`VETERAN' KENNEDY VICTORIOUS : KENNEDY 8 ECR 7.

Byline: Heather Gripp Daily News Staff Writer

Phil Avlas took his coach's message to heart.

The Kennedy High sophomore came up against El Camino Real hours after coach Manny Alvarado told the Cougars their youth shouldn't be used as a reason for underachieving. Avlas' one-out drive to center brought in Frank Miranda to give Kennedy an 8-7 victory over visiting El Camino Real in a Northwest Valley Conference baseball game Thursday.

``We're no longer a young club,'' Alvarado said. ``That's what we talked about today. We've got 14 varsity games under our belts, so we don't consider ourselves young. That's not an excuse anymore. We're veterans now and we've gotta play like veterans.''The Cougars moved within one game of .500 (7-8, 3-1). The defending City champion Conquistadores (11-2, 4-1) suffered their second loss of the season.

Kennedy, which has just one returner from last season and 10 underclassmen on its roster, gained confidence from recent games. At last week's Durango tournament in Las Vegas, the Cougars went 10 innings before falling to Bishop Gorman, one of Nevada's top-ranked teams.

``We've been playing well,'' Alvarado said. ``We've been having quality performances but just falling short. Today we didn't want to just have quality play, we wanted to win.''

Kennedy tied the game twice but never led until the final at-bat.

``We were pumped up coming in,'' Alvas said. ``To beat them is unbelievable.''

Miranda led off the seventh with a single. A sacrifice by Chad Shaw moved him to second and Charles Cardena beat the throw to first on a dribbler down the third-base line to put runners at the corners. Then Avlas came through with his fourth hit of the game.

``I was just trying to put the ball in the air to get the runner in,'' said Avlas, adding the game was ``without a doubt'' his best.

Kennedy's experience with early deficits paid off after Connor Jackson's home run to left gave El Camino Real a 3-0 lead in the first. The Cougars came back with two in the bottom half of the inning, sparked by a triple by Avlas.

A throwing error on what could have been an inning-ending double play gave Kennedy its fourth run of the fourth inning for a 6-6 tie.