CSUN Wins 2 Without Its Offense

Neither of the Cal State Northridge softball team’s victories Saturday in its own Tournament of Champions was particularly pretty.

CSUN had only two innings--one in each game--in which it managed to generate any kind of offense. And even then, Northridge had its opponents to thank for most of the runs it scored.

But the Lady Matadors will take their 3-0 decision over Brigham Young and their 5-0 win over Augustana (S.D.), just the same, because the sweep in the second day of pool play gave them a 5-0 tournament record that makes CSUN the top-seeded team in its bracket heading into today’s quarterfinal round in single-elimination play.

“It was just kind of one of those days,” CSUN’s Andy Goodell said. “We couldn’t generate any offense all day. But we put the ball down and made things happen when we had to.”

CSUN also had Debbie Dickmann, who threw a three-hitter against Augustana, and Delanee Anderson, who yielded four hits to BYU and retired 13 consecutive batters in one stretch.

For Augustana, Teresa Hartman rolled into the sixth inning with a two-hitter against a Northridge team that had scored 22 runs in three games in Friday’s first round.

But two errors by Augustana fueled a five-run CSUN inning, all but one unearned.

“We would have liked to have had that sooner,” said Lisa Erickson, who had one of Northridge’s four hits in the inning.

“Yesterday, we were ripping the ball, but today that didn’t happen for us. I kind of just said, ‘Well, I better bear down and get it together,’ ” said Anderson (6-4).

Besides Anderson’s pitching, however, the Lady Matadors benefited from eight BYU errors. The three CSUN runs were unearned.

“That’s our whole game,” Goodell said, “to try to make things happen, force some errors.”

CSUN (26-9) plays in today’s quarterfinal round of the 12-team tournament at 12:30 p.m. against either Chapman College (2-3 in the tournament) or Chico State (also 2-3 in tournament play). Chapman and Chico State play each other in a single-elimination game at 8 this morning. The tournament championship game is scheduled for 3:30.

In other pool play Saturday, Cal Lutheran (16-9) upset No. 9-ranked Mankato State, 6-5, but lost, 4-0, to No. 12 Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

The winning run against Mankato State was scored by Jill Anderson, who came home on Kelly Ingram’s sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh inning.

That run capped an impressive rally by CLU, which came back in the top of the sixth from a 4-0 deficit. Kim White gave the Regals (16-9) a temporary lead with a three-run homer.

CLU (3-2 in the tournament) takes on the winner of a morning game between Southern Utah and Mankato State at 12:30 p.m. in the quarterfinals.