Tuesday, March 22
Northridge, Calif.
2:00 p.m.
California State University at Northridge
11-9
6
vs
4
Dixie State
11-9
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Dixie State
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
3
0
4
4
1
CSUN
0
2
0
0
0
1
2
1
X
6
8
2
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Braun, Lucas (1-2)
L: Dahle, Jake (1-2)
S: Schriever, Blake (1)
Batting:
3B: Rodriguez, Chase 1
RBI: Rodriguez, Chase 3
Base Running:
RUNS: Hollow, Kaden 1 ; Walker, Jack 1 ; Leavitt, Jagun 2
PO: Davis, Keith 1
Batting:
2B: Sojka, Andrew 1 ; Gonzalez, Gabe 1
HR: Gonzalez, Gabe 1 ; West, Bart 1
RBI: Gonzalez, Gabe 1 ; West, Bart 2 ; Yogi, CJ 1
SH: Yogi, CJ 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Simons, Jakob 1 ; Moody, Kai 1 ; Sojka, Andrew 1 ; Gonzalez, Gabe 1 ; West, Bart 2
Game Leaders
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
1
AB
4
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
RHP
/ BaseballINF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
RHP
/ BaseballOF
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
Photo by: Will Navarro
Matadors Get Back on Winning Track Against Dixie State
3/22/2022 5:24:00 PM | Baseball
NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---CSUN Baseball (11-9) stayed unbeaten at home with a 6-4 victory over Dixie State on Tuesday at Matador Field. Lucas Braun tossed four shutout innings, striking out a career-high six batters. Bart West and Gabe Gonzalez collected home runs in the win.
Making his second-straight Tuesday start, Braun was strong early on for the Matadors. The right-hander struck out two in the opening inning, allowing only a two-out hit to Tyler Hollow. After the hit by Hollow, Braun went on to retire eight consecutive Trailblazers.
Dixie State broke up Braun's streak in the top of the fourth inning on a one-out infield single from Hollow. However, Braun bounced back by inducing a 4-6-3 double play to end the threat.
On the flip side, the Matadors struck first in the bottom of the second inning when Gonzalez drove the first pitch of the frame over the left-field wall for a solo home run. The Matadors would manufacture a second run later in the inning with CJ Yogi at the plate and runners at the corners. Yogi laid down a bunt back to the mound that Dixie State pitcher Jake Dahle fielded cleanly. Dahle attempted to throw out West at home plate but the toss was late as West slid in safely for the Matadors' second run.
Gavin Lizik took over for Braun in the fifth inning and was able to pitch around a leadoff walk by picking up a double play. In the sixth though the Trailblazers cut the lead in half after taking advantage of a CSUN error with two outs. With a runner in scoring position, Kaden Hollow hit a grounder to the right side that was mishandled, resulting in Jagun Leavitt coming around to score.Â
The Matadors would respond with a single tally in the home half of the sixth on a one-out RBI single from West who brought home Jakob Simons. CSUN added to its lead an inning later in the seventh, this time taking advantage of a Dixie State error with two outs to extended to a 5-1 lead. The Matadors had runners at first and second base when Andrew Sojka hit a comebacker to the mound off pitcher Taye Newman. Newman was able to retrieve the ball and made an underhand toss to first base but the throw was errant, leading to two runs scoring.
The Trailblazers roared back in the bottom of the eighth with a key two-out hit that trimmed the CSUN lead to one. After Leavitt singled, Matador pitching issued two walks as the bases were loaded with two outs for Chase Rodriguez. Blake Schriever battled to a 1-2 count before Rodriguez cleared the bases with a three-run triple to pull Dixie State to within 5-4. Schriever eventually ended the inning by forcing Tyson Fisher to foul out.
The Matadors quickly got a run back in the home half of the eighth when West hammered the first pitch of the inning over the left-field fence.
With CSUN ahead 6-4, Schriever would have to pitch around an error at shortstop to begin the top of the ninth. Schriever retired Mathew Ivancich for the first out before picking off Keith Davis at first base. Dixie State kept the inning alive with a Leavitt walk but Schriever forced Shane Taylor to flyout to end the game.
GAME NOTES
The Matadors improved to 5-0 at Matador Field this season. Dating back to 2021, CSUN has won nine consecutive games at home.
West finished 2-for-3 with two runs scored, two RBI and a walk. Gonzalez and Mason Le also finished 2-for-4 at the plate.
Five Matador pitchers saw action on the mound. Lizik and Elias Jauregui both worked 1.2 innings while Hoskins worked 0.1 innings and Schriever worked the final 1.1 innings. Schriever earned his fourth save of the season and his 19th of his CSUN career.
