Garland Wears Laurels for Kennedy

Get ready, Derek Morse; once again, you have quite an act to follow.

Junior right-hander Jon Garland allowed only one hit and struck out 12 as Kennedy High advanced to the City Section championship game for the second consecutive year, defeating El Camino Real, 7-0, Tuesday at Birmingham High.

Top-seeded Kennedy (30-3) will play second-seeded Poly tonight at 7:30 at Dodger Stadium for the 4-A title. Kennedy, behind a complete game by Morse, defeated Poly, 3-2, in the teams’ opener.

Morse (14-0) will start for the Golden Cougars, and for the second time in the playoffs he will try to outdo his pitching partner.

Garland (11-1) helped to open defense of Kennedy’s title by holding Westchester to two hits in a 2-0 victory.

Morse one-upped his teammate, holding Banning to a solitary single in an 8-0 victory.

“[Morse] told me to get a no-hitter for this one,” Garland said. “But I’ll just tell him now to stay relaxed and pitch his game.”

Only two balls were hit out of the infield, a line-drive single by Woody Cliffords to lead off the fifth inning and a fly ball later in the inning by Ray LeDuc.

Fourth-seeded El Camino Real came into the semifinal with nine consecutive victories and a pair of one-run losses to the Golden Cougars, who were undefeated in Northwest Valley Conference play.

When the Conquistadores (20-10), managed to get the ball in play, third baseman Aldo Pinto and second baseman Mike Ramirez made several impressive plays to keep El Camino Real off the basepaths.

Garland struck out El Camino Real’s leading hitter, Shaun Fishman, three times, and struck out at least one batter in every inning. Garland has pitched 26 consecutive scoreless innings.

“He was unbelievable,” El Camino Real Coach Mike Maio said. “We never got a chance to get going.”

Kennedy got going with two runs in the first inning off Fishman (11-4), who was starting his fourth consecutive game.

A triple by Fernando Centeno to center field scored Josh Miranda, and Centeno scored on a sacrifice fly by David Soto.

The Golden Cougars bumped the lead to 4-0 in the fourth on a double by Garland and consecutive singles by Christian Bartlett, Nick Intenzo and Omar Pinto.

After giving up nine hits in 5 1/3 innings, Fishman was replaced by left-hander Mike Conn. Conn escaped further trouble in the sixth but gave up three additional runs.