Kennedy Fits Coach to a Plea

As his team lost game after game this season, Kennedy High baseball Coach Dick Whitney issued a simple plea to his players: “Please shape up so that we can make the playoffs.”

“It really would have been a crime and an embarrassment if we wouldn’t have even had a chance to defend the title,” Whitney said.

Indeed, it seemed the Golden Cougars were going from champs to chumps.

After a fast start that moved them to the No. 1 spot in the Valley in The Times’ poll, the Golden Cougars slumped. After winning its Mid-Valley League opener against Van Nuys, Kennedy lost three of its next four.

But Whitney wasn’t too concerned. Last season, Kennedy followed a similar pattern: hot start, mid-season slump, fast finish. Kennedy won its last 11 games to capture the City 4-A title.

“I kept thinking, ‘Well, the guys had the same problem last year, they’ll pull it out,’ ” Whitney said. “But then we lost for a fourth time, then a fifth time, then a sixth and we were still not pulling it out.”

Kennedy lost five straight games to fall to 2-7 and into a tie for last place.

The Golden Cougars hit the ball well but hit the skids because of their defense. In one game, Kennedy made 12 errors.

“What caused the collapse, I don’t know,” Whitney said. “No doubt, it got frustrating.”

But lately, the Golden Cougars have been playing like defending champions. With Tuesday’s 6-2 win over Monroe, Kennedy finished its regular season with six straight wins.

Still, Kennedy moved no higher than fourth with an 8-7 league record, but in the last round of league play, the Golden Cougars defeated the three teams ahead of them, beating San Fernando, Granada Hills and Birmingham.

“The most important thing,” Whitney said, “is that we’ve started playing better defense. We’ve cut the errors down. In the last seven games, we’ve only made 11 errors.”

Because of its fourth-place league finish, Kennedy must play a first-place team when the playoffs begin May 30. That first-place team just happens to be Banning, the team Kennedy beat, 10-9, for the championship last year at Dodger Stadium.

For Whitney, it has been quite a season on and off the field. In March, he underwent exploratory surgery for possible cancer of the lymph nodes, but the results were negative.

“This season,” Whitney said, “is the most bizarre I’ve ever had as a Kennedy baseball coach.”

Add Kennedy: Eric Evans, who hasn’t pitched since April 24 against Granada Hills, will have his right shoulder examined by a specialist today, Whitney said. Evans, who was 11-2 last season, has been bothered by shoulder pains since throwing his best four innings of the season against the Highlanders, according to Whitney. His status for the playoffs is still uncertain.

The second time around: As a rookie coach last year, Neils Ludlow led the El Camino Real softball team to its third straight City 4-A title. But Ludlow is worried about the quest for his second title.

“I remember John Wooden saying the hardest championship to win is the second one,” Ludlow said.

El Camino Real eased some of the worry on Tuesday by taking its first step toward Title No. 4 with a resounding 29-0 win over Poly in the first round of the playoffs.

Agoura Assault: It’s unlikely that the sixth inning of Friday’s Southern Section baseball playoff game between Agoura and Canyon will soon be forgotten.

With the score tied at 8, Agoura exploded. The blast is still being felt in Canyon Country. The Chargers scored 14 runs on six singles, two doubles, two home runs (including a grand slam), four walks and one hit batter.

Canyon finally got out of the nightmare inning only when Grant Landy was tagged out rounding second on a base hit. Agoura won, 22-9.

Said Canyon Coach Wally Hammond of the inning: “I’ve never been involved in anything like that in my life.”