There was good news and bad news for the Kennedy High School baseball team Saturday, but the bad news was worse than the good news on the Fourth of July.

The good news came in a 6-2 victory over North Scott as Sammy Lizarraga tossed a complete game in the first contest of a holiday tournament at the Kennedy field Saturday morning.

Then came the bad news as the Cougars committed seven errors and Zach Daniels struggled on the mound in a 10-3 setback to the third-ranked Johnston Dragons.

"That was pretty ugly," Kennedy Coach Bret Hoyer remarked after the game against Johnston came to a merciful end without any of the Cougars getting seriously hurt (except for their pride, perhaps).

Kennedy has prided itself on sharp defense through the years, but the Cougars made errors all over the place, including five errors by the left side of the infield.

"I don't know if we've ever done that," said Hoyer of the seven miscues. "You can't beat anybody doing that. Obviously you can't beat a good team like Johnston.

"It just happens," he said. "Sometimes you have days like this and you just have to flush it and get ready for the next game."

Daniels, an elite all-state performer who has signed with Iowa, was touched for nine runs on 11 hits in six innings. Four of the nine runs were unearned due to all the errors, but the right-hander did not have a sharp outing against a good-hitting club. He hit three of the Johnston batters and surrendered five doubles.

"He hit his spots at times. He just has to be more consistent," said Hoyer. "He made some good pitches at times. He just didn't make enough."

Matt Berst and Daniels had two hits against Johnston. Berst drove in two runs with a double.

The Cougars did not commit any errors in their 6-2 victory over North Scott Saturday morning. Lizarraga allowed two runs on three hits, with 11 strikeouts and only one walk.

Daniels had two hits against North Scott. Lizarraga and Jacob Henry had two RBIs.

Kennedy collected its 20th victory this season with the verdict against North Scott. It marked the 17th straight year that the Cougars have won at least 20 games, a streak that includes six seasons with 30 or more wins.

All told, Hoyer has steered the Cougars to at least 20 wins in 22 of his 23 seasons at the school. The only miss came in 1998 when the Cougars won 19 games.

"We live in a community that values baseball, so we have kids that like to play it and look forward to playing high school baseball here, so I think that's a big part of it," said Hoyer.

The eighth-ranked Cougars had won 14-of-15 games before losing to Johnston.

"I feel like we've been getting better recently," said Hoyer. "We just didn't play well today against Johnston. I thought we played well against North Scott."

The Cougars, now 20-6, are scheduled to play 13 games in the next nine days between now and Tuesday, July 14 due to scheduled games and makeups. The busy schedule begins with a single game at second-ranked Jefferson Monday night, followed by the rematch at Kennedy Tuesday night.

Johnston topped North Scott, 6-1, in the other game Saturday.

GAME 1

North Scott    000 011 0 - 2 3 0
Kennedy        104 100 x - 6 6 0

W - Lizarraga. L - Steidler.

GAME 2

Johnston       002 124 1 - 10 12 1
Kennedy        000 020 1 - 3 10 7

W - Dreyer. L - Daniels.