Beaumaster Mixes Bark With Bite on Mound : Prep baseball: Kennedy right-hander nicknamed “Pup” brings his spirited style to West team in Bernie Milligan all-star game.

For two years, Cody Beaumaster played the part of the hyperactive little brother to the hilt. Really sank his teeth into the role. Literally.

Beaumaster, a pitcher at Kennedy High and a three-year letterman, was the type who rattled the dugout fence during rallies. He helped make sure that a pair of coconuts, the team’s unofficial symbol, were placed in the proper place at each game. He jeered the opposition with considerable venom.

Histrionics are part of Beaumaster’s repertoire. When Beaumaster messed up, he grimaced, gnashed his teeth and chewed himself out. Or something to that effect.

“He’s like a cross between Al Hrabosky and Mark Fidrych,” Kennedy Coach Manny Alvarado said, referring to former major leaguers known as “The Mad Hungarian” and “The Bird.”

Nicknamed “Pup,” Beaumaster chose No. 9 as his uniform numeral. The hard-throwing right-hander--who averaged almost a strikeout per inning over his career--seemed bent on playing the K-9 role.

Once, after he was shelled in a lopsided loss to El Camino Real in 1990, Beaumaster started chewing on the sleeve of his jersey. One small bite after another, he gnawed at the double-knit garment. The loss, it seemed, sat about as well with Beaumaster as a stomach full of polyester.

Beaumaster is expected to pitch for the West team in the Bernie Milligan all-star baseball game Saturday at Cal State Northridge, on his 18th birthday. It will mark his second all-star game appearance in eight days. Last week at UCLA in a game of City Section all-stars, Beaumaster pitched two perfect innings and struck out four. He was named a co-most valuable player of the game.

“I’ve learned to control myself,” Beaumaster said. “I’ve matured over the years.”

Sure, the old dog learned some new tricks. But the fire in his eyes remains.

“The word I use to describe him most is ‘spirited,’ ” Alvarado said, laughing. “I’ve used that word a lot.”

There was a time, however, when Beaumaster’s spirits were nearly drowned in a sea of red tape. As a sophomore in 1989, Beaumaster turned out for spring physicals. Alongside numerous Kennedy athletic hopefuls, he was prodded and poked. All was right with the world, it seemed, until a doctor noticed a scar on Beaumaster’s side.

“What’s that scar?” she asked.

“I had my left kidney removed,” Beaumaster said.

“Uh-oh,” she said. “I don’t think you can pass this physical.”

Beaumaster was told that baseball was considered a semi-contact sport and that the Los Angeles Unified School District refused to be held liable if his lone functioning kidney was damaged during competition.

Beaumaster explained that the kidney, which physicians had found to be nonfunctional, was removed at age 5 and that he had played youth baseball for years without injury. Thereafter, his parents embarked on a paper chase, seeking permission that would allow their son to play.

Beaumaster gritted his teeth.

“It took a week of appointments and a lot of time off work for my parents,” he said. “It took a lot of inconvenience.

“Many people are born with one functioning kidney, live their whole lives and never even know it.”

Beaumaster stewed as his teammates readied for the 1989 season. Kennedy, a team loaded with seniors, was considered among the favorites to win the City Section 4-A Division title. Beaumaster, who said he would have thanked his lucky stars to make the school’s junior varsity, finally received permission to play a few days before the opener and was used sparingly that season as the team’s third pitcher.

He made his first prime-time appearance in the playoff semifinals against Sylmar. Teammate Mitch Cizek, the projected starter, was injured a week earlier and was unable to make the start. Beaumaster was banged around but kept Kennedy close. He was petrified.

“I felt bad,” he said. “I’m a 10th-grader. I hadn’t started a game since the (midseason) tournament, maybe. It was an all-new situation for me, and everybody was expecting me to get them to Dodger Stadium.

“I was over-anxious.”

After Beaumaster was yanked, the Golden Cougars won with a late rally. Two nights later at Dodger Stadium, Kennedy snatched its third 4-A title of the decade.

Two years later, in his senior year, Beaumaster’s role changed. Inquiring minds turned toward him. He was expected to lead.

All season, during crunch time, Beaumaster was commonly sighted pointing to his head. Sometimes, when mistakes by teammates piled up, he knocked on the side of his head with a knuckle. The idea: tell his youthful teammates not to act like knuckleheads.

“I did that so many times,” Beaumaster said. “I’d point to my head and say, ‘Think!’ ”

Nobody thought much about Kennedy’s chances this year; the Golden Cougars entered 1991 with four seniors on the 14-player roster. Furthermore, Beaumaster and first baseman Troy Bourne, the lone holdovers from the ’89 championship team, were the only seniors with varsity experience. There were four sophomores and six juniors on the team, which was the consensus pick to finish last in the North Valley League.

Even worse, Alvarado was not sure if Beaumaster would be ready when the bell sounded. Counted on as the staff ace in light of his two years of experience, Beaumaster had a sore arm as the opener approached. Alvarado was braced for a long year. Interminable sounded more realistic.

“I knew I’d be ready,” Beaumaster said. “But he wasn’t sure.”

In the school alumni game, played a few days before the opener, Beaumaster proved himself correct when he struck out former Kennedy bashers Gino Tagliaferri and Kevin Farlow, both of whom are former 4-A Division player-of-the-year selections who went on to play professionally.

Said Tagliaferri with a grin: “. . ., you’re not injured.”

The only whoosh louder that the pair’s flailing bats was Alvarado’s sigh of relief. Beaumaster responded with the strongest of his three seasons. He finished 7-3 with an earned-run average of 3.00.

His biggest career victory came on the final day of the regular season when Beaumaster defeated archrival Granada Hills in a game that handed Kennedy an improbable North Valley League championship. As he had all season, Alvarado tossed Beaumaster the ball in the big game. Once again, Beaumaster fetched a victory.

In his three-year career, Beaumaster was 16-8 with an ERA of 3.19, and he had 142 strikeouts in 149 innings. While Beaumaster’s name has never been mentioned in the same circles as Roger Salkeld (formerly of Saugus High) or Andrew Lorraine (formerly of Hart), the kid named Pup has carved a niche for himself with dogged determination.

“He’s a battler,” said West co-Coach Tom Meusborn, whose Chatsworth team was beaten twice this season by Beaumaster. “He doesn’t back down.”

It seems that is where Beaumaster draws the line as a canine. He won’t roll over.