Skidding Toros Drop 3 Games to Northridge

The Cal State Dominguez Hills baseball team continued its losing streak Saturday with an 9-2 defeat at Cal State Northridge.

The Toros have lost six in a row and 11 of their last 13. The three-game series against the Matadors--who won on Thursday, 10-9, and on Friday, 10-3--left the Toros 12-19-2 overall and 5-14 in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. Northridge improved to 25-14 overall and 12-6 in the CCAA.

The Matadors led early Saturday, scoring one run in the first inning on a single by winning pitcher Scott Sharts (1-1); one in the third; two in the fourth, including a solo homer by shortstop Mike Solar; one in the fifth, three in the seventh and one in the eighth.

Bill Keep’s double drove in the first Dominguez Hills run in the top of the fourth inning. The Toros added a run in the ninth. Senior pitcher Armando Gomez (4-3) took the loss.

In Thursday’s series opener at Northridge, it was Dominguez Hills that jumped out in front, with three runs in the first inning, but Northridge came right back with four runs in the bottom of the inning. The Matadors scored four more in the bottom of the eighth to put the game away. Junior pitcher Leonard Fletcher (0-2) took the loss.

On Friday at Dominguez Hills, the Matadors pounded out 16 hits, including two triples, and put the game out of reach by the end of the fourth inning, leading 6-0. Junior pitcher Vincent Aguilar (1-3) was the loser in that game.

Junior first baseman Darrell Conner went hitless in Saturday’s game, snapping a 19-game hitting streak, the longest in a single season in Dominguez Hills history. Conner leads the Toros with a .368 average, 26 RBIs and 10 doubles.