Thanks to the pitching staff, the Cal...

Thanks to the pitching staff, the Cal State Northridge baseball team has won five games in a row.

During the streak, Matador pitchers have been overpowering, striking out 60 and walking seven. Two of the victories belong to Kevin Kloek, who struck out 23 without a walk in his first two four-year starts--complete-game efforts against USC and San Jose State.

Kenny Kendrena has 24 strikeouts and four walks in his last two starts. He struck out a season-high 16 and walked one in a 6-1 victory over USC on Tuesday. Steven Morales struck out 13 with three walks against San Jose State in the other victory.

Northridge pitchers have 90 strikeouts, an average of 10 a game, and only 20 walks this season.

Baseball: Northridge pitchers will take a string of 19 1/3 scoreless innings into their next game, Tuesday at home against UC Santa Barbara. Opponents are batting .201 against the Matadors, who have a earned-run average of 3.08. Last season the team ERA was 3.12--third-best among Division I schools. . . .

USC batters have struck out 97 times in 14 games, an average of about seven a game. But in two games against Northridge, 28 Trojans struck out--and only one walked. . . .

Greg Shockey is batting only .250, but he leads Northridge with a .475 on-base percentage. Shockey has 11 walks, more than twice as many as any other Matador. . . .

Kyle Washington has hit safely in all eight Northridge games in which he has played. Teammate Scott Richardson also has an eight-game streak. . . .

Basketball: Art Wallace, Oxnard’s 6-foot-10 freshman center, has taken his game to a higher level since the Condors (18-11) began Western State Conference North Division play. Wallace, averaging 12.2 points and 9.1 rebounds a game, has averaged 16.9 and 12.3 in eight division games. . . .

Newton Chelette has coached Antelope Valley to three consecutive Foothill Conference titles since he took over the program. He has a combined record of 72-24 entering Saturday night’s game against visiting Golden West in the first round of the Southern California regionals. . . .

Home attendance for the Northridge men’s games increased 188% over the 1989-90 season, Northridge’s final season in the Division II ranks. The Matadors drew 11,198 for 11 dates for an average of 1,018. In 1989-90, Northridge averaged 353. . . .

Northridge senior Shelton Boykin ranks eighth on the school list of career blocked shots with 20 with two games remaining. Teammates Percy Fisher, a junior, and Keith Gibbs, a senior, are tied for sixth with 23 blocks. . . .

Northridge senior David Keeter is fourth in career three-point field goals with 48. Keeter needs five in the next two games to surpass Pat Bolden (1984-88) and move into third. He has hit 22 of 51 this season. Junior James Morris leads the Matadors in three-point shooting accuracy at 46.4% (26 of 56).

Volleyball: Northridge moved from sixth in the national polls to fourth after upsetting UCLA on Friday. . . . Axel Hagar (6-foot-7) continues to show he is a key addition to the squad. The junior from Germany is the team leader in service aces with 17 and digs with 78.

Softball: With two-thirds of the season remaining, Northridge has hit eight home runs, one less than the 1988 school single-season record. Beth Calcante and Patti Pearson each have two and Tamara Ivie, Kim Oakes, Jen Fleming and Teri Pearson each have one. . . . Patti Pearson and Missy Cress each have 12 runs batted in to lead the Matadors. The players are splitting duties at catcher and designated hitter. . . .

Calcante, a sophomore shortstop, is batting a team-high .373 and has a five-game hitting streak. Ivie, a sophomore first baseman, is second at .359. . . .

Kathy Blake has defeated ranked teams in her last two outings, No. 12 Cal State Long Beach and No. 17 Minnesota. Blake has an 0.66 ERA. Senior Cami Allen is next at 1.75, and she has three consecutive wins. . . .

Four of Northridge’s nine losses are against No. 1-ranked UCLA. The Matadors are 11-9 heading into the Las Vegas tournament today through Sunday.

Swimming: Northridge’s Steve Hoffman, a freshman from San Jose, won the 200-, 500- and 1,650-yard freestyle events at the Pacific Collegiate Conference Championships last weekend. Hoffman set meet records in the 500 (4 minutes 36.40 seconds) and the 1,650 (15:41.89). He also set a conference meet record 6:49.41 as a member of the winning 800 freestyle relay team, along with John Kunishima, James Taschek and Morton Ibsen. Taschek, who took second in the 1,650 in 15:50.33, won the 400 individual medley in 4:07.85. . . .

Kunishima, Ibsen, Erik Matheson and Steve Liljeberg combined to win the 400 freestyle relay in a meet-record 3:04.37. The same quartet won the 200 freestyle relay in a meet-record 1:23.05, and Matt Johnson finished second in the 200 backstroke in 1:52.56, breaking Sean Parker’s school record 1:53.60. . . .

The Northridge men’s team finished third in the meet with 605 points, behind Northern Arizona (724) and UC Davis (624). The Matador women were second with 593 points to Nevada’s 662. . . .

Northridge senior Cecilia Henriksen, a transfer from Sweden, won the 200 butterfly in a meet-record 2:06.55. Teammate Nicole Hudson of Ventura won the 200 freestyle (1:53.91) and was part of the winning 800 freestyle relay team, along with Marti Carlson, Denise Lamoureaux and Jennifer Kunishima. . . .

Senior Kathy Ruiz took second in the 200 individual medley (2:07.17) and the 100 butterfly (58.68) and Jennifer Kunishima, a sophomore, was the runner-up in the 500 freestyle (5:04.63). . . .

Statistics are current through Wednesday.