Davis Provides a Gripping Ending in Kennedy’s Win Over Chatsworth : Prep baseball: Golden Cougars’ weak-hitting outfielder blasts two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh.

The game on the line, Chatsworth High pitcher Mitch Root did not care for the baseball that he held in his right hand. Or for the second one he received as an alternative. Ditto the third.

Root, seeking a better grip, finally requested from the plate umpire a ball “with some seams,” and found one to his liking.

The ball that the next batter, Kennedy’s John Davis, hit into the street, had no such seams.

At least, not after he hit it.

With one out in the bottom of the seventh, Davis ripped an improbable two-run home run to give the Golden Cougars a 4-3 win over Chatsworth in a Northwest Valley Conference game Thursday at Kennedy.

Davis, a junior center fielder, was perhaps the unlikeliest Kennedy player to steal the scene in such dramatic fashion. Entering the game, he was batting .125 and had not homered all season. In three previous at-bats against Root, Davis had struck out and twice flied out meekly to right field.

“He’s really been struggling,” Kennedy Coach Manny Alvarado said. “I was going to pinch-hit for him. I was really thinking about it.”

Alvarado decided to stick with Davis--sort of--although he almost took the bat out of his hands. With a runner at first and one out in the seventh, Alvarado, standing in the third-base coach’s box, sent word to the dugout that he wanted Davis to consider bunting for a base hit.

But Root (2-1) jumped ahead in the count, one and two, before delivering a belt-high fastball that Davis clearly was expecting.

“It was sitting pretty,” said Davis, who was mobbed when the home run landed in the middle of the street beyond the left-center-field fence.

It was the first time this season that a Kennedy player had hit a ball over a fence, any fence, for a homer. Two others had managed the inside-the-park variety.

It was doubly surprising in that Root, the Chatsworth ace, had allowed just two hits entering the seventh and had struck out five. However, junior shortstop Billy Ramirez led off the inning with an infield single to the hole at short. Alvarado decided to forgo the sacrifice bunt and Jeff Tagliaferri lined out to left as Chatsworth’s Brian Gilder made a diving catch.

Davis’ heroics made a winner out of right-hander Cody Beaumaster, who admittedly was more than a little peeved at his teammates, who had more errors (five) than hits (four). Beaumaster (3-1) gave up just four hits, struck out six and did not allow an earned run.

With the score tied, 1-1, Chatsworth moved in front in the third when Kennedy right fielder Rick Nadeau dropped a fly ball by Thurman Williams, allowing Nestor Martinez to score from second. Kennedy (6-3, 4-1 in league play) pulled even, 2-2, with an unearned run in the fourth.

Chatsworth (7-3, 5-1) took a 3-2 lead in the sixth when Root, who led off the inning, reached base on third baseman John Toven’s fielding error. Williams singled to left and moved to second when Kennedy’s relay throw went to third in a failed attempt to throw out pinch-runner Suelkie Kim.

Beaumaster struck out Adam Pearlman--who stepped in with 21 runs batted in, the most among City Section players--on a three-and-two changeup for the first out. Mike Muir, though, came through with a sacrifice fly to left, driving in Kim for a 3-2 lead. Beaumaster then took a seat and bit his lip.

“I was getting a little mad,” said Beaumaster, a senior who lowered his earned-run average to 2.57. “It gets you upset to give up three unearned runs when everybody’s making errors and nobody’s driving in runs.

“We just needed somebody to clutch up.”

For Kennedy, the timing was unlikely. Root even had the ball of his choice in his clutches.

But not for long.