Baseball: Alberto Flores leads Kennedy past San Fernando

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A near-perfect pitching performance by Alberto Flores propelled Granada Hills Kennedy past San Fernando, 3-1, in a game for first place in the Valley Mission League on Wednesday at San Fernando.

Flores retired the game’s first 18 batters before giving up a triple to David Garcia to lead off the bottom of the seventh. An errant pickoff throw allowed Garcia to score. Flores (9-2) struck out five and walked none while finishing with a one=hitter.

‘I didn’t care how fast I threw, just where the glove was, hitting my spots,’ he said.

The win gives Kennedy (23-7, 11-0) a one-game lead over San Fernando (23-6, 10-1) going into Friday’s regular-season finale at Kennedy in a game that will feature All-City pitchers Ryan Cruz and David Lira. Both will find it difficult to top Flores’ performance.

Kennedy also got an RBI single from Andrew Pacleb, a successful squeeze bunt from Brandon Ortiz and an RBI single from David Gutierrez.

Jose Reyes took the loss for San Fernando.

-- Eric Sondheimer