CSUN Clubs Five Homers, Clinches Series at Fullerton

Saturday, March 21

Fullerton, Calif.

5:00 p.m.

California State University at Northridge

13-9, 0

Cal State Fullerton

10-12, 0

CSUN

Cal State Fullerton

Traig Oughton vs. Western Michigan 2-27-26

Photo by: Chuck Marvel

CSUN Clubs Five Homers, Clinches Series at Fullerton

3/21/2026 10:03:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

FULLERTON, Calif.---Behind five home runs and another standout performance on the mound, CSUN Baseball clinched a series win with a 5-3 decision at Cal State Fullerton on Saturday at Goodwin Field.

Matthew Thomas finished with three hits including a towering solo home run while Traig Oughton worked seven quality innings with two runs allowed and eight strikeouts in the victory.

HOW IT HAPPENED
For the second consecutive day, the Matadors struck first in the first inning against Fullerton pitching. CSUN took advantage of a two-out throwing error off the bat of Mateo Rickman to bring Matthew Pena to the plate. Pena delivered with an RBI double off the wall in right field for a 1-0 lead.

CSUN would flex its muscles in the second inning, slugging three solo home runs to extend to a 4-0 advantage. Will Linberg and Matthew Cormier hit back-to-back homers to begin the frame while Kyle Panganiban later hit a two-out solo homer to knock starting pitcher Dylan Smith out of the game.

BACK-2-BACK!

Matthew Cormier goes deep as well in the 2nd inning to extend the lead to 3-0!#GoMatadors pic.twitter.com/8ccaYSAaM0
— CSUN Baseball (@CSUNBaseball) March 22, 2026

On the flip side, Oughton baffled Titan hitters throughout the night. The right hander scattered five hits over his seven innings of work with the only blemish coming in the third inning.

The Titans pushed across two runs in the third inning on two-out hits from Paul Contreras and Nick Miller before Oughton retired Andrew Kirchner to finally end the threat.

Oughton retired seven of eight batters after giving up the two runs in the third, keeping the Matadors in front. He then racked up four strikeouts over his last two innings of work before exiting after the bottom of the seventh.

CSUN added to its lead over the seventh and eighth innings as Thomas and Vaughn Coleman clubbed solo home runs for a 6-2 lead.

Matthew Thomas joining in on the HR derby.

Thomas hammers a no doubter to left for his 9th of the season. CSUN leads 5-2 in the 7th. #GoMatadors pic.twitter.com/CgpKwZnXQU
— CSUN Baseball (@CSUNBaseball) March 22, 2026

Fullerton threatened once more in the eighth against Matador reliever Logan Miller, picking up consecutive singles to start the frame. However, Miller retired the next three batters in succession to end the threat. Jaiden Turner took over in the ninth on the mound, retiring three of four batters to nail down the win.

NOTES OF THE GAME

CSUN improves to 13-9 overall and 4-4 in Big West play while Cal State Fullerton drops to 10-12 overall and 5-3 in conference.
Oughton's eight strikeouts and seven innings pitched set new season highs. He also improved to 3-0 on the year.
Thomas recorded his team-high eighth multiple-hit game of the season.
Colton Boardman finished 1-for-4 to extend his hit streak to eight games.
Both Pena and Linberg stretched their respective on base streaks to eight games.
CSUN has now won three straight series at Cal State Fullerton, dating back to 2022.

ACCORDING TO COACH EDDIE CORNEJO
"We did a great job of hitting mistakes today and capitalized on them. We didn't get rewarded last Saturday for quality swings but today we did, that's baseball. Traig Oughton deserves to be recognized for his 111-pitch performance. He finished strong and kept us in it for the big swings to make a difference."

UP NEXT
CSUN looks for a series sweep on Sunday when the Matadors take on Cal State Fullerton at 1 p.m. on ESPN+.

#GoMatadors