Kennedy Remains Stingy in Win Over Thousand Oaks : Prep baseball: Golden Cougar pitchers run scoreless streak to 12 innings before settling for a 6-3 victory.

Kennedy High’s Golden Cougars, whose entire pitching staff graduated last year, were supposed to be more like kittens on the mound this season.

But the Golden Cougars have stood on the hill and roared in their first two games.

In a San Fernando tournament game Tuesday, Kennedy pitchers extended their consecutive scoreless innings streak to 12 before settling for a 6-3 win over Thousand Oaks. If a fly ball had not been lost in the sun, host Kennedy (2-0) might have registered its second consecutive shutout.

“Any time you have guys without any varsity experience to speak of, you can’t expect this,” Kennedy Coach Manny Alvarado said.

Four Kennedy pitchers limited Thousand Oaks to five hits. Junior left-hander Tom Manning (1-0) allowed two hits and struck out five in four innings. Relievers Jeff Brown, Matt Talia, and Tavarus Logie each contributed an inning of relief.

But the performance was somewhat diluted by the fact that the Lancers are not exactly the Bronx Bombers. Thousand Oaks (0-1) has only one senior in its starting lineup and its first two batters are a freshman and a sophomore.

Through five innings, the Lancers hit only one ball out of the infield and stranded six runners. Thousand Oaks put the leadoff batter on first base five times but only drove him home once.

“You saw what a young club looks like,” Thousand Oaks Coach Jim Hansen said. “We were not dazzling them with our blistering ropes.”

Kennedy, meanwhile, scored three runs in the first inning. Jason Makahon drove in a run with a fielder’s choice and Thousand Oaks starter Clint Harris balked home a run that extended Kennedy’s lead to 2-0.

Rick Nadeau followed with a run-scoring single that gave Kennedy a 3-0 lead, which the Golden Cougars clung to until the fifth when David Bourne’s run-scoring double extended Kennedy’s lead to 4-0.

After Thousand Oaks loaded the bases in the sixth, Nadeau lost pinch-hitter J.T. Lewchenko’s line drive in the sun and three runs scored, cutting Thousand Oaks’ deficit to 4-3. The hit was scored a triple.

Kennedy answered with two runs in the sixth on a two-out single by Billy Ramirez. Jeff Tagliaferri was two for three for Kennedy.