Northridge Buried by Long Ball : College baseball: Loyola, with eight extra-base hits including three homers, blows open close game, 13-7.

It’s been three years since Jody Robinson hung his shingle in the Cal State Northridge dugout and hung out signs in the third-base coaching box.

Now the head coach at Loyola Marymount, it didn’t take long for Robinson to realize that not much has changed in his old haunts.

“The ball does carry well here,” Robinson said with a grin. “It’s a good offensive park.”

Loyola Marymount parked three balls and rolled up eight extra-base hits Tuesday in a 13-7 nonconference victory over Northridge at Matador Field.

The Lions (14-18) had homers in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings to turn a one-run lead into a 13-6 margin. Once Loyola Marymount lowered the boom, the Matador offense--which has been out-homered by the opposition, 31-23--wheezed to a dead stop.

Left-handed starter Ryan Graves (1-4) and reliever Jesse Ibarra held Northridge to two hits over the final four innings. Ibarra, who clubbed his 11th homer in the seventh to give the Lions a 9-5 lead, allowed a run over two innings of one-hit relief.

Once Loyola Marymount climbed in front in the middle innings, the Northridge fire seemed to disappear. With the Matadors’ postseason hopes pinned solely on their performance in Western Athletic Conference play, team intensity wasn’t exactly at a record level.

“I didn’t see it out there today,” said outfielder Brian Vasey, who had three hits for the second game in a row. “We put points on the board, then they put points on the board and we didn’t do anything about it.”

Northridge (17-15) managed eight hits, two of which came in a four-run rally in the second that gave the Matadors a 4-1 lead. Right-hander Rick Orr (1-2) was wild, however, and was charged with six earned runs in four innings.

Reliever Evan Howland yielded a run in his first two innings on a solo homer by Mike Peters, but the Lions iced it in the seventh and eighth, when Ibarra and Mike Seal launched two-run homers.

It marked Robinson’s first victory in six games against his former boss, Northridge Coach Bill Kernen, whose victory total might have been higher.

“We caught a break one year and had a rainout,” Robinson cracked.

Then again, if the game was scheduled at Northridge, maybe not.