Student Gives Lesson to Teacher and Northridge Prevails, 10-3

NORTHRIDGE —  Student makes teacher proud. Student learns so well, in fact, he makes the teacher pay.

As a third baseman at Oral Roberts from 1983-85, Mike Batesole became a student of the game under the tutelage of assistant coach Pat Harrison.

“Pat taught me everything I know about hitting,” said Batesole, Oral Roberts’ all-time home run leader with 31. “He is the best coach I ever had.”

More than a decade later Batesole is coach of upstart Cal State Northridge and Harrison is coach of tradition-laden Pepperdine. Batesole’s Matadors belted four home runs and crushed the Waves, 10-3, Wednesday in a nonconference game that might have been a preview of a crucial season-ending series.

Neither the Western Athletic Conference nor the West Coast Conference champion is guaranteed a regional playoff berth this season. Champions of the two conferences play a best-of-three series with the winner getting an automatic bid.

Pepperdine (12-10, 4-0) is the favorite to win the WCC and Northridge (20-3, 5-1) is in first place in the WAC. Batesole, however, wanted no part of looking ahead.

“We were picked to finish fourth in the WAC,” he said. “Pepperdine should be there but I don’t know about us.”

The Matadors might not be denied if they continue to hit as they did against Pepperdine. And this was a performance completely in character for a team averaging more than nine runs a game.

Northridge halted a two-game losing streak by banging out 13 hits, including home runs by Robert Fick, Kurt Airoso, Eric Gillespie and Jose Miranda.

Fick’s was the key blow, a grand slam that capped a six-run fourth inning and gave Northridge a 7-1 lead over Pepperdine starter Greg Gregory (3-3). Fick has eight home runs, six in the past five games.

Gregory hit Grant Hohman in the upper back with the next pitch and the Matadors took exception by taking some purposeful strides out of their dugout.

But the only blows were struck with bats. Fick, Gillespie, Miranda and Adam Kennedy each had two hits. Home runs by Gillespie and Miranda in the seventh gave Northridge a 10-2 cushion.

Pepperdine’s runs came on solo home runs by Pedro Loza, David Matranga and Justin Hodgdon. The Waves, who had only three hits in a 1-0 victory over Fullerton on Tuesday night, had seven hits as their team batting average fell to .243.

Northridge starter Benito Flores (2-0) went five strong innings before staff aces Erasmo Ramirez and Robert Crabtree got in some work by throwing two innings apiece. Each pitcher allowed one home run.

Flores allowed three hits, struck out three and walked four but made key pitches with runners on base.

Although the Waves have won seven of nine, anemic offense remains a problem. Injuries haven’t helped. Senior cleanup hitter Ruben Gamboa is out for the season with a herniated disk and left fielder Josh Oder, the team’s leading hitter at .347, left the game after being hit by a pitch to lead off the first inning. Oder is the Waves’ only .300 hitter.

“They came out swinging the bats and, as has been the case, our problem was lack of aggressiveness at the plate,” Harrison said.