CSUN Offense Comes Alive in Victory Over CS Long Beach

Kevin Kloek, the right side of his torso buried beneath an ice pack, looked beyond the outfield at the picket fence of numbers on the Cal State Long Beach scoreboard.

The inning-by-inning readout Wednesday was as refreshing as a cold shower. Finally, the Cal State Northridge offense, its bats thawed, had lived up to its potential.

“That’s the way it’s supposed to be,” said Kloek, a junior right-hander. “That’s the way it was all winter. Maybe we’ve found the groove.”

The Matadors are grooving, to be sure. Their 10-6 nonconference victory over Long Beach keeps alive a streak in which they have played seven games without a loss. It also marked the first time this season that Northridge (6-4-1) reached double figures in runs, and it came at the expense of a team that entered the week ranked 13th and 17th nationally by a pair of baseball publications.

It looked like the unbeaten string could become old news when the Matadors stranded seven baserunners in the first three innings. Northridge held a 2-1 lead, but the absence of a timely hit allowed Long Beach to stay close.

Long Beach (9-7) blew it open in the fourth inning when the 49er defense and pitching staff blew up and Northridge scored three runs without benefit of a base hit to the outfield.

An infield single, a hit batsman, an error and four wild pitches helped Northridge to a 5-1 lead. Scott Richardson started the rally with a single off the glove of right-hander Steve Louis (0-1) and took second on a wild pitch. Long Beach Coach Dave Snow yanked Louis in favor of left-hander Gabriel Gonzalez, who was just as shaky. Before the inning was over, Gonzalez--who had not allowed a run in five previous innings--had hit a batter and unloaded three more wild pitches.

“We didn’t throw strikes or play catch,” said Snow, whose team committed four errors, walked eight batters and hit two more. “We were very inefficient.”

The Matadors, meanwhile, scored at least one run in every inning from the third through the eighth and once led 7-1.

Greg Shockey, Mike Sims and Mike Solar each had two hits to lead a 12-hit attack and Solar scored three runs for Northridge.

Kloek (3-0) allowed just two hits and faced only three batters over the minimum through the first five innings. Although he struggled in the later innings, he still hung on to finish with an eight-hitter.

Kloek struck out eight, walked four and threw 140 pitches. By comparison, Snow, who planned to pitch by committee, used seven pitchers. Snow, in fact, admitted that Long Beach probably doesn’t deserve its national ranking.

“We’re overrated to be in anybody’s top 20,” he said. “This is a real up-and-down ballclub.”