It’s Game of Inches in Northridge Loss

How close?

Eric Gillespie and Josh Smaler could practically measure the difference between winning and losing with a thumb and forefinger.

Missed by that much.

Cal State Northridge climbed back from a five-run deficit Wednesday, but couldn’t scratch out a run over the final three innings and fell to second-ranked Cal State Fullerton, 12-11, in another in a series of wild nonconference games at Matador Field.

Heck, before the first pitch was thrown, things took a turn for the curious.

An hour before the game, Fullerton Coach Augie Garrido injured the Achilles’ tendon on his right foot while playing pepper with some players. According to a Fullerton trainer, the tendon may have ruptured.

For Northridge, its Achilles was its ruptured pitching, which was nothing new. Fullerton (42-9) stormed to a 5-0 lead with four runs in the fourth, but the Matador offense didn’t blink--perhaps because something is at stake.

Northridge Coach Bill Kernen received a letter from the NCAA before the game informing him that, because the Western Region has few dominant teams, the Matadors (26-24) are still under consideration for a postseason berth.

An upset of Fullerton, on the heels of last week’s victory over fifth-ranked USC, would have given the Matadors their eighth victory in 11 games. It was incredibly close.

Gillespie, a sophomore outfielder who socked a solo home run in the fourth, came within a whisker of tying the game in the seventh when he sent right fielder Jeremy Giambi to the wall with a moon shot. Giambi drifted back, lined up the ball, timed his jump and leaped over the wall to rob Gillespie.

If a lick of the prevailing tail wind had been blowing--it was uncharacteristically calm--Gillespie’s drive would have cleared the wall with ease.

“If the guys on the bench had all been breathing , it would have been out,” Gillespie said. “Man, what do you have to do to beat those guys? Heartbreaking, just heartbreaking.”

That may not have been the worst. Northridge scored three times in the sixth to close within 12-11, but left the bases loaded. In the seventh, the Matadors stranded runners at second and third.

Another runner was marooned in the eighth. In the ninth, reliever Mark Chavez yielded a leadoff walk to Robert Fick and a two-out single to Chad Thornhill.

With the runners in motion on a 3-and-2 pitch, Jonathan Campbell was rung up on a called third strike to end it.

“We had our chances,” said Smaler, who homered and drove in five runs. “We’ve taken advantage of that lately, but we didn’t get it done this time.”

Smaler almost did a number in the fifth. Earlier, he had clubbed a three-run homer to left. With runners at first and second, he hit a shot that came within inches clearing the wall in left. It bounced back into play and Smaler was stranded at second.