Northridge Finds Range in Mountains, Routs BYU, 29-15

PROVO, Utah — Mountain time, mountain air, mountains of runs, mountains of records.

Cal State Northridge answered an uphill battle with an avalanche of offense, overcoming a five-run deficit to dismantle Brigham Young, 29-15, Thursday in the first game of the best-of-three Western Athletic Conference playoffs at Cougar Field.

Northridge (46-14) set or equaled 11 school records and tied two NCAA marks during a performance that was as long as it was loud.

The game lasted 4 hours 41 minutes.

BYU (37-18), with a .355 team batting average and the home-field advantage, scored seven runs in the second inning against Matador ace Erasmo Ramirez to wipe out a 5-1 Northridge lead. The Matadors appeared shocked for a short time, scoring only one run in their next two at-bats.

However, a three-run home run by Robert Fick and a homer on the next pitch by Eric Gillespie sparked a six-run rally in the fifth that gave the Matadors a 12-10 lead they didn’t relinquish. The homers, both hit to the opposite field, were the 20th of the season for both players.

Northridge kept hammering, scoring one in the sixth and four in the seventh before exploding for 10 runs in the seventh for a 27-11 lead. Nine consecutive batters had hits in the seventh, equaling the second-longest consecutive hit streak in NCAA history.

“This park with the thin air doesn’t faze us because we are used to playing at a park where the ball flies out,” Fick said. “We are used to playing this type of game. We didn’t panic when we fell behind and we didn’t let up when we went ahead.”

Fick hit his 21st home run in the eighth, and set a school record with nine runs batted in. The junior catcher has 80 RBIs this season, another school record.

Before the onslaught ended, Adam Kennedy and Kurt Airoso each tied an NCAA record for most plate appearances in a nine-inning game with nine. Kennedy tied a record with nine official at-bats. School records were tied by Airoso (six runs) and by Fick and Kennedy (five hits).

Jose Miranda tripled, doubled and singled twice, and Airoso, David Stevenson and Grant Hohman hit homers. Northridge had 25 hits.

The six home runs gave the Matadors 104 this season, breaking the school mark of 103 set in 1987.

Eventually, the seven Cougar pitchers were reluctant to throw strikes, and Northridge set another school record by drawing 17 walks. Northridge had 47 baserunners and left 18 on base, including the bases loaded five times.

“The difference was that our pitchers came at them with strikes even though they were swinging the bat well too,” Coach Mike Batesole said.

BYU collected 22 hits but drew only three walks against six Matador pitchers. Junior right-hander Jason Cole was the most effective, allowing only one unearned run from the sixth through the eighth while Northridge expanded its lead from 13-11 to 27-12.

Ramirez walked two and Juan Velazquez walked one, but Nathan Rice (6-2), Andrew Settle, Cole and Jesse Yeomans walked none.

Patrick Johnson and Tyson Dowdell each had four hits for BYU. D.G. Nelson hit his 19th home run.

“Cole did a great job quieting them for a while,” Batesole said.

Matador Notes

Erasmo Ramirez put his seven-game winning streak in jeopardy by allowing eight runs in 1 1/3 innings. It was the first time this season the sophomore left-hander left before the fifth inning. “He’s bailed us out so many times this year, it was nice that we could bail him out with all these runs,” catcher Robert Fick said. . . . The Matadors’ 46th victory tied the school record set in 1984 when the team won the Division II national championship. . . . The Matadors just missed another school record with seven doubles, one short of the standard.