Northridge Work Pays Double Time

Members of the Cal State Northridge softball team didn’t have to work for everything they got Saturday against Cal State Sacramento, but the Matadors had a ferocious workout just the same.

Fifth-ranked Northridge came from behind in both games of a Western Athletic Conference doubleheader, winning, 3-2, in 10 innings and, 6-5, in a madcap nightcap to put an end to a four-game losing streak.

Sixteen of the 17 Matadors made an appearance in the doubleheader that lasted more than five hours.

And after watching her team overcome a one-run deficit in the bottom of the seventh of the first game, and a two-run deficit in the bottom of the sixth of the second, Coach Janet Sherman was happy to call it a team sweep.

“[It showed] that we have character,” Sherman said. “We could have folded and we didn’t. We showed a lot of heart and that’s what we’ve got to do.”

In the opener, Northridge scored in the first but trailed, 2-1, after the 23rd-ranked Hornets (23-18, 4-6 in WAC play) scored unearned runs in the third and fifth.

Northridge (28-8, 8-2) forced extra innings when pinch-runner Shelby Wilcox scored with two out in the seventh on a mishandled ground ball by second baseman Christa Manley.

After leaving the bases loaded in the ninth, Northridge got the run it needed in the 10th from old reliable Scia Maumausolo, who hit her 12th home run.

In the second game, pitcher Jen Richardson (16-4), who earned both victories, relieved starter Tara Glaister with the bases loaded and one out in the fifth and Northridge leading, 2-1.

Richardson escaped the fifth without incident, but an inning later allowed three runs on three hits, including two doubles, and a two-run fielding error by second baseman Katrina Nolletti.

Trailing, 4-2, the Matadors scored four times in the bottom of the inning on three hits.

Still, Sacramento scored a run in the seventh and would have had another except that Cunningham, the right fielder, threw out a Hornet player at home.

With bases loaded and one out, Priscella Gray hit a looping fly ball for a single just beyond first. Christa Manley scored easily but Jenny Schultz was nailed at the plate.