College Baseball RAINBOW TOURNAMENT : Late CSUN Rallies Aren’t Enough as Matadors Lose Two

Despite ninth-inning rallies, Cal State Northridge lost both games Tuesday in the 10th annual Rainbow-Easter Baseball Tournament at the University of Hawaii.

In the first game, Brigham Young University scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to defeat CSUN, 4-3, and post its first victory of the tournament. In the second game, the Matadors lost to undefeated Wichita State, 7-4.

CSUN (2-3 in tournament play) is in second-place behind leader Wichita State (5-0). BYU (1-3) is fifth. The tournament, which follows a round-robin format in which each team plays eight games in seven days, will conclude Friday.

In both games Tuesday, the Matadors scored all of their runs in the ninth inning. In the first game against BYU, Northridge’s Darryl Gilliam singled to right and stole second before Mark Ban doubled to right to drive Gilliam in. John Balfanz sacrificed to left to bring in Ban for the Matador’s second run. Todd Mustin, saved on an error by the second baseman, stole second and scored when Matt MacArthur doubled to left field.

In the second game, Wichita scored four runs in the first four at-bats to lead 4-0. A single by Mark Juenke in the third and an RBI single by Tim Railey in the sixth inning put Wichita up 6-0.

The Matadors’ Tom McKay had an RBI single in the top of the ninth inning to put the Matadors on the scoreboard, 6-1. Northridge’s next three runs came on three consecutive doubles by Gerry Bernard, Mustin and McKay. Wichita State scored its seventh run in the bottom of the ninth on a Railey sacrifice to left field.

CSUN is 1-2-1 lifetime against BYU and is 0-1 against Wichita. CSUN will play host Hawaii, the defending WAC champion, today at 3:30 p.m. and will meet BYU again Thursday at 12:30. CSUN concludes the tournament Friday against Lewis-Clark at 3:30.

Highlights from Monday night’s Cal State Northridge game:

The Matadors improved their record to 23-8-1 with a comeback win over host University of Hawaii. Down 7-5 in the eighth inning, Northridge scored four runs off losing pitcher Mark Burlingame. Big swings in the inning were by Gary Williams (a run-scoring triple), Mark Ban (a two-run triple) and Dick Jacquez (a sacrifice fly). Ban also had an RBI double in the third inning. He was 2 for 4 with 3 runs batted in. Winning pitcher was Glen Braybrooks, who picked up his fifth win against no losses. Braybrooks went the last 1 innings, striking out three. He came into the game in relief of starter Tom Harmon.