Northridge Loses Grip on Broom : College softball: After beating Fresno State ace Green, 6-3, Matadors fall flat in second game, 2-1.

Perhaps if the team goal had been different, Cal State Northridge would have swept Fresno State on Saturday instead of settling for a split in a Western Athletic Conference softball doubleheader.

The second-ranked Matadors accomplished their main goal in the first game by chasing Fresno State ace Marcie Green with a plethora of hits and cruised to a 6-3 victory in front of about 350 at Northridge. But having accomplished that, Northridge played flat in the second game and lost, 2-1.

“Our goal was to go after Marcie Green and knock her out (of the game),” Northridge Coach Gary Torgeson said. “That’s what we wanted to do and we did it.”

Green soundly handled the Matadors in a WAC doubleheader in Fresno on April 18. The senior right-hander beat Northridge with a five-hitter, 4-1, and then gave up only three hits in 5 1/3 innings of relief in the second game. The 11th-ranked Bulldogs are the only WAC team to have beaten Northridge this season--and they have done it twice with splits.

Northridge (39-6-1, 14-2 in conference play) remained in first place by percentage points over Cal State Sacramento (33-16, 15-3), which will face the Matadors today at 1 p.m. at Northridge.

In the opener, the Matadors chased Green in the third with four hits and four earned runs. Missy Cress, who drove in three runs, singled home Beth Calcante from second to give Northridge a 4-0 lead.

Fresno State (33-20, 13-9) bunched four of its nine hits off Kathy Blake (16-3) in the fifth inning. Kim Maher, a Buena High graduate who went three for four, hit a two-run single to get the Bulldogs to within 4-3.

Northridge made it 6-3 in the fifth on three hits, including Scia Maumausolo’s run-scoring triple.

In the second game, the Bulldogs broke a scoreless duel in the sixth on Michelle Bolt’s two-run double off Amy Windmiller (17-4), formerly of Fresno State. Northridge scored in the seventh when Cress singled home pinch-runner Shelby Wilcox.