Rain threatened to appear all game long, including a brief showing in the sixth but stayed away as Cal Poly Baseball took down CSU Northridge 5-4 to take the second game of the series.
The frigid air cut down a couple of long drives in the early frames as both teams struggled to get anything going.
Carson Turnquist escaped a jam in the third, getting two strikeouts with runners on, with Matador Colton Boardman helicoptering his bat towards his own dugout to end the frame.
Jake Downing opened the scoring in the bottom of the fourth, with a runner on he launched a full count offering over the center field wall for his first home run of the season to make it a 2-0 Mustangs lead.
“He was throwing me a lot of soft stuff,” Downing said. “He hung me a changeup and I put a good swing on it.”
As the sun broke through in the fifth inning, Cal Poly tacked on more. Nate Castellon led off the frame with a bomb just inside the left field foul pole, followed back-to-back by Alejandro Garza lifting one into the treeline in left. Dylan Kordic continued his resurgence with an RBI double with two outs to make it 5-0.
CSUN answered in the top of the sixth with a two out rally. A two-RBI triple and a single brought three runs across to chase Turnquist. His final line was 5 2/3rd innings of work with three runs on seven hits and 11 strikeouts.
Josh Morano was called upon to get the final out but he left in the middle of the first batter he faced with a shoulder injury. That brought Chris Downs into the game after a delay, who got out unscathed.
The Matadors struck again in the seventh with a one out RBI double, but Mateo Rickman got picked off third base after the third base coach threw up a late stop sign. Downs proceeded to get an inning ending flyout that was potentially deep enough to score on.
It was the best chance that CSUN would get for the rest of the game. Nick Bonn came on in the eighth, induced an inning ending double play then struck out the side in the ninth to collect his Big West leading 10th save of the season.
