Looking to bounce back from a rough loss during their home opener, the CSUN baseball team mustered up just two hits and experienced pitching struggles for the second straight game en route to their second loss vs. BYU.
The Matadors dropped their second straight series to begin the season, losing 7-3 to the Cougars on Friday night at Hiegert Field.
Coming off a 10-home run night in game one from BYU, the first inning went by silently to open up the game, and BYU jumped right back into their scoring ways.
It didn’t take long for BYU to jump back into their scoring ways as Cooper Vest led off the second inning with a deep shot to right field to put the Cougars up 1-0. The following two batters reached base off a bloop single and a four-pitch walk.
With no hesitation, the Cougars attempted a rare double steal and executed it perfectly. BYU used a small ball strategy to get the pair of runners home, increasing their lead to 3-0 after two innings.
CSUN could not respond in the bottom half of the inning, going down in order.
Following a five-pitch walk with two runners on, BYU outfielder Bryker Hurdsman roped a double down the left field, bringing in one run.
In the following half inning, CSUN put two runners on base without making contact with the ball, but the offense stalled and they stranded the runners.
BYU continued to apply pressure, loading the bases in the top of the fourth. As the Matador’s pitching continued under duress, a hit-by-pitch to Vest would plate home a run for the Cougars, followed by a fielder’s choice to give BYU a 6-0 lead.
The Matador’s offense went hitless for almost five full innings until a two-out bunt from infielder Colton Boardman reignited the team. With the Cougars issuing a walk to start the fifth inning, two men were on base for CSUN’s Matthew Pena.
Pena came up huge, giving life to the team and the crowd with a three-run home run to right center field to cut the deficit in half, 6-3. The Matadors’ momentum closed out the inning with a ground-out to close out the inning.
The first baseman said his approach at the plate was simple.
“The approach was just mainly not being late on the heater, swinging through those first two changeups, not letting that affect my approach and shift my approach to sit off speed. Obviously I was still looking for that heater, then I saw a curveball and got under it and put a good swing on it,” Pena said.
From that moment on, both offenses faded. BYU scored just one more run in the seventh inning, while the Matadors never scored another hit for the rest of the game.
It was another tough outing for CSUN’s starting pitchers. Diego Gutierrez pitched just 3.1 innings, allowing five earned runs and five hits, striking out four and issuing four walks. The bullpen was strong, with five pitchers used, allowing just three hits to finish out the game.
Matadors’ head coach, Eddie Cornejo, preached that he needed more toughness from his team.
“We’re going to have to find silver linings in some of these games. I lined up our schedule to be real tough early on because I wanted us to be shaped and I wanted to become tougher because of it. We’re going to have to fight through this start, which is one of the worst starts I’ve seen as a coach. We’re going to have to fight through it and find a way,” Cornejo said.
CSUN will have a chance to avoid a sweep on Saturday in the final game of their opening homestand against BYU. The game will be televised on ESPN+, and the first pitch is set for 1 p.m.
