SAN FERNANDO GETS TO MATA SAN FERNANDO 7, KENNEDY 3.

Byline: Heather Gripp Staff Writer

Errors are not a regular occurrence for the San Fernando High baseball team. Earned runs off Kennedy of Granada Hills pitcher Danny Mata are even more rare.

There were plenty of both early in Tuesday's Valley Mission League game at Kennedy, but only one team returned to form in time. San Fernando scored five earned runs off Mata in two innings en route to a 7-3 victory that put the Tigers alone in first place and made their two first-inning errors easier to deal with.

Mata (6-2) entered the game having allowed just one earned run in 38 2/3 innings.

``I guess it's the law of averages,'' Kennedy coach Manny Alvarado said. ``When you've got a guy with a 0.18 ERA, it's bound to come back on you sometime.

``Danny didn't have his best stuff today. He was missing too good. He was missing good in the zone . . . That makes an average hitting team a good hitting team.''

It was apparent Mata wasn't in peak form when he opened the game by throwing a pitch to the backstop and hit a batter in the first inning. He gave up seven hits, including four doubles, and struck out just one before being replaced by Adam Geery in the third inning.

Geery gave up just three hits in four-plus innings, but San Fernando's pitchers were even stingier. Jose Montes relieved Abraham Gonzalez (7-2) in the fifth and went the rest of the way without allowing a hit.

San Fernando's 1-0 lead was erased in the bottom of the first on two unearned runs. Phil Avlas' fly ball to right field appeared to be the final out of the inning, but the ball came out of right fielder Montes' glove and the umpire ruled it was not a catch. Three more batters came to the plate before the inning ended, at which point Tigers coach Armando Gomez ordered his team to forget what had just happened.

After a four-run second, sparked by a two-run double by Manny Flores, gave San Fernando the lead for good, the Tigers (14-10, 9-2) were thinking about a league and possible City title more than the early mistakes.

``What errors? I don't remember any errors,'' said Flores, who also started a two-run seventh with a double.

``We had to do something. I knew I had to do something. I really wanted this.''

The Tigers won just five games overall last season and finished fourth in league. The previous two games against Kennedy (15-10, 8-3) were both decided by one run, with each team winning once.