Sunset League Baseball : Edison Takes 3rd, Qualifies for Playoffs : Chargers Take Steam Out of Huntington Beach Early in 15-7 Win

Emotions and baseballs were flying all over the place in Saturday’s Sunset League game between Edison and Huntington Beach high schools.

But only for about three innings. With a Southern Section playoff berth on the line, the Chargers broke open a one-run game with four runs in the third and two in the fourth on their way to a 15-7 victory at Edison.

The Chargers (8-7, 16-11) finished third in the league and qualified for the 4-A tournament. The Oilers finished their season at 6-8-1, 13-9-1.

Edison took a 4-0 lead on the strength of Bernie Colacchio’s three-run homer in the first and Josh Bammer’s solo homer in the second, both off Huntington Beach starter Dominique Alvarez.

When Oiler Coach Mike Dodd went to the mound to pull Alvarez after the second homer, he got into an argument with the home-plate umpire. It seems the two had different opinions about the location of the strike zone. Dodd, who was fuming about several calls, talked himself into an ejection.

The Chargers scored another run in the inning when Chris Powell reached home before Colacchio was tagged out in a rundown play, but the Oilers struck back in the top of the third.

Huntington Beach loaded the bases on two errors and a walk, and Andy Lewin cleared them with a grand slam over the left-field fence to make it 5-4.

As the Oilers greeted Lewin at the plate, Alvarez began taunting the Chargers, pointing and yelling at players on the Edison bench.

That got the Chargers fired up. They were even more excited when, after Brian Mena singled, Alvarez took a called third strike from Edison starter Mike Guccione to end the inning. Alvarez went from taunter to taunted.

The umpires, fearing a possible fight, issued warnings to each dugout and tried to calm the players. But there was no holding the Charger offense down.

Jon Martin opened the third with a walk, and Terrance Tewell doubled him to third. Bill Bertucci doubled both runners home with a drive off the fence in left-center, and Guccione followed with a two-run homer to right.

The Chargers added two more runs in the fourth on two walks, a passed ball and Bertucci’s single to right; three runs in the fifth on Steve McKowen’s RBI double, an error and Tewell’s RBI single, and one run in the sixth on an error.

Edison finished with 13 hits, including three homers and three doubles. Huntington Beach scored a run in the fourth on Ken Rehling’s RBI double and two in the sixth on Tom Flores’ double.