Hanson, Chargers defense work in tandem

Edison High baseball Coach Steve Lambright calls senior Nic Hanson a ‘keeps the defense involved’ kind of pitcher.

Hanson struck out just two Marina batters Friday afternoon. But dominant or not, Lambright and the Chargers will definitely keep taking results like these.

Hanson won his third straight Sunset League start as the Chargers rolled, 7-1, at Marina, finishing off a three-game sweep of the Vikings this year.

For Hanson, the 6-foot-7 hurler, his game is starting to match his height. He has been that quality No. 2 starter lately that the Chargers have been looking for, now with a 5-1 record this season and a 2.91 earned-run average.

“He throws ground balls, and we got four double-plays today,” Lambright said. “It’s good for the defense to get some work. When Henry [Owens] pitches, it’s all strikeouts and they get bored.”

Edison remained in first place in league at 8-1, a game ahead of Esperanza, which beat Newport Harbor on Friday. The Chargers and Aztecs tangle next week in a big league showdown, Wednesday at Edison and Friday at Esperanza.

Hanson was helped out in a big way by the long-ball Friday. Junior center fielder Eric Snyder had the big offensive day, finishing three for three with a pair of home runs and five RBIs.

Snyder hit a two-run bomb in the second inning, pushing Edison’s lead to 4-0, and then a three-run blast to left-center in the fourth.

The latter homer came with two outs, scoring Jimmy Madden and Jon Torres.

“I’ve been really focusing on my stance lately, and I’ve just been seeing the ball great,” said Snyder, who had a solo homer in a 1-0 victory over Los Alamitos on April 16. “I haven’t been trying to do too much with it. If the ball goes, the ball goes, and today it went out twice.

“That [second home run] was probably one of my best hits I’ve ever had, especially to hit it into the wind in left-center.”

Senior first baseman Tanner Phillips added a two-run homer in the first after Snyder had reached base to open the game.

“It was probably our [most] well-played game the entire year, in terms of playing all three facets of the game,” Lambright said. “We have been inconsistent this year... We’re almost rolling into May now, and when we get into May, that’s when you want to be playing your best baseball. That’s when league championships are won and obviously when you can make a run into the playoffs. Hopefully, we’re heading in that direction.”

Edison is trying to win back-to-back league titles for the first time in program history.

Marina (2-7 in league) scored its lone run in the third when senior third baseman Chad Lewis’ single up the middle scored senior catcher Vinny Ponce.

But the next batter grounded into a double play, the story of the day for the Vikings.

“We’ve got to keep our concentration,” Marina Coach Paul Renfrow said. “Even where we are right now, at 2-7, we’ve got six ballgames with people that we’re competing with for a playoff spot. All we’ve got to do is go out and compete against those people. We win these next six games and we end up in third place. We’ve just got to keep that in focus.

“I think sometimes when things go bad, you begin expecting them to go bad. That’s an unfortunate situation to get into. That’s that lack of experience. Some guys are waiting for the other shoe to drop, something bad to happen, and it does. We’ve just got to keep playing.”

Marina is tied for last with Los Alamitos but just two games back of both Newport Harbor and Fountain Valley (4-5 in league) for third place and an automatic CIF Southern Section Division I playoff spot.