Vargas Helps San Fernando to 4-3 Win Over Kennedy

San Fernando Coach Steve Marden calls left-handed pitchers “goofy arms.” So when his starting pitcher, left-hander Rudy Vargas, got into a mess in the fifth inning, Vargas did nothing to dispel Marden’s stereotype.

Vargas talked to the ball. He pounded his glove on the side of his head. He bounced nervously around the mound and fidgeted. It was part Mad Hungarian, part Hungarian goulash.

“That’s just my way of getting psyched up,” Vargas said. “That’s the way I try to keep my concentration.”

By Marden’s admission, Vargas--who struck out 11 but did not figure in the decision--was about the only player with his head in the game. But San Fernando somehow scored a run in the top of the eighth inning to defeat Kennedy, 4-3, in a 3-hour, 15-minute Mid-Valley League game Wednesday at Kennedy.

From the fifth inning on, the teams had combined to strand 13 runners. San Fernando finally pushed a run across in the eighth--without the benefit of a hit. Kennedy reliever Jason Farrell (0-2) hit 2 batters and walked 3 in the inning, but San Fernando could score only 1 run, when Perez came home on a sacrifice fly by Albert Torrez.

The way Marden saw it, though, the whole team played like flaky lefties. San Fernando stranded 13 baserunners and had 5 players thrown out or picked off on the basepaths, which prompted Marden to throw out about every hyphenated word in his vocabulary.

“Unfortunately, I’m a bit of an emotional guy,” Marden said of his colorful postgame address. “But I haven’t seen that many mental mistakes on the bases and in the field in 10 years of coaching.”

As if its own errors weren’t enough, San Fernando (2-0) did not have much luck, either. Kennedy’s Gino Tagliaferri gave the Cougars (3-4 overall, 0-2 in league play) a 1-0 lead in the first with a rocket to left that nearly took San Fernando third baseman Alfred Nevarez along for the ride. The ball bounced at Nevarez’s feet and took a kangaroo hop over his shoulder, allowing Craig Fleck to score from second.

Kennedy received another break in the second when a ground ball by Mike Schlesinger bounced wildly off first base just as San Fernando’s Saul Perez appeared poised for an easy put-out. Pat DeBoer scored to give Kennedy a 2-1 edge.

The Tigers took a 3-2 lead in the fourth when Josh Bergara drilled a ball into the gap in right-center field off Kennedy starter Arnie Aguinaga. The ball skipped past Kennedy right fielder Bruce Carreau, and Bergara rounded the bases for a 2-run home run. Kennedy answered with a run in the bottom of the inning on a triple by DeBoer, who later scored on Todd Smith’s sacrifice fly.

San Fernando reliever Vince Ortega, who relieved Vargas in the seventh, pitched 2 scoreless innings to earn the win. Ortega (1-0) struck out Fleck with runners on second and third to end the game.