Up First for the First Time, Fick Fires Up Northridge

Robert Fick has been penciled into a lot of lineups. He’s been drafted twice, won an American Legion national championship, played at a junior college and is in his second season at Cal State Northridge.

Yet, Saturday marked a first for Fick. A first as in batting leadoff.

After batting third for 28 games and leading the team with a slugging percentage of .820, the catcher with the long, loping strides and power swing revved up a Matador team dangerously close to running on empty.

Fick led off the first inning with a single and scored the game’s first run, then drilled an opposite-field home run in the fourth to help Northridge to a 6-5 victory over San Diego State as the Matadors regained first place in the Western Athletic Conference.

San Diego State had handed Northridge its worst defeat of the season, 12-4, on Friday.

“A couple of guys needed a different feel,” Coach Mike Batesole said of a lineup that had usual leadoff hitter Adam Kennedy batting second and usual No. 2 hitter Eric Gillespie batting third. Kennedy followed Fick’s home run with one of his own to give Northridge a 5-0 lead.

“I wasn’t trying to shake anybody up or make a statement,” Batesole said. “And [today] I’ll put them back where they belong.”

Fick extended his hitting streak to 22 games and raised his batting average to .461. The home run was his 10th. Kennedy’s homer was his ninth and, with a single and walk, raised his average to .402.

Impressive numbers of a different sort were posted by sophomore left-hander Benito Flores, who gave Northridge (23-6, 7-2 in conference play) a huge lift by pitching 8 2/3 innings, his longest collegiate outing. Flores (3-0) struck out eight and shut out the Aztecs (18-9-2, 6-2) until the seventh.

“It seems like every time we hit a spot where we are struggling, Benny is the guy we go to and he gets it done,” Batesole said.

Flores, who also has three saves, tired in the seventh. He gave up solo home runs in that inning and in the eighth, and allowed a two-run homer by David Sanchez in the ninth.

After striking out Steve Hagins, Flores walked David Lundberg and yielded a two-out bloop triple to Kalin Foulds that center fielder Kurt Airoso nearly caught with a dive.

Batesole summoned right-hander Gary Stephenson, who left the tying run at third by striking out Jason Phillips on three pitches for his first save.

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Matador Notes

Northridge batters struck out 13 times against four Aztec pitchers and have whiffed 28 times in two games. The Matadors have struck out 238 times while striking out 198 opposing batters . . . . San Diego State first baseman Travis Lee, projected to be among the first players drafted in June, has hit a home run in each game at Northridge. Lee, a 6-foot-3, 205-pound junior from Olympia, Wash., is batting .385 with seven home runs and 22 stolen bases.