UPDATED: Edison makes history

HUNTINGTON BEACH — The Edison High baseball team had never won back-to-back Sunset League titles.

That changed Friday, with a little help from Los Alamitos.

The defending champion Chargers clinched at least a share of the 2010 crown after beating rival Fountain Valley, 5-3, on Friday afternoon at Edison High.

The Chargers (17-7, 11-2) now have a two-game lead over second-place Esperanza with two to play. Esperanza was upset by Los Alamitos, 10-8, on Friday. Edison finishes out its regular season next week against Newport Harbor, Tuesday at home and Thursday on the road, and can clinch an outright title by winning either game.

Edison has now won eight league titles since 1978, but the back-to-back titles in 2009 and this year is a program first.

Fountain Valley, meanwhile, fell to 6-7 in league but is still in third place, a game ahead of Newport Harbor. The Barons face second-place Esperanza to close out the regular season.

Fountain Valley used some good fortune Friday to take a 3-0 lead in the top of the first. The Barons used Adam Scott’s infield single and A.J. Cardenalli’s bunt hit to get the first two runners on.

An out later, junior first baseman Danny Jimenez took the 0-1 pitch from Edison senior Nic Hanson and hit a high fly to right that kept carrying and carrying, all the way over the fence for a three-run homer.

“t got up there and then it got out,” Hanson said. “I was kind of shocked, but I had to get after it from there on. [I had to] just settle down and start going after hitters, get locked in.”

Hanson definitely did. He held the Barons to just one hit after that first inning and is 5-0 in five Sunset League starts since the start of April.

And the Chargers, who pounded out 14 hits, started chipping away against Fountain Valley sophomore lefty Zac Milan.

Senior third baseman Kyle Jones hit a solo homer to left in the bottom of the first, and Jon Torres’ RBI single to right in the third scored Tanner Phillips and brought the Chargers within a run, 3-2.

Edison would even the score in the fourth when senior second baseman Tony Giovinetti hit a leadoff double and was eventually batted in when Christian Lopes grounded into a fielder’s choice.

Phillips finished three for three with a double, and Torres, Lopes and Giovinetti all added two hits.

“This is probably the first week we’ve shown our potential, how we should be playing the rest of the season,” said Phillips after the Chargers had 17 runs and 29 hits in two wins over their rivals. “I think this week is the best we’ve played all year, hitting-wise.”

The Chargers took the lead in the fifth when Torres led off with a single and scored on Giovinetti’s sacrifice fly. They added an insurance run in the sixth, when Phillips doubled and was brought home on Lopes’ double.

Edison plans to throw junior lefty Henry Owens on Tuesday, Lambright said. Owens is 8-1 with a 1.62 earned-run average this season.

And Coach Steve Lambright and the Chargers clearly want that outright title.

“This time of year is when we need to be playing our best baseball,” he said.