Northridge Hangs On Again, 5-4

The way Coach Bill Kernen sees it, Cal State Northridge won by a foot on Saturday. Unfortunately, this means his baseball team is about a mile shy of being a respectable NCAA Division I team.

“Most boring game I’ve ever been a part of in my life,” Kernen said. “We didn’t show up to play. We didn’t win, we just happened to score more runs than they did.

“We have a long way to go if we’re going to beat anybody this year.”

Whether Cal State San Bernardino counts as an anybody or a nobody is Kernen’s call, but the Matadors held on to win, 5-4, in a nonconference game at Pierce College.

Once again, Northridge (2-3) made it interesting in the ninth. Starting pitcher John Najar, who cruised into the inning with a 5-2 lead, inexplicably couldn’t find the strike zone. In his last start, Najar gave up the winning run in the final inning and a repeat performance looked like a distinct possibility.

Bad luck played a part in the rally by the Coyotes, a Division II team. After a leadoff single, Levi Funderburk sent a potential double-play grounder to Northridge shortstop Chad Thornhill. Trouble was, the ball took a wicked hop past the shortstop’s head and into center field. Adrian Sanchez followed with a single to load the bases, and San Bernardino (2-4) was very much in business.

Najar (1-1) walked two consecutive batters and the lead was cut to 5-4, and when Gary Frank worked the count to 3 and 2, Najar professed he was more than a little worried that his workday might be extended indefinitely.

“All I could think about was extra innings,” said Najar, who struck out nine and allowed 11 hits. “I knew I wouldn’t be (taken out). It was my game all the way.”

Najar fired a full-count fastball that Frank--who was two for four as he stepped in--fouled to the screen. With the runners again moving, Frank topped a Najar fastball down the line that first baseman Brian Vasey fielded.

Vasey beat Frank to the bag by a foot or so--the only difference in the game, Kernen said.

“To be honest with you,” Najar said. “I think (Frank) swung at a ball. It was up in the zone.”

The Matadors zoned out after a fast start, but that isn’t exactly unusual. Northridge followed its usual pattern: Score early, slip into a lethargic state offensively, then hold on for dear life.

Saturday marked the Matadors’ second consecutive victory . . . and the third time in as many games that the opposition has mounted a world-class rally in its final at-bat.

Or, as the ever-succinct Kernen put it: “We did our usual gag job in the ninth.”

If it wasn’t for Najar and outfielder Joey Arnold, Northridge might have lost for the fourth time to a Division II team. After going 0 for 11 in a three-game series sweep last weekend by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Arnold has sparked the offense this week from his leadoff spot.

“I want to show the coach, my teammates and myself that I can be one of the guys (to carry the team),” said Arnold, who had three of Northridge’s eight hits to raise his average to .263.

Arnold, who played two seasons at Pierce, also drove in three runs. He had two hits against UCLA on Friday. Kernen says the difference was a foot? For Arnold, it might have been a yard.

“I feel comfortable in this yard,” said Arnold, a senior from Reseda High. “Maybe that had something to do with it, maybe it didn’t.”

After the first, in which he gave up two runs on four hits, Najar settled into a groove. From the second through eighth innings he allowed four hits, and only two San Bernardino baserunners reached third base.

Northridge took a 3-2 lead in the second when Arnold singled home Tyler Nelson and Josh Smaler. Northridge added two runs in the fourth--Arnold contributed a single--to take a 5-2 lead that held up into the ninth. Brian Vasey and Thornhill started the rally with consecutive bunts down the third-base line.

Thereafter, Northridge managed all of three hits.