The Matadors’ pitching staff has struggled finding the plate so far this year and the trend continued Monday afternoon in an 18-6 romping from Washington at Matador Field.
Playing in gloomy weather, CSUN’s pitchers walked nine batters and allowed 17 hits in a shortened seven-inning game en route to their second home loss of the year.
The Matadors (5-3) gave up multiple runs in six of the seven innings, allowing Washington (5-3) lead-off hitters to reach base safely in all of those.
Junior Jacob Petersen started for Northridge and turned in three innings allowing eight hits and six runs while striking out six hitters. CSUN relief pitchers combined for four innings, nine hits, eight walks and 12 runs.
Although the CSUN offense managed seven hits, its six runs weren’t nearly enough to keep up with the Washington bats, which homered three times on the day.
Redshirt junior Tommy Simis had two hits and a RBI in four plate appearances at second base. Junior transfer Brett Balkan added a hit and two RBI while junior Marty Bowen drove in a run.
Todd Eskilin also had an RBI for the Matadors, extending his hitting streak to eight games.
The Matadors put themselves in a quick two-run deficit in the first inning by walking one and giving up three singles.
CSUN started the second inning with a Bowen single, but the first baseman was left stranded on third after three straight groundball outs.
The Huskies tacked on another four runs in the third with two coming off a home run by Washington catcher Ryan Wiggins.
The Matadors answered back in the bottom half with three runs of their own. Cal Vogelsang was hit by a pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly by Bowen before the Matadors loaded the bases for Simis. The Huskies’ third baseman mishandled a Simis’ grounder allowing another CSUN run and moving Kyle Attl over to third. A balk scored Attl before Eskilin grounded out to end the inning.
CSUN gave up another pair of runs in the fourth extending its deficit while the offense stranded two men on base in the bottom half.
The runs were just getting started when Washington added three more in the fifth, pushing its lead to 11-3.
Led by a pair of doubles by Simis and Eskilin with the second resulting in a run, the Northridge bats woke up in the bottom half of the fifth. CSUN continued its comeback attempt by loading the bases with two outs. Balkan singled through the left side of the infield scoring Miles Williams and Esklin to make the score 11-6.
Any thoughts of a comeback dwindled away as the Huskies tallied two more runs in the sixth off a two-run blast by Washington third baseman Jacob Lamb.
Washington put the game well out of reach in the final inning when CSUN junior Harper White gave up a grand slam with no outs.
