in the seventh, spoiling Kernen’s hopes for a confidence-building stint before this weekend’s three-game series at Western Athletic Conference West leader Fresno State.

“It is at zero,” he said of Contreras’ confidence level. “We’re gonna have to hammer away at it. It’s a tough thing to turn around.”

Contreras spoke with more optimism Tuesday, however, than he did after being rocked by Chapman in one inning last Saturday.

“I’m gonna keep fighting it out until I come out of it,” he said.

Left fielder David Prosenko, who hopes to play this weekend, will attempt to grip a bat Thursday for the first time since he broke his left pinky finger when he punched the dugout wall in a fit of anger last Friday. He has missed the last three games. A doctor determined at an examination Monday that the finger will heal without a cast.