Owens MVP in Florida

Edison High’s Henry Owens was named the Most Valuable Pitcher on Oct. 26 for striking out 12 hitters and allowing only four hits in nine shutout innings throughout the 2009 World Wood Bat Assn. World Championships in Jupiter, Fla.

Owens, a 6-foot-5-inch, 185-pound junior southpaw from Huntington Beach, pitched the last two innings of the championship game to clinch a 7-1 victory for the Braves Scout Team.

The championship game was the finale of a five-day tournament that comprised of 85 teams and over 1,500 high school players in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic.

“It means a lot,” Owens said of winning the MVP honors. “I was coming out there and told myself to do the best I could and see where it took me.”

But he wasn’t the only Edison baseball player at the tournament or on the Braves Scout Team. Edison’s Eric Snyder, a 5-foot-11-inch outfielder at 165 pounds, also joined Owens.

“You don’t want to go to a team and not know anyone,” Owens said. “We went to the airport together. It was just me and him. We didn’t go with our families.”

According to BaseballAmerica.com’s Dave Perkin, “Snyder is a terror with a metal bat in his hands” and a player that has “an excellent arm and a quick left-handed bat.”

Owens added that he’s never had as much fun at a baseball tournament, yet the humidity was something he had to get used to.

Once he adjusted to the humid conditions in Florida, Owens used his out pitch, a curveball, effectively to 1.33 strikeouts per inning ratio in the tournament.

“Early on I was keeping my pitch count down and getting guys out on good pitches,” Owens said. “I kept feeling good, my arm was feeling nice and fresh.”

According to Owens’ dad, Mike Owens, the Braves Scout Team was made up of only 2011 graduates or younger and they are the first underclassmen team to win this tournament.

“[Henry Owens] and Snyder are both underclassmen and it’s a huge honor because this is a heavily scouted event,” Mike Owens said.

Though the high school baseball is still months away, Henry Owens said he is excited about the Edison season.

“Everyone on our team is excited, including me and [Snyder],” Henry Owens said of the 2010 Edison baseball season. “It’s going to be cool playing a year around together and then come in the season ready to go.”