CSUN Mows Down UCLA in 11 : College baseball: Howard and Thornhill are Northridge’s big producers.

Fresno is located in the land of green acres, in one of the nation’s richest agricultural counties. Some nights, when it’s quiet outside, you can practically hear the corn grow.

Sunday at UCLA, two products from Fresno City College took root for Cal State Northridge.

In fact, Kevin Howard and Chad Thornhill were a bountiful cash crop. Produce? You bet.

“The ball looked like a watermelon,” said Thornhill, a junior shortstop.

“Finally earned my paycheck,” said Howard, a junior outfielder who planted a ball over the fence.

The California heartlanders were the heart of the offense as Northridge knocked off UCLA, 10-7, in an 11-inning thriller at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

Thornhill entered the weekend batting all of .077, which in Fresno or anywhere else is the equivalent of a locust invasion. In the past two games, however, he banged out six hits. After being moved from ninth to sixth in the lineup Sunday, Thornhill had four hits to raise his average to .350, best on the team.

“I’ve never seen him like this,” said Howard, who ought to know because the two played together at Fresno’s Bullard High before joining the junior college ranks.

Northridge (3-3) has been waiting for Howard to play like this since the opening bell. Howard has hit safely in all six games, but he is expected to supply the long ball. Sunday, Howard did just that.

With the score tied, 7-7, in the top of the 11th, Howard hit a monstrous three-run homer to dead center, a 400-foot shot. On at least four other occasions this season, Howard launched wind-chilled blasts that went in the scorebook as just another warning-track putout.

“We’ve been waiting to see that from him,” Northridge Coach Bill Kernen said. “Finally, the wind wasn’t blowing 100 miles an hour in his face.”

UCLA (1-4) had scored three runs in the seventh to take a 6-4 lead, but Northridge rolled a three of its own in its next at-bat.

Freshman designated hitter Eric Gillespie led off with a double--his second of three hits--and scored on a single by Keyaan Cook, ending an 0-for-16 skid. Howard and Thornhill also contributed singles to help hand Northridge a 7-6 lead.

It didn’t last long. Keven Kempton walked Gar Vallone to open the bottom of the inning and he later scored on a bunt single by Brett Schafer to tie it, 7-7.

Kempton allowed five earned runs and nine hits over nine innings, but most of the UCLA offense was generated by its wheels. The Bruins stole a single-game school-record nine bases in as many attempts, four by David Roberts and two each by Vallone and Schafer.

Northridge narrowly missed a chance to take the lead with Cook and Howard at first and second in the ninth, but a sinking liner by Brian Vasey was snared in right by former Notre Dame High standout Chris Lohman to end the threat.

But in the 11th, Gillespie and Cook singled and Howard homered off Dan Kramer (0-1) for a 10-7 lead. Evan Howland (1-0) pitched two innings of one-hit relief for the win.

“It was a dogfight,” Kernen said. “We hustled as a team better--heck, 10 times better--than we have in any game all year.”