Matadors Survive ‘Dog Day : College softball: Blake-Small pitches 19 innings as Northridge splits with Fresno.

It never fails.

Get the Fresno State and Cal State Northridge softball teams on the same field and the sparks fly.

Every aspect of the game seems polarized. Coaches frequently argue umpires’ calls and players always manage an extra shove whenever there is body contact.

There is a history between these teams and it is not a love story.

A Western Athletic Conference doubleheader Saturday provided another chapter.

Eighth-ranked Northridge defeated No. 4 Fresno State, 1-0, in the opener, but the Bulldogs salvaged a split with a five-run 12th for a 9-4 victory in the second game.

And when it was over--and coaches and players retreated to their respective dugouts after 19 innings--Northridge Coach Janet Sherman called it a good day.

“I feel really good about this,” said Sherman, whose team is clinging to the conference lead by only a few percentage points. “We had great heart today.

“I can’t teach that and I certainly can’t replace it.”

Sherman was most pleased that the Matadors (28-11, 11-3 in the WAC) fought back and tied the second game twice to force extra innings.

The Matadors, who have won five of their last seven games against the Bulldogs, rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the third with run-scoring singles by Jen Richardson and Chelo Lopez.

With the Matadors trailing, 4-2, in the sixth, Lopez ripped a two-run home run about 230 feet to center to even the score again.

But it was only a matter of time before the Bulldogs broke workhorse Kathy Blake-Small, who started both games. It was just the second time in the senior right-hander’s college career that she pitched both games of a doubleheader.

Blake-Small (14-5), who threw a two-hitter and her seventh shutout in the opener, showed signs of fatigue early in the second game. She allowed nine hits and two earned runs in the first six innings.

But Sherman stood by her decision to let Blake-Small complete the game.

By the 12th, the Bulldogs were acutely aware of what Blake-Small had--and what she didn’t have.

Fresno State (35-9, 7-3) pounded five hits, including four in a row, for five earned runs in the final inning.

Randi Berg scored the go-ahead run on a two-out infield single by second baseman Chris Puccio.

The rest was cushion.

Blake-Small, who allowed 15 hits in the second game, threw 230 pitches in the two games.

“My arm was in a lot of pain,” she said, resting with ice packs fastened to her shoulder and forearm. “I throw 200 pitches every day, but it’s a little different in a game; it’s a little different intensity. . . .

“Well, I mean a lot,” she added, smiling.

In the first game, Blake-Small was sharp. She allowed only two singles and retired 13 of the final 14 batters she faced.

Jamie Herrington, a Hart High product who went three for three in the opener, scored the only run of the game in the third.

Aboard on an infield single, Herrington went from first to third on Jessica Cunningham’s sacrifice bunt.

As Herrington approached third, Puccio made an errant throw and Herrington raced home.

The throwing error only further incited Fresno State Coach Margie Wright, who was already upset that the base umpire ruled Herrington safe at first to start the inning.

Wright stormed out of the dugout again in the fifth when the plate umpire ruled that Maureen Brady balked before her first offering to Richardson with one out. Herrington and Scia Maumausolo advanced to third and second on the call, which Wright argued angrily over for nearly three minutes.