Matadors Lose Power, Southwestern Louisiana Wins : College softball: Hall stymies suddenly punchless Northridge on a four-hitter, 4-2.

Cal State Northridge Coach Gary Torgeson knows why the Matadors lost their first-round game to Southwestern Louisiana, 4-2, in the women’s College World Series on Friday. Their problem is obvious. The solution, however, is not.

The Matadors (47-8-1), making the school’s first Division I World Series appearance, managed only four hits off Kyla Hall in front of 2,311 at Hall of Fame Stadium.

Southwestern Louisiana (55-5), which will face Arizona today in a second-round game at 4 p.m. PDT, sent the Matadors to the losers’ bracket to face Cal State Long Beach today at 11 a.m. PDT.

Hall (28-1), a junior right-hander who entered the game with an 0.52 earned-run average, dominated Matador batters, who have struggled at the plate in four postseason games.

Northridge, which set an NCAA record with 40 home runs this season, had only seven hits in three games against Fresno State in the regionals last weekend. The Matadors, who average 7.3 hits a game, managed two hits through the first six innings against Hall, who had seven strikeouts and made good use of the corners.

“The bottom line is we haven’t hit the ball,” Torgeson said. “We didn’t hit it in regionals and we’re not hitting it here. Whether it’s great pitching or we’re in the tank, I can’t tell you. But we’ve got to break loose of that if we’re going to win some ballgames in the next couple of days.”

Northridge now must win four consecutive games to get to Monday’s championship final.

Southwestern Louisiana broke open a scoreless game with four runs on four hits in the sixth inning.

Northridge starter Amy Windmiller (19-6), who allowed three hits in the first five innings, allowed three hits and a walk in the sixth before being pulled in favor of Kathy Blake with no outs and runners at first and second and Southwestern Louisiana leading, 2-0.

Tami Pearson had led off the inning by ripping the first pitch into the left-center alley. Center fielder Jen Fleming just missed a diving stab at the liner and Pearson ended up with a triple.

Lynn Britton followed with a run-scoring single two batters later. Singles by Kathy Morton and Heather Neville drove in the team’s second and third runs, and Morton later scored on a passed ball for a commanding 4-0 lead.

Northridge rallied in the bottom of the seventh to score two runs on two hits and an error. But with runners at second and third and two out, All-American Beth Calcante, who was swinging for a home run, flied out to center field to end it.

Some Matadors were looking past the Ragin’ Cajuns, according to Calcante.

“It’s like they’re from the East Coast, they don’t play any West Coast teams and I think that had a lot of do with it,” she said. “We were like, ‘East Coast team, no big deal,’ and I think we took them way too lightly.

“I think our team just assumed they were going to be bad and they weren’t. I was really impressed.”

Arizona 6, Cal State Long Beach 0--The Wildcats pounded 13 hits--all singles--to beat Long Beach (45-20) in another first-round game Friday.

Third-ranked Arizona (41-7), which had seven hits in the first two innings, scored two runs in the bottom of the first on Laura Espinoza’s two-run single, the fourth consecutive base hit of the inning.

Amy Chellevold and Jamie Heggen, both of Thousand Oaks, each went two for four and scored two runs for Arizona.