Kennedy Is Pinto-Driven but El Camino Real Stalls : Baseball: Grand slam propels Cougars in 15-3 victory over Banning in City 4-A semifinal.

VAN NUYS —  There are six players on the Kennedy High baseball team who weigh 185 pounds or more. Six are at least 6 feet tall. Most of the guys swing bats the size of telephone poles.

Aldo Pinto is a 5-foot-8 third baseman who bats eighth, a one-story house among the skyscrapers.

“Aldo’s lived in the shadow of a lot of talented people,” Kennedy Coach Manny Alvarado said.

Now he can scurry around in the dark at Dodger Stadium.

Pinto whacked a grand slam and drove in six runs as Kennedy buried Banning, 15-3, in a City Section 4-A Division semifinal Tuesday at Birmingham High.

Top-seeded Kennedy (25-4) will face second-seeded Carson (23-10) in the final at Dodger Stadium on Thursday night.

Pinto had three hits and made a pair of strong defensive plays on nasty choppers. Pinto, heck. The guy was a stallion.

“He’s a real good hitter and a good third baseman,” said Jon Garland, the winning pitcher. “But he’s a guy nobody really thinks about.”

After a tour through the Kennedy batting order, it was easy to see why Pinto might rank as an afterthought to some pitchers. By the end of the second inning, each Kennedy starter had scored at least one run and three different players had two-run hits.

Serious volume.

“We came out with the bullhorn, swinging the bats and throwing strikes,” said first baseman George Kassis, who drove in three runs.

Garland, a sophomore right-hander, pitched to one batter over the minimum over the first four innings, by which time he was staked to a 15-0 lead. He went the distance, struck out six and allowed seven rather tame singles.

Actually, the biggest hit Garland (7-0) absorbed was when he was buried in the customary postgame dogpile. Garland (6-3 1/2, 185) showed no overt signs of nerves.

“After the first pitch, from there on, I was ready,” said Garland, who doesn’t turn 16 until September.

Garland had three hits and didn’t seem to recognize the significance of the tumult surrounding him.

“I’m not sure he knows how big this is yet,” Kassis said.

Kennedy strafed sophomore right-hander Nick Garcia, who was charged with five runs in an inning of work. Reliever Esteban Esqueda, who started the game at third base, wasn’t the answer, either.

Esqueda allowed six runs--four earned--in one-third of an inning as Kennedy scored nine times in the second to take an 11-0 lead. Kennedy had four doubles in the first two innings.

Pinto bats near the bottom of the batting order, but was in the midst of every rally. He doubled in the second, singled in the third and belted the grand slam off reliever Darryl Duran in the third to hand Kennedy a 15-0 lead.

On any other team, Pinto might be batting in the middle of the lineup. Oh well, at least he’s only a junior.

“I’m waiting until next year,” Pinto said.

Wait till next year is not the Golden Cougar rallying cry. The drought has lasted long enough.

Kennedy won three 4-A titles in the 1980s, but hasn’t won or appeared in the final since 1989, when Alvarado was a rookie coach.

“It’s been too long,” Alvarado said. “Way too long.”