Shaw’s Prodigious Homers Help Northridge Breeze, 20-5

As Andy Shaw took batting practice Friday, it would have taken somebody who was sensory-starved not to ponder the 25-m.p.h. wind blowing toward right field.

Shaw, the top power hitter in the Western Athletic Conference, violated a baseball axiom: Don’t change your attack based on the conditions or field configurations.

“I thought, ‘This might be a good day to get one up in the air,’ ” he said.

Err, he didn’t.

Shaw, a junior designated hitter, whacked a pair of mammoth homers to lead Northridge to a 20-5 pasting of Hawaii in a WAC game at Matador Field.

Shaw, who bats left-handed, led the WAC with six homers entering the series. Trouble was, Shaw didn’t start the opener with Hawaii (18-13, 3-8 in WAC) on Thursday because he struggled last weekend at Cal State Sacramento.

“Sometimes, when you sit somebody down, it lets you clear the brain,” Northridge Coach Bill Kernen said. “You get off the bad track.”

And start acting like a locomotive. Northridge (15-11, 2-3) was swept in three games at Sacramento and Shaw had two hits. Call this the Shaw Stank Redemption.

“It kind of upset me a little bit,” said Shaw of the benching. “He didn’t tell me what I did and I didn’t ask him.

“Hopefully, I’ll be in the lineup tomorrow.”

Since he also doubled and finished with six runs batted in, it’s a safe bet he will. Shaw clubbed a 400-foot, two-run homer down the right-field line in the third to stake Northridge to a 5-0 lead, then ripped a grand slam of at least 450 feet in the eighth, the first slam of the year for the Matadors.

The Santa Anas had the basepaths looking like Santa Anita. Robert Fick, Jonathan Campbell and Tyler Nelson also homered for Northridge, which had nine extra-base hits.

Nelson’s three-run homer to center in the second broke a scoreless tie. Northridge scored two earned runs in 11 innings Thursday.

“Maybe that took some of the pressure off,” Nelson said.

Pressure? Hawaii is 0-8 at Matador Field and 1-8 this season on the road. Earlier this month, the Rainbows were 15-5 and ranked 13th nationally.

The Matadors held a 6-4 lead in the fifth when they converted four walks, a hit batsman and a single into three runs. Shaw’s slam keyed an eight-run rally for Northridge, which set a season high in runs.