Northridge Flops at the Finish Against Chapman : College baseball: Matadors (0-2) blow pair of four-run leads and lose, 9-8. Kendrena again suffers the defeat.

Finish it off.

The Cal State Northridge baseball team’s official motto for this season is emblazoned on team caps and hanging on dugout walls. But in a 9-8 nonconference loss to Chapman on Saturday at Hart Park in Orange, they were empty words.

Finish it off. Catcher Mike Sims couldn’t do it.

“It’s pretty tough to jump to a big lead in the early innings and lose it late in the game,” Sims said.

Finish it off. Pitcher Kenny Kendrena couldn’t, either.

“I’ve never been in a position like this where I felt like I lost the game for my team,” Kendrena said.

Sparked by scoring rallies in each of its final five at-bats, it was Chapman that finished off Northridge.

The Matadors (0-2) could not protect a pair of four-run leads and had the potential tying run shot down at the plate in the ninth.

To make matters more frustrating, Sims struck out with runners at first and second to end the game--after he stepped to the plate with four hits in as many at-bats.

Chapman (4-1) put Northridge and Kendrena away with a two-run rally in the eighth, although the Matador right-hander had been bloodied much earlier. Kendrena, who was 13-2 and a third-team Division I All-American last season, surrendered home runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings as Chapman hammered its way back.

With a runner at first and one out in the eighth, Kendrena’s 3-and-2 pitch to Cliff Anderson was a cliff-hanger, indeed. Anderson checked his swing after the bat appeared to cross the plate, and fell in the dirt. The umpires ruled he did not swing, however, and the base on balls gave impetus to Chapman’s game-winning rally.

“It was pretty obvious that he swung,” Northridge Coach Bill Kernen said. “But it’s a judgment call.”

So was Kernen’s decision to leave Kendrena in the game. The next batter, Chris Briones, doubled down the line in left to drive in Trevor Rush and tie the score, 8-8.

Kendrena had just thrown his 132nd and final pitch.

“I left him in because I trust him,” Kernen said. “He’s an All-American, he won 13 games last year.”

With runners at second and third and the infield playing in, Northridge reliever Steven Morales retired Mike Guiseffi on a towering chopper near the mound, but Anderson scored easily with what proved to be the winning run.

The Matadors mounted a threat in the ninth against reliever Steven Aviles. With one out, Denny Vigo reached base on a fielding error and was replaced by freshman pinch-runner Jonathan Campbell.

Kyle Washington drew a walk on a 3-and-2 pitch, moving Campbell to second, and Andy Hodgins followed with a looping single to center. Campbell, however, hesitated at second, thinking that the ball might be caught. Campbell nonetheless was waved around third and was easily thrown out at the plate on an 8-3-2 relay.

“It was a bad read,” Kernen said of Campbell’s stutter-step. “It was clearly a hit.”

Aviles then struck out Sims on a 1-and-2 pitch to, well, finish it off.

Northridge shelled Chapman starter Pete Coleman, pounding out eight earned runs on 12 hits over six innings, but Kendrena didn’t fare much better. He allowed all nine runs, eight earned, on nine hits in 7 1/3 innings. He struck out six and walked four, and gave up three home runs, a triple and a double.

Chapman, which moved to Division I this season, received a two-run homer from Jason White in the fifth that cut the Northridge lead to 6-4, a two-run blast by Briones in the sixth that pared the deficit to 7-6 and a solo shot by Buster Nietzke in the seventh to trim the margin to 8-7.

Although Northridge scored single runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh, it stranded five runners in that stretch.

The side-arming Aviles pitched the final three innings, allowing no runs on two hits, to earn the victory. It marked the second defeat in as many starts for Kendrena, who lost twice all last season and completed 12 of the 17 games he started.

“The feeling I have is that this was a learning experience,” Kendrena said.

The lesson, he knows only too well, also serves as the team motto.