ACCORDING TO COACH DAVE SERRANO
 "[Lucas] threw strikes and committed to a fastball early over the plate. He had command of his breaking ball and mixed in his change-up really well. When you play these midweek games, you know you're going to staff it, it's always important for the starter to set the tone for everybody. I thought he set the tone but we didn't pass the baton after that though. As I just shared with the team, we walked seven guys over the last five innings. That's not acceptable. That's not good baseball and not winning baseball. We were lucky to win today, and I don't want to sound negative but that's the truth. That's coming off a Sunday where we walked nine, two of them intentional, but that doesn't bode for successful baseball. Then we kicked the ball around a little bit and we were luck to hold on.
"I can't lie to our team and say that was a good game because that would be fooling them. We have some big series coming up where we have to clean some things up."
Â
UP NEXT
CSUN resumes Big West play with a weekend series with Long Beach State starting Friday at 3 p.m. Ghizal Hasan has the call on ESPN+ and GoMatadors.com/Radio.
Â
#UniteTheValley
Â
Making his second-straight Tuesday start, Braun was strong early on for the Matadors. The right-hander struck out two in the opening inning, allowing only a two-out hit to Tyler Hollow. After the hit by Hollow, Braun went on to retire eight consecutive Trailblazers.
Dixie State broke up Braun's streak in the top of the fourth inning on a one-out infield single from Hollow. However, Braun bounced back by inducing a 4-6-3 double play to end the threat.
On the flip side, the Matadors struck first in the bottom of the second inning when Gonzalez drove the first pitch of the frame over the left-field wall for a solo home run. The Matadors would manufacture a second run later in the inning with CJ Yogi at the plate and runners at the corners. Yogi laid down a bunt back to the mound that Dixie State pitcher Jake Dahle fielded cleanly. Dahle attempted to throw out West at home plate but the toss was late as West slid in safely for the Matadors' second run.
Gavin Lizik took over for Braun in the fifth inning and was able to pitch around a leadoff walk by picking up a double play. In the sixth though the Trailblazers cut the lead in half after taking advantage of a CSUN error with two outs. With a runner in scoring position, Kaden Hollow hit a grounder to the right side that was mishandled, resulting in Jagun Leavitt coming around to score.Â
The Matadors would respond with a single tally in the home half of the sixth on a one-out RBI single from West who brought home Jakob Simons. CSUN added to its lead an inning later in the seventh, this time taking advantage of a Dixie State error with two outs to extended to a 5-1 lead. The Matadors had runners at first and second base when Andrew Sojka hit a comebacker to the mound off pitcher Taye Newman. Newman was able to retrieve the ball and made an underhand toss to first base but the throw was errant, leading to two runs scoring.
The Trailblazers roared back in the bottom of the eighth with a key two-out hit that trimmed the CSUN lead to one. After Leavitt singled, Matador pitching issued two walks as the bases were loaded with two outs for Chase Rodriguez. Blake Schriever battled to a 1-2 count before Rodriguez cleared the bases with a three-run triple to pull Dixie State to within 5-4. Schriever eventually ended the inning by forcing Tyson Fisher to foul out.
The Matadors quickly got a run back in the home half of the eighth when West hammered the first pitch of the inning over the left-field fence.
With CSUN ahead 6-4, Schriever would have to pitch around an error at shortstop to begin the top of the ninth. Schriever retired Mathew Ivancich for the first out before picking off Keith Davis at first base. Dixie State kept the inning alive with a Leavitt walk but Schriever forced Shane Taylor to flyout to end the game.
GAME NOTES
The Matadors improved to 5-0 at Matador Field this season. Dating back to 2021, CSUN has won nine consecutive games at home.
West finished 2-for-3 with two runs scored, two RBI and a walk. Gonzalez and Mason Le also finished 2-for-4 at the plate.
Five Matador pitchers saw action on the mound. Lizik and Elias Jauregui both worked 1.2 innings while Hoskins worked 0.1 innings and Schriever worked the final 1.1 innings. Schriever earned his fourth save of the season and his 19th of his CSUN career.
ACCORDING TO COACH DAVE SERRANO
 "[Lucas] threw strikes and committed to a fastball early over the plate. He had command of his breaking ball and mixed in his change-up really well. When you play these midweek games, you know you're going to staff it, it's always important for the starter to set the tone for everybody. I thought he set the tone but we didn't pass the baton after that though. As I just shared with the team, we walked seven guys over the last five innings. That's not acceptable. That's not good baseball and not winning baseball. We were lucky to win today, and I don't want to sound negative but that's the truth. That's coming off a Sunday where we walked nine, two of them intentional, but that doesn't bode for successful baseball. Then we kicked the ball around a little bit and we were luck to hold on.
"I can't lie to our team and say that was a good game because that would be fooling them. We have some big series coming up where we have to clean some things up."
Â
UP NEXT
CSUN resumes Big West play with a weekend series with Long Beach State starting Friday at 3 p.m. Ghizal Hasan has the call on ESPN+ and GoMatadors.com/Radio.
Â
#UniteTheValley
Â
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