Playing against every team with a serious attitude was a lesson learned.
The Cal State Northridge baseball team got a lesson over the weekend against Seattle University on not taking certain teams lightly.
“You never play a team and just sit there and think, ‘We swept them last year and we’re going to sweep them this year again.’ You never underestimate a team; always play the game like you’re supposed to play,” said pitcher Paul Tremlin, who pitched three innings in the loss on Sunday.
Infielder Tommy Simis, who hit .429 with three doubles for the weekend, said the team noticed the way it was thinking when facing the Redhawks.
“We caught ourselves in that kind of mindset, but we got back on it after the first loss,” Simis said. “We should be fine going on, we’re not going to be making the same mistake and taking teams lightly like that.”
The Matadors (2-2, 0-0 Big West) split a four-game weekend series against the Redhawks (2-2) at Matador Field and it featured up and downs that included great pitching and hitting performances from both sides.
The home team managed to capture opening day on Friday for the second straight year in a 2-0 victory with superb performance from pitcher Justen Gorski.
The junior starter gave up three hits, no runs and recorded eight strikeouts in seven innings of work.
The Matadors were pleased with parts of their performance, but cited offense as one area of improvement and something that will be worked on.
“For the most part, pitching and defense were definitely the strength and we had some moments offensively, but we got to do a better job and that was the disappointing aspect,” said head coach Matt Curtis. “I felt like we could’ve done a much better job at the plate over the course of the weekend.”
Northridge will be at home for a four-game series starting on Friday against Valparaiso, a team that 0-3 this season and finished 2010 with a 24-32 record.
Valparaiso is led by outfielder Steven Scoby, who is hitting .400 with six hits in 15 at-bats including two doubles.
Curtis said the team was not pleased about the weekend’s performance as a whole.
“A split at home to open the season is not what I was looking for. I don’t think is what we were looking for as a staff, and as a team, and so now we’ll see how we rebound from that,” Curtis said.
