CSUN’s Title Hopes Sent Sprawling : Matadors: Jacksonville State rallies from a 6-1 deficit with the aid of a key hit batsman to post a 12-8 victory in the championship game.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Craig Clayton summed up the situation succinctly:

“You hit a guy on a one-two pitch and bad things happen,” he said.

A three-run home run by Merritt Bowden was officially the game-winning hit of the NCAA Division II championship baseball game Saturday at Paterson Field.

Clayton, his teammates and coaches know better.

Jacksonville (Ala.) State, which defeated Northridge, 12-8, did not deliver the most important hit of all. The Gamecocks received it.

Brian Roberts, a strikeout victim in his previous two at-bats, had two strikes on him with two out in the sixth inning. It was then that Clayton plunked him in the side with a curveball that didn’t curve.

The next pitch, another curve, was personally straightened out by Bowden. It landed well over the fence in right-center field for his 12th, and most timely, home run of the season.

Bowden’s three-run blast broke a 6-6 tie and reliever Craig Holman made it stand up as Jacksonville State (43-9) won its first Division II baseball title in six tries, before a highly partisan crowd of 3,593.

“That was the biggest play of the game,” said Coach Bill Kernen, whose Northridge team finished 39-22. “We had him struck out before on two balls away. We were trying to drop down and throw a breaking ball away and instead it hits him.”

Jacksonville State, which had taken the lead in its 10 previous postseason victories, was forced to play catch-up in the title game.

Northridge scored three times in both the second and third innings to take a 6-1 lead.

Mike Sims and Clayton had run-producing singles in the second inning. The Matadors scored their final run of the inning when Eric Johnson was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

Clayton, who finished with three hits and five runs batted in, accounted for all of CSUN’s runs in the third with his 12th home run, a three-run shot to left.

Right-hander Scott Sharts, however, could not hold the lead.

Heath Garman made the score 6-3 with a two-run homer in the fourth inning, and the Gamecocks pulled to within a run on another two-run homer, this one by Todd Mixon in the fifth.

“I just didn’t pitch the game I wanted to, the way I’m capable of,” said Sharts, who lost for the third time in nine decisions. “I was throwing stuff right in their zones.”

In the sixth, Sharts was chased by a two-out, run-scoring triple by Mark Adams.

Clayton, who had not pitched in more than two weeks, came on and immediately jumped ahead on the count before hitting Roberts.

“It wasn’t the home runs that killed us,” Clayton said. “It was the guys we let on base. They took advantage of our mistakes.”

Jacksonville State added three more runs in the seventh on two doubles, a single and two walks.

Holman (8-0), pitching in relief of starter Todd Altaffer, earned his 20th collegiate victory in 21 decisions. He allowed seven hits and two earned runs in 6 1/3 innings.

Sharts accounted for one of those runs when he blasted his 29th home run of the season in the sixth.

Northridge pushed across another run in the seventh but left the bases loaded for the second time in the game.

Clayton’s two-out single, his school-record 106th hit of the season, drove in Andy Hodgins. Greg Shockey followed with a one-hopper down the left-field line for a single, bringing up Sharts.

Working carefully with a base open, Holman walked Sharts on five pitches.

However, Holman pitched out of the jam by inducing Johnson to ground to shortstop Scott Sprick, ending the inning.

Northridge outhit Jacksonville, 13-12, but the Matadors stranded 13 runners.

“They’re a good team,” Kernen said of Jacksonville State. “They outplayed us in pretty much every part of the game.

“We kept coming at them, but it wasn’t enough. To beat us when we’re giving everything we got takes a special effort. You win national championships with those kind of efforts, so they deserve it.”

Notes

Sharts, Clayton and shortstop Mike Solar were selected to the all-tournament team. Sharts was seven for 23 in CSUN’s four games, with four home runs and 13 runs batted in. Clayton was 11 for 21 with two homers and 10 RBIs. Solar was seven for 16 with three homers and eight RBIs. Tim Vanegmond, a Jacksonville State pitcher, was the most valuable player. Vanegmond warmed up several times during the title game but was not needed. He had a shutout and two saves in the Gamecocks’ other World Series wins. . . . Clayton’s seventh-inning single broke the Northridge record for hits in a season. Rondal Rollin had 105 in 1980. . . . Jacksonville entered the game with 117 stolen bases, but the Gamecocks swiped only one in two tries against CSUN’s Sims. In the fifth inning, Jacksonville State’s Adams was thrown out stealing for only the third time in 30 attempts. . . . Dave Weatherman, CSUN’s pitching coach, was ejected in the seventh inning by Tony Maners, the second-base umpire and crew chief. Weatherman had been badgering Dick Urlage, the plate umpire, about the strike zone. . . . There were six hit batters--three by Altaffer and one each by Holman, Sharts and Clayton. . . . Northridge is scheduled to arrive at LAX at 6:20 p.m. today on Delta Airlines Flight No. 82.