St. Pierre Restores Order for Kennedy

Pitcher Tim St. Pierre has French-Canadian ancestry, so it figured that Kennedy High would turn to its version of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to rescue it from the abyss.

St. Pierre allowed five hits in 6 2/3 innings Thursday to help Kennedy end a four-game winless streak with a 3-2 victory over San Fernando in a Valley Mission League game at San Fernando.

How important was the victory?

“This was as close as you get to a must-win situation this early in the season,” Coach Manny Alvarado of Kennedy said.

Had they lost, the Golden Cougars (3-7-1, 1-1 in league play) would have fallen two games behind San Fernando (3-6, 1-1).

But St. Pierre struck out three, walked four and needed only a little help from reliever Juan Sepulveda in the seventh to secure the victory.

Sepulveda induced Jess Moreno to ground out to end the game.

“I knew I had to pitch a good game,” St. Pierre said. “The umpire was calling it low, so that’s where I tried to throw it.”

He out-dueled Jose Montes of San Fernando. Montes, a senior who played in the Area Code Games in August, struck out eight, walked two and allowed nine hits.

Kennedy broke a 1-1 tie with two runs in the fifth inning. One run scored when Montes threw wildly to first on a bunt and Phil Avlas knocked in the second run with a fly out.

Alvarado had become frustrated after Kennedy blew leads in three of the last four games.

“We’re like a boxer with no right hand--we can’t knock anybody out,” Alvarado said.

St. Pierre (2-0) was given the assignment to turn around the team.

“He pitched a gem against Chatsworth and we came up empty, and he pitched a one-hitter against Paraclete,” Alvarado said. “We haven’t had a break all year until today.”

The Golden Cougars finally started hitting, with Avlas, Jon McKim and Danny Mata each collecting two hits.

San Fernando had its best scoring opportunity in the fifth.

A run-scoring single by Manny Flores cut the Tigers’ deficit to 3-2. They had two runners on base when St. Pierre struck out Montes to end the inning.