Northridge Edges Closer to Omaha

Punch the clock, knock out two teams in one seven-hour day at the NCAA West Regional.

Just another day at the ballpark? Hardly.

Cal State Northridge followed a wild 20-19 victory over Mississippi State with a nail-biting 4-3 decision over Stanford on Saturday night before 2,247 at Sunken Diamond.

Northridge right-hander Robert Crabtree notched saves in both games. Against Stanford he came in with none out and the bases loaded with the Matadors leading, 4-1. A groundout and flyout scored two runs, and Crabtree picked pinch-runner Sean Flikke off second base to end it.

“That has to go down as one of the best days in our program’s history,” Coach Mike Batesole said. “We beat two of the best teams in college baseball today.”

The Matadors (52-17) must win two today against Florida State to advance to the College World Series in Omaha. The Seminoles, 3-0 in the regional, need to defeat Northridge only once. The first game is at 1 p.m.

Benny Flores (7-2) pitched masterfully to eliminate Stanford (41-19), which opened the regional by beating Northridge, 10-5. Flores, a sophomore left-hander, allowed six hits and surrendered a run only in the fifth.

Northridge scored two in the first when Adam Kennedy led off with a single--his sixth hit of the day--and Kurt Airoso homered to left. A two-run single by David Stevenson in the fourth enabled the Matadors to ride Flores the rest of the way.

Stanford loaded the bases in the seventh, but Flores got Joe Kilburg to fly to center. The Cardinal left nine runners.

The 3 hour 50 minute slugfest against Mississippi State didn’t seem to tire the Matadors in the least.

“How could we be tired when we’re playing to go to Omaha?” catcher Robert Fick said.

Against Mississipi State, a home run by Ryan Hurd to lead off the eighth gave Northridge a 20-16 lead. Gary Stephenson had struck out the only two batters he faced in the top of the inning, and he retired the first two in the ninth.

The Bulldogs proceeded to string together five consecutive hits, cutting the deficit to one and bringing David Hayman to the plate with runners on first and second.

Crabtree had been hustled to the bullpen moments before, and he came on to induce Hayman to ground to Kennedy on a full count.

“They were the best hitting team we faced all year,” pitching coach Dan Cowgill said. “They played catch-up the whole way but never quit.”

Early on, Mississippi State (38-24) seemed to be suffering from an emotional hangover after losing a gut-wrenching 8-6 decision to Stanford on Friday night. Northridge took a 14-0 lead after two innings, scoring all the runs with two out. Two errors by Bulldog second baseman Rob Hauswald opened the door for an eight-run first capped by Kennedy’s grand slam, his second in as many games.

With two out and one on in the second, Jose Miranda doubled to score Eric Gillespie, Casey Cheshier was hit by a pitch, David Stevenson doubled to score Miranda, Hurd singled in two runs, Kennedy singled to score Hurd and Fick singled to score Kennedy.

Mississippi State answered with five runs in the third. And after each team scored one in the fourth, the Bulldogs exploded for seven in the fifth to draw to within 15-13.

A grand slam by Fick in the seventh, his 25th homer, appeared to give Northridge enough of a cushion, 19-13. But Mississippi State scored three in the eighth, finally chasing left-hander Erasmo Ramirez (14-1).

The victory was the ninth in a row for Ramirez and he equaled the school record for victories in a season, but none were nearly this ugly.

In 7 1/3 innings, he allowed 16 runs, 11 earned, on 16 hits, striking out five and walking one.