LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The Matadors’ recent hot hitting and scoring was nowhere to be found, along with the spring sunny skies.
In an overcast Saturday afternoon, the Cal State Northridge baseball team (13-10, 0-0 Big West) scraped nothing but two hits in an 8-0 pounding at the hands of Loyola Marymount on Saturday at Page Field.
After averaging almost seven runs per game over the last eight coming into the weekend series against the Lions, CSUN was not able to get quality at-bats from the lineup as LMU’s pitchers were too much to handle.
Northridge faced a very tough Lions pitching staff that had a combined team earned run average of 3.08 coming into the weekend.
Alex Gillingham, Loyola’s Saturday starter, threw seven innings of two-hit baseball, striking out five and walking none. The bullpen was less than equal as it pitched two innings of perfect relief.
“Their guy did a good job. He’s a ground ball pitcher. If you give them a lead and you let them settle in, then you’re going to get some 1-2-3 innings. We made some hard outs and that’s what they count on. He’s got a really good advantage and the defense is prepared,” CSUN head coach Matt Curtis said.
The innings Curtis was talking about were the seven 1-2-3 innings the Matadors ran into. CSUN reached base in the second and sixth innings on an error and a walk respectively, but were 1-2-3 innings as a no hit was recorded.
Northridge senior outfielder Ridge Carpenter got both hits, one a double to lead off the game and the other a single in the third innings. Nothing else came from the CSUN bats, as the rest of the team was able to draw three walks for the game.
“It’s just the way the game goes. You either hit the ball good or you hit the ball bad. It’s just the way the game goes,” said Carpenter, who went 2-for-4 with two hits and a stolen base.
LMU’s initial attack came in the third inning when it got a leadoff single from designated hitter Nick Devian. Outfielder Matt Lowenstein, who was leading the team in batting average (.364) coming into the game, bunted Devian to second. Infielder Jonathan Johnson singled in the RBI to open the scoring.
Devian scored from second, but had a chance to be thrown out at the plate by CSUN centerfielder Drew Muren. Catcher Steven Keller dropped the ball on the timely tag and Devian was called safe, making the game 1-0 for the Lions.
LMU scored two more times, but its biggest damage came in the fourth inning when catcher Matt Koch crushed a bases-clearing double to centerfield, his 13th double of the season, to give the Lions a 6-0 lead.
Koch went 2-for-4 with four RBIs. He now has 20 runs batted in to lead the team.
Friday’s series opener was an entirely different story as a pitching duel was underway at Matador Field.
Matador starter Justen Gorski went four innings, but only gave up two runs before being replaced by Paul Tremlin. The senior pitcher came in with bases loaded and no outs and was able to retire the side on three throws.
LMU opened the scoring with two runs in the third and Northridge cut the lead in half in the fifth when infielder Kyle Attl scored in TS Reed to make the game 2-1 in favor of the Lions.
All was not enough as Lion starter Jason Wheeler pitched into the ninth inning and was close to recording his first perfect game of the season, but CSUN ran him out when it scored two runs.
The score was now 5-3 with no outs. Two LMU relievers combined for three outs to end the game.
“Well first off, hats off to LMU. They’re a great hitting team. What happened was… to beat them you got to execute. I was fortunate enough to go in there and I did really well with my pitches. I know a lot of their hitters from playing them the last couple of years, but if you make a mistake, they’ll get you. That’s kind of what happened,” said Tremlin, who went 4.1 innings and gave up two runs.
