Centeno Gets Real Spanking : Baseball: El Camino Real roughs up Birmingham pitcher on his birthday, 11-5.

Fernando Centeno started his 17th birthday with a blast.

In the first inning of Thursday’s Northwest Valley Conference game against El Camino Real High, the Birmingham pitcher hit a drive to center field that scored Alberto Flores and gave the Braves a quick lead.

But Centeno was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a triple.

His special day would continue to go downhill.

Pitching for the first time in two weeks, Centeno threw 83 pitches in three innings as the Conquistadores built an early lead on their way to a 11-5 victory.

El Camino Real (15-7-1, 9-5) took sole possession of first place in the West Valley League with three games to play. The Braves (14-9, 8-6) fell into a tie for second with Chatsworth.

The Conquistadores held a 3-2 lead entering the bottom of the third. But after Gavin Bible grounded out, seven consecutive batters reached base and four scored.

Centeno (3-5) faced four batters with the bases loaded and threw 43 pitches in the inning.

“I was trying to finish them off but they kept hitting and hitting me,” Centeno said.

The Conquistadore outburst was highlighted by Matt Cowie’s two-run single.

Allan Takagi walked with the bases loaded and Raymond Leduc singled home a run.

After giving up four hits in the first two innings, sophomore Shaun Fishman (6-2) settled down once he was given the five-run lead. He gave up only one hit from the fourth through sixth.

In the sixth inning, Fishman struck out the side in 12 pitches. He finished with six strikeouts and four walks.

“Lately, I’ve been starting off really slowly and then get stronger and better as the game goes on,” Fishman said. “Even after we had the lead, I maintained the zero-to-zero intensity.”

El Camino Real added to the margin when reliever Pedro Rodriguez walked the bases loaded to open the fifth inning.

An error by Ronny Reynoso allowed one run and Byron Carnes singled home another.

Cowie scored on a double play and Steve Nelson followed with a double, the only extra-base hit for El Camino Real, to make it 11-2.

Every player in El Camino Real’s starting lineup except Takagi had at least one hit. Billy Conn and Marvin Jones each had two hits for the Conquistadores.

“We’ve been playing in a lot of close games lately,” Jones said. “To score like we did in the third inning and do it again in the fifth shows how hard we were playing and how we needed this game.”

Not even a three-run double by Centeno in the seventh could shake the confidence of the Conquistadores, who have only three players on the roster who played for last season’s City Section 4-A championship team.

“We’re not a young team anymore,” El Camino Real Coach Mike Maio said.

“We’ve played 22 games. We’ve got to win a few more games but we have made progress.”