BASEBALL: DOLLOP OF VENGEANCE FOR CHATSWORTH CITY CHAMPION KENNEDY LOSES SECOND GAME IN ROW CHATSWORTH 6, KENNEDY 4.

Byline: Chris Cocoles Staff Writer

The Kennedy High of Granada Hills baseball players were warned about the figurative bull's-eye painted onto their brown and gold uniforms this week.

The Golden Cougars' City Championship run included wins over El Camino Real and Chatsworth, which had plenty of incentive in rematches this week.

One day after ECR avenged its championship-game loss to the Golden Cougars, Daily News No. 1 Chatsworth held on for a 6-4 win Thursday at Kennedy.

The Chancellors (7-0) were eliminated by No. 2 Kennedy (5-2) in the City quarterfinals last spring. And though Chatsworth downplayed the revenge factor, Golden Cougars coach Manny Alvarado prepared for an onslaught by both the Chancellors and ECR, which edged out Kennedy 4-3 on Wednesday.

``We were expecting them to want us pretty bad,'' Alvarado said. ``I warned them at the beginning of this week. ... And we're coming off winning an early-season tournament (the Daily News Invitational). There's a little bit of a letdown.''

Kennedy was flat into the bottom of the fifth in falling behind the Chancellors 4-0. But perhaps the Golden Cougars' early struggling was caused by Chatsworth's effective pitching and timely hitting.

Ranked 20th nationally by Baseball America, Chatsworth positioned itself to win behind unflappable sophomore right-hander Justin Cassel (2-0). A reliever last season, Cassel stifled Kennedy through the fourth while the Chancellors built the lead. The Cougars chipped away but never caught up.

Cassel wore down in the later innings but got into the seventh before Sean Richards finished off Kennedy's final threat with the bases loaded.

And when the Cougars did cut into their deficit, Chatsworth tacked on important single runs in the sixth and seventh, the latter courtesy of Brian Lee's inside-the-park home run.

``As a pitcher, you always want your team to come up in the late innings and score a few runs for you,'' said Cassel, who allowed six hits in 6 1/3 innings. ``This was a big game because last year they knocked us out of the playoffs. But it's not like the biggest game of the year. We want to play under the lights at the end of the year.''

That's the City Championship final at Dodger Stadium, where Kennedy and Chatsworth could face each other again.

The Chancellors got contributions up and down the lineup Thursday. No. 2 hitter Lee also tripled and scored a run in the first. At the bottom of the order, Jon Selman delivered a pinch-hit RBI single in the fifth and doubled home another run an inning later.