Lowry’s Wave of Strikeouts Sets Pepperdine Mark

When Pepperdine left-hander Noah Lowry struck out 15 batters Saturday against Santa Clara, he did more than break his personal record of 13 strikeouts against Gonzaga in his previous start.

Lowry broke Randy Wolf’s school record of 14 strikeouts against Portland in 1997.

Lowry, formerly of Nordhoff High and Ventura College, is 9-1 and leads the West Coast Conference with a 1.90 earned-run average.

Lowry leads the Waves (23-12, 12-3 in the WCC) in victories and ERA and has held opposing batters to a .198 average.

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UCLA designated hitter Brian Baron went five for 10 in a three-game series at Stanford and leads the nation with a .519 batting average among players with more than 100 at-bats.

Baron had hits off Stanford aces Jeremy Guthrie (7-1, 1.70 ERA) and Jeff Bruksch (7-0, 2.40 ERA).

Baron has hit in 31 of 32 games this season for the Bruins (21-11, 4-5 in the Pacific 10 Conference). He has an 11-game hitting steak and 67 hits. The Hart High graduate needs 45 hits in UCLA’s final 24 regular-season games to tie Bill Scott as the school’s single-season hit leader. Scott had 112 hits last season.