Kennedy’s Bid for a Third Spoiled by Trio of Homers

VAN NUYS — Sure is tough to pull off three in a row.

Instead, Banning High hit three solo home runs in four at-bats--and four homers in the game--to pull off a 9-6 upset of two-time defending champion Kennedy in a City Section 4-A Division semifinal Tuesday at Birmingham High.

Banning (21-11), which plays El Camino Real for the City title at 7:30 tonight at Dodger Stadium, overcame a 3-2 deficit and twice broke ties while ending Kennedy’s bid for a third consecutive City title, a feat not accomplished since Fremont won consecutive titles from 1946-48.

Banning returns to the final for the first time in six years. The Pilots have not won a City title since 1961.

“You pitch the ball up against us and you know what’s gonna happen,” Banning Coach John Gonzalez said.

With Kennedy (22-11) leading, 2-0, Banning’s Miguel Gallardo and Frank Perez led off the bottom of the third inning with home runs off junior left-hander Wes Crown. Two batters later, Vince Velazquez hit another solo shot to cap a three-run inning and chase Crown.

“I hate to say we were looking past them,” Kennedy Coach Manny Alvarado said. “But I wasn’t anticipating their power.”

Banning’s bats might have been silenced had senior right-hander Jon Garland, among the nation’s top high school pitchers, taken the mound. Garland started Thursday and earned a victory over Palisades and was available to start Tuesday.

“It really didn’t matter to me,” Garland said. “But I was ready to [pitch].”

Crown entered the game with a 1.83 earned-run average in 57 1/3 innings and had been effective all season. But he struggled with his control and walked three in 2 1/3 innings.

“Wes didn’t have his best stuff,” Alvarado said. “But it happened so fast--Bing! Bang! Boom!”

Still, Kennedy tied the score, 5-5, with two runs in the fifth. Banning moved ahead with a run in the bottom of the inning, but Garland’s run-scoring single tied the game again in the sixth.

In the bottom of the sixth, Nick Garcia hit a two-run homer off Jack Cassel to cap a three-run inning. In the seventh, Gallardo, the Pilots’ fourth pitcher of the game, ended a threat and the game by striking out Josh Miranda with runners at second and third.

“We just came out swinging,” said Gallardo, whose third home run of the season cleared the center-field fence. “I think they were taking us lightly. I was surprised [Garland] didn’t pitch.”

Kennedy players and coaches lingered in the dugout after the game. Many had tears in their eyes, including Alvarado.

“It hurts,” Cassel said. “If it doesn’t hurt, then you shouldn’t be a part of this program. Right now, everybody feels the loss.”

Garland conceded that the Golden Cougars may have been focusing on another date in Dodger Stadium.

“We thought it was going to be given to us,” Garland said. “All day I was thinking about that.”