UC Irvine baseball loses pitcher Stowell to Indians

UC Irvine baseball pitcher Bryce Stowell has signed with the Cleveland Indians and will not return to the Anteaters next season, several sources confirmed Friday.

Stowell, a hard-throwing right-hander who played one season at UCI after transferring from Pepperdine, was 8-3 with a 3.26 earned-run average as a sophomore. He had 101 strikeouts and allowed 82 hits in 88 1/3 innings for the Anteaters, including a career-high 13 strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings of an 8-0 win over Oral Roberts to clinch the Lincoln Regional. He was named Most Outstanding Player in that regional.

He received honorable mention in All-Big West Conference voting.

Stowell, chosen in the 22nd round (681st overall) in the June draft, turned down an offer from the Indians and went on to flourish in the Cape Cod League this summer.

Stowell was 3-1 for the Bourne Braves, appearing in nine games, including six starts. He was 3-1 with a 2.36 ERA (ninth-best in the league), and his 58 strikeouts in 45 2/3 innings ranked second in the league. He started the league’s All-Star Game for the five-team Western Division.

UCI finished 42-18 in 2008, coming within three outs of a return trip to the College World Series, before host LSU rallied to win Game 2 of the best-of-three Super Regional, then defeated Stowell and the Anteaters in Game 3 to advance to Omaha.

Stowell, who started on Saturdays as a sophomore, had been expected to anchor a strong 2009 starting pitching rotation that includes returners Danny Bibona and Christian Bergman.

— Barry Faulkner