El Camino Real Again Feasts on Kennedy Pitching

Cody Beaumaster stood alone along the rail in the Kennedy High dugout, gnawing at the sleeve of his baseball jersey as he watched Ryan McGuire of El Camino Real retire the side in the seventh inning. With each pitch, Beaumaster bit off a chunk of sleeve, spat it out, then started in on another.

By the time McGuire had finished off the visiting Golden Cougars, 12-4, Beaumaster had a half-dozen holes in his right sleeve, each the size of, well, the ones in his coach’s stomach lining.

Kennedy had lost to powerful El Camino Real on Wednesday by the same score, but the trouble had been knitted long before: The loss was the sixth in seven games and fourth in a row in Northwest Valley Conference play for the Golden Cougars (12-7, 7-4 in league play), putting them a half-game behind San Fernando in the league standings with six games to play.

“Man, I’m upset,” said Beaumaster, a junior right-hander. “I don’t like to lose.”

Yet Beaumaster (4-2) did, and it was over in the blink of an eye. El Camino Real (13-1-1, 10-0-1) rolled a six in a first-inning rally that included a two-run home run by McGuire and run-scoring hits by Greg Lederman (four hits), Josh Massey and Sean Boldt.

By the fourth, Kennedy trailed, 9-1, and Coach Manny Alvarado’s patience was wearing thin. Ben Guzman reached base on an error to lead off the inning and moved to second on Jack Moussa’s single, which generated not a peep of support from the Kennedy bench.

Alvarado temporarily chased the team out of the dugout in an effort to shake the lethargy, if not rigor mortis, that has set in.

Kennedy managed a pair of earned runs off McGuire (5-0), a senior left-hander who allowed seven hits, struck out 10 and walked four. El Camino Real, which had just four hits in Wednesday’s win, battered Beaumaster for 16 hits--seven for extra bases.

“We haven’t really been playing our best,” said El Camino Real catcher Bobby Kim, who had two doubles and a triple. “This game showed the kind of ball team we have.”

Beaumaster concedes that he is not sure what kind of team Kennedy has become.

“Me and Troy (Bourne) try to pump up the guys,” Beaumaster said. “But we’re just juniors. The other guys look at us like. . . . I try to get us up. Nobody listens.”

After the team’s performance the past two weeks--Kennedy has been outscored, 69-19, in its past seven games--Alvarado’s blood pressure is all that’s up.

Yet the second-year coach of the defending City Section 4-A Division champions steadfastly promised that the bleeding will end.

“It’ll change,” Alvarado said, jaw set. “It will . This is all about pride and desire.”