Matadors Come Out Swinging, Sweep by Southern Utah

With such an inexperienced lineup, Cal State Northridge was not anticipating a stellar softball season.

And it’s getting about what it expected.

Northridge is off to an 11-6 start. But there is a bright side.

The Matadors, on a four-game winning streak after sweeping Southern Utah, 7-2 and 5-0, Wednesday in a nonconference doubleheader at Northridge, are scoring and hitting at an unprecedented rate.

Northridge has outhit opponents, 158-86, and has a team batting average of .336, a school-record pace. Eight starters have batting averages between .448 and .301.

Against Southern Utah, the Matadors had 23 hits.

Even the Matador defense is impressive, having committed only 15 errors compared to 36 by its opponents.

All of which begs a question: Why aren’t the Matadors winning more ball games?

“We are phenomenal offensively,” Coach Janet Sherman said. “But we make a lot of mistakes.”

Indeed, the kinds of mistakes that don’t show up in box scores. Mental mistakes, like three fly balls lost in the sun last weekend in games against Arizona State and UNLV.

“Our outfielders are new, but I expect better than that,” Sherman said.

Sherman’s expectations also exceed the efforts of her pitching staff, which has a 3.50 earned-run average, highest in school history.

Starting pitchers Tara Glaister (6-3) and Summer Richardson (5-2) have combined to walk 54 in 95 innings. While opponents are batting a paltry .209 against Matador pitchers, those free passes, combined with timely hits, are sinking Northridge.

Sherman hopes Matador pitchers will rebound when Northridge travels to Las Cruces to face New Mexico State in a Big West Conference opener Friday.

Northridge, defending conference champion, was picked by coaches to finish third in the Big West behind Long Beach State and University of the Pacific.

Because of a new format voted in by coaches, the number of conference games has been cut to 24, from 32 last season. Instead of playing doubleheaders home and away, teams will play a doubleheader and a single game on consecutive days at only one site.

The format has a built-in tiebreaking system. If there is a tie, the team that has the better head-to-head record will be champion.

Sherman hopes fewer games will translate into fresher players at season’s end.

“We’ve petered out the last two years at regionals,” Sherman said. “We were tired and it showed.”

The new format favors teams with a dominant pitcher. Teams can pitch their ace twice in a three-game series and still keep her rested. Based on that premise, Sherman is banking on Glaister, a senior right-hander with 69 career victories, to win 20 games this season.

Glaister, with a 2.91 ERA, has had a rough start. But she is averaging a career-best 1.74 strikeouts per inning. If Glaister gets back in a groove and Matador sluggers keep up their torrid pace, Northridge can be a conference title contender.

“We can surprise some people because we’ve got the offensive team to beat anybody.” Sherman said.

“The future looks bright. We have a lot of good things lined up for us if we can get through these bad spells.”