The Cal State Northridge baseball team avoided a sweep by taking the final game in 10 innings against the Oklahoma State Cowboys 11-6 at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium March 3-5.
“It’s a lot of fun. We don’t care if they’re with us or against us,” head coach Steve Rousey said referring to the average crowd of 1,269. “It makes it more exciting.”
In game one, junior Craig Baker started for the Matadors while Oliver Odle started for the Cowboys.
In the bottom of the third, John Schindler led off with a single, advanced to second on a balk and reached third on a wild pitch. Corey Brown followed with a walk. Schindler scored and Brown advanced to second when Keanon Simon singled to right. Tyler Mach followed with a single to score Brown. Deik Scram doubled to left, bringing in the last two runs of the inning and giving OSU a 4-0 lead.
In the seventh inning, OSU added one more run when Mach scored on a single by Adam Carr.
The Cowboys had their biggest inning of the game in the eighth, scoring five runs to give them a 10-0 lead.
CSUN finally got on the board in the top of the ninth.The Matadors scored off singles by senior Erik Hagstrom and freshman Richard Cates. Senior Paul Wilson followed with a homerun but CSUN still come up short 10-3.
With the loss, Baker dropped to 3-2 on the season. He struck out three in six innings while giving up seven hits and four runs. CSUN’s bullpen struggled as three relievers gave up six runs on six hits in two innings of work.
Odle pitched eight innings giving up ten hits and the three runs while striking out three.
In game two, freshman Edwin Quirarte took the mound for CSUN against Charles Benoit.
In the first inning, Corey Brown walked to lead off. Brae Wright doubled to center to score Brown. Shelby Ford followed with a homerun to bring in two more runs and gave OSU a 3-0 lead. The Cowboys scored again in the second inning, giving them a 4-0 lead.
In the fifth inning, the Matadors cut the lead to two. Junior’s Todd Shelton and Johnny Coit scored on throwing errors by Carr to cut the lead to 4-2.
The Cowboys, however, answered back in their half of the inning. Ford hit his second homerun of the game and Carr hit a two-run homerun later in the inning to give OSU a 7-2 lead.
The Cowboys final run of the game came in the sixth when Mach singled to score Brown and give the Cowboys an 8-2 win.
Quirarte got the loss. He struck out four in 4 one-third innings of work and gave up 11 hits and seven runs.
The Matador bullpen combined for four strikeouts and allowed only one run and seven hits in 3.2 innings of work.
Benoit improved to 2-0 on the season by allowing only two runs and four hits in 6.1 innings while striking out five.
Junior Bobby Paschal started the final game of the series for the Matadors going up against Joe Kent. It was the first start of the season for both pitchers.
OSU took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Brown scored on a sacrifice fly by Mach.
CSUN scored its first run in the second inning when Kent hit junior Alex Bardeguez with the bases loaded. A wild pitch scored Paul Wilson to give the Matadors a 2-1 lead. Coit then drove in junior Adam Fleener to give CSUN a 3-1 lead. Junior Jorge Andrade doubled and brought in two more runs, giving the Matadors a 5-1 edge.
In the fourth inning, the Cowboys cut the lead to two. After two walks, Carr doubled to bring in two runs and made the score 5-3.
In the fifth inning, sophomore James Scott hit a homerun to make the score 6-3 CSUN. Scott has taken the roll of designated hitter recently going 7-14 with three RBI’s on the season.
The Matador lead diminished in the bottom of the ninth when Ty Wright hit a three run homerun to force the game into extra innings.
CSUN, however, scored five runs in the tenth, giving them an 11-6 lead.
Senior Jimmy Brettl retired the side in the bottom of the tenth to give the Matadors the victory and avoided the sweep.
Paschal pitched five innings, allowing three runs and four hits while recording four strikeouts.
With the win, Brettl got his second win of the season. He pitched 4.1 innings, allowing three runs and four hits and striking out five.
CSUN will next travel to Arkansas for a three-game series against the Razerbacks beginning March 10 .
Victor Flores can be reached at sports_sundial@csun.edu
