Familiarity Breeds a Championship for San Fernando : Prep baseball: Ceniceros emulates power-hitting cousin Najar by driving in six as Tigers beat Kennedy in title showdown.

A beaming John Najar stole up behind a San Fernando High teammate Thursday and placed one of his Popeye forearms around his victim’s head, immobilizing him in a headlock.

Some cousins kiss. These two hammer one another after hammering baseballs.

“This guy’s my cousin,” Najar yelped. “It’s aaaall in the family.”

No kidding. While Najar is known for his power and run production, his cousin, catcher Jess Ceniceros, has been on a rampage of his own, setting a school record for doubles in a season with eight.

In a North Valley League regular-season finale, Ceniceros also did a pretty good imitation of Najar, slamming a monstrous three-run homer and driving in a career-high six runs in an 8-4 win over Kennedy that gave the Tigers their first league title since 1987.

Not bad for a player who started the season as San Fernando’s backup backstop.

“When the season started, he wasn’t doing much,” San Fernando Coach Steve Marden said. “I think he was trying to hit every ball out of the park.”

Wednesday, that didn’t sound like such a bad notion.

Ceniceros, who bats fifth behind Najar, delivered a bases-loaded, two-run single in the first to help San Fernando take a 3-1 lead. In the fifth, he slammed a Cody Beaumaster fastball over the left-field fence to give the Tigers (16-6-2, 11-5-1 in league play) a 7-1 lead.

Ceniceros credited Marden with an assist. The San Fernando coach stole a sign from former Tiger assistant Manny Alvarado, now coach at Kennedy (16-9, 11-6).

“Coach told me it was gonna be a fastball,” Ceniceros said. “He told me to hit a line drive somewhere.”

Ceniceros did, a few feet beyond where his cousin had smashed a 360-foot flyout two innings earlier. Ceniceros’ homer was his first and severely dented Kennedy’s hopes for a third consecutive league crown. Kennedy made a run in the sixth, scoring three times against junior left-hander Canto Franco (7-0) to close within 7-4.

After Franco had walked home two runs, right-hander Rick Savala relieved with two out and the bases loaded and retired Garret Anderson on a pop fly to center. Anderson, who hit three home runs last week and entered the game batting .403, was San Fernando’s fall guy.

“I was looking at the newspaper (statistics) and I saw his name,” Franco said. “He was the one I really wanted.”

It definitely wasn’t Anderson’s day--the All-City Section outfielder was zero for four and stranded seven runners. With runners on first and second and Kennedy trailing, 4-1, in the top of the fifth, Franco fanned Anderson on three pitches. The third strike--a mistake that should have been thrown off the plate, Franco admitted--typified Kennedy’s day.

“As soon as I let it go, I thought, ‘He’s gonna hit that out,’ ” Franco said. “But at the last second, it rose. It was magic or something.”

Franco’s sleight of hand was impressive.

After allowing a run in the first, he allowed two singles over the next four innings. Before he was victimized by some shoddy defense and was relieved by Savala, he had struck out four, walked five and allowed five hits.

Beaumaster (5-4) threw a five-hitter and struck out six, but he walked six, hit two batters and threw three wild pitches. He was also the target of a bevy of barbs for his assertion that “the best team won” when Beaumaster beat the Tigers in the league opener 2 1/2 months ago.

“The best team won-- today ,” said Marden, who knows too well that one victory is all relative.

Of course, anyone looking for a real lesson in relativity might want to talk to Najar and Ceniceros, the crushin’ cousins.