Southern Section 5-A Baseball Championship : Edmonds Plays Long Ball to Trigger Diamond Bar Win

Three times Jim Edmonds came to the plate in the Southern Section 5-A championship baseball game Saturday night in Anaheim Stadium.

Twice he delivered crushing hits to key Diamond Bar High School’s 3-2 win over Esperanza. He hit a long double and scored Diamond Bar’s first run in the first inning. In the fifth, he tripled home Tito Quiles, the Brahmas’ shortstop, for a 2-0 lead.

Nothing unusual there. Edmonds, a senior center fielder, was Diamond Bar’s hitting leader all season with a hefty .545 batting average. He finished the season with 57 hits and 44 runs-batted in.

The California Angels were impressed enough to draft Edmonds in the seventh round of the amateur baseball draft last week.

In the first inning, Edmonds did not disappoint. With two outs, he hit a long drive to left field that had Esperanza’s Deric Williams twisting and turning as he tried to run down the ball.

Williams couldn’t track it down before it bounded against the fence near the 362-foot sign.

“I thought it was out of here,” Edmonds said after the game. “It kind of made me look bad. I thought it was gone. I hit it a ton. But I saw it bounce and I knew I had to start running.”

He probably could have wound up with a triple had he been running hard, but had to settle for a double.

After two walks loaded the bases, Esperanza starter Jason Moler walked Ed Mylett to force home Edmonds for a 1-0 Diamond Bar lead.

In the fifth, Edmonds again came to the plate with two outs. This time, however, Quiles was on first after a single. Edmonds hammered a Moler pitch up the right-center-field alley. He made it to third easily with Quiles scoring for a 2-0 lead.

Edmonds thought he hadn’t hit the ball very hard.

“I thought it was just a little double,” he said.

In between the hits, Edmonds almost came up with a diving catch on Doug Saunders’ little dunker to center in the bottom of the first inning.