Northridge Content With Split : College softball: Second-ranked Matadors defeat Fresno State in second game, 4-2, after dropping opener, 4-1.

FRESNO — All things considered, Cal State Northridge softball Coach Gary Torgeson was satisfied with the Matadors’ split with Fresno State on Sunday in a Western Athletic Conference doubleheader.

As Torgeson put it: “One’s better than none. Fresno is a tough place to play.”

In front of 1,326, second-ranked Northridge dropped the opener to the struggling Bulldogs, 4-1, but regained its momentum with a 4-2 victory in the second game.

Fresno State (26-17, 6-6 in conference play), which in four weeks has slipped 10 spots to No. 15 in the national rankings, had been playing inconsistently, but that certainly didn’t show against the Matadors.

Northridge (33-4-1, 9-1) dodged a sweep primarily because Fresno ace Marcie Green pitched only 12 of the 14 innings in the doubleheader. It was in the two innings Green didn’t pitch that the Matadors did the most damage.

After Green (18-5) ended the Matadors’ 13-game winning streak in the opener with a five-hit, seven-strikeout performance, Fresno State Coach Margie Wright started Lisa Mize (3-7) in the second game.

Northridge, which got one hit off Green in the last five innings of the first game, quickly took advantage of Mize. The Matadors pounded six hits--three for extra bases--to take a 4-0 lead 1 2/3 innings into the game. Jen Fleming’s run-scoring single in the second chased Mize and prompted Green’s reappearance.

“I wish we could have gotten her in there sooner,” Wright said. “But it all just happened so fast.”

The senior right-hander who relies heavily on the movement rather than the velocity of her pitches, retired 14 of the first 15 batters she faced in relief before yielding two singles in the seventh. Northridge, which entered the doubleheader with a .318 conference-high batting average, never quite solved Green--except for Fleming, who had two of her four hits in the second game off Green.

“She’s got great movement,” Northridge slugger Beth Calcante said. “Definitely the best we’ve seen.”

The Bulldogs scored their only runs in the third inning. Northridge’s Kathy Blake (13-1) gave up six hits and picked up her 12th consecutive victory.

Meanwhile, it was a sour homecoming of sorts for Northridge’s Amy Windmiller (14-3), a former Fresno State pitcher who left the Bulldogs after the 1991 season because of a lack of playing time.

In the opener, Windmiller, who said she was uncharacteristically nervous about facing her old team, gave up seven hits before being pulled in the sixth.