Bulldogs Silence Matadors : Baseball: Northridge loses in 10th to Fresno State, 12-11, after rallying from 11-4 deficit.

Drowning out noise is one thing. Drowning out sorrow is another.

As Fresno State’s ever-present Red Wave mounted its rallying cry Saturday, the public-address announcer at Matador Field cranked up the volume on an old rock tune.

It was the bottom of the ninth inning and Fresno State held a tenuous one-run lead over Cal State Northridge. It was tense, it was raucous, it was the wildest scene of the year.

Yet the biggest sound of all came when the ninth ended and Northridge had somehow blown a chance to win. The cacophony of silence in the Northridge dugout was deafening.

“Man, what do you have to do to win a game?” Northridge Coach Bill Kernen said. “We had it. All we had to do was take it.”

Now the Matadors can probably take off the rest of the year.

Fresno State weathered the threat and scored a run in the 10th to win, 12-11, clinching the Western Athletic Conference Western Division title.

Twelfth-ranked Fresno State (38-15, 19-7 in conference play) did everything but hand the game to the Matadors in the bottom of the ninth, but Northridge (26-26, 12-13) declined the freebie.

“The way it was going and building, I never would have believed there’d be a 10th inning,” Kernen said.

Fresno State held an 11-4 lead in the sixth after Larry Barnes socked his second three-run homer of the game, but Northridge kept picking away at the Bulldog pitching staff. Northridge moved within striking range at 11-10 when freshman Adam Kennedy hit a three-run, opposite-field homer off closer Shorty Farfan in the eighth.

The ninth, though, exemplified the Northridge season. The Matadors climbed the mountain, then took an abrupt header.

Northridge tied the score, 11-11, when Fresno State’s infield committed a double error on a potential double-play grounder by Jonathan Campbell. A bloop single to left by Chad Thornhill put runners on the corners with one out.

Northridge, which hasn’t won a game with a base hit in its final at-bat, couldn’t get the job done this time, either. Right-hander Robert Donnelly (6-4) was summoned from the Fresno State bullpen and walked Josh Smaler to load the bases.

The Fresno State infield was drawn in and the outfield was stationed at softball depth. After swinging and missing at ball four on a 3-and-1 pitch, Grant Hohman popped out to short. Kennedy, who was four for five as he stepped in, struck out.

Donnelly did all but cartwheel into the Fresno State dugout.

“We should have won the . . . game,” said Kennedy, who has hit safely in 32 of the last 34 games. “It should never have come down to that at-bat. It should already have been over.”

He had a point. Campbell could conceivably have scored from second, but froze on Thornhill’s single. Northridge might have opted for a squeeze bunt from Smaler or Hohman, but didn’t.

Kernen figured the biting knuckle-curve of Donnelly--a player he heavily recruited--would be hard to bunt. Guess what? It was also hard to hit.

Fresno State scored a run off reliever Jason Vargas (0-2) in the 10th to almost certainly quash any shot at an NCAA Division I at-large playoff berth. Kernen was surprised Vargas even needed to pitch the 10th.

“I don’t know what it is,” Kernen said. “We battled and battled and had ‘em, but there’s something lacking when we need the killer instinct.”

The season died as a result.

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Matador Notes

So, is Matador Field a little shop of horrors for pitchers? Northridge has hit 78 homers, 64 at home. Another case in point: Fresno State shortstop Ben Reynoso homered Friday for the second time in 604 college at-bats.

Fresno State outfielder Joseph Freitas’ grand slam Friday gave him five home runs in 11 at-bats against Northridge pitcher John Najar.

With five games remaining, Northridge has scored 436 runs, the most since the program moved to NCAA Division I five years ago. However, the staff earned-run average is 6.33.

Northridge Coach Bill Kernen, irritated that most of the vocal support in Friday’s opener was generated by Fresno fans, eliminated the team pass list Saturday, angering the parents and friends of several players, who had to pay to gain entry.