Brink Keeps Edison From Going on the Blink : Chargers: Catcher has fired up his teammates and held them together on the way to the title game.

Darren Brink, senior catcher for Edison High School, has one of those “aw-shucks” personalities that makes him seem quiet and laid-back.

Then he steps on a baseball field. There, his character changes drastically.

Besides being the team’s top hitter, Brink is the Chargers’ emotional leader. He prods and pushes them into playing to their potential.

“Darren plays like he’s listening to heavy metal music,” pitcher Josh Gingrich said. “He’ll tell someone when they’ve messed up and is the first guy to congratulate them when they make a big play. He gets us fired up.”

As a result, the Chargers have a season on the brink, instead of one on the blink.

After struggling through Sunset League play, they are one victory away from being Southern Section 5-A champions. Edison (17-12), which finished in a four-way tie for third in league, will play Long Beach Millikan (23-6) for the title tonight at Anaheim Stadium.

Brink helped hold the Chargers together during the tough times and has been at the forefront during the playoffs.

“A big reason why we’re here is Darren,” Coach Paul Harrell said. “He’s been the leader all season. He can be blunt--I guess that’s a diplomatic way of saying it--but the other kids respect him.”

Brink downplays his leadership role, but admits he is assertive on the field.

“Yeah, I get pretty intense during games,” he said. “I always have, even when I was in Little League. I come to play.”

That has been evident during the playoffs.

Edison has had different players come through in each game, but the one constant has been Brink, who is hitting .456 with three home runs and 27 runs batted in.

The Chargers, who lost their final regular-season game, beat third-seeded Riverside Poly, 7-1, in the first round of the playoffs. Brink homered in the first inning to give the Chargers a 1-0 lead and then hit a two-run homer in the third to break a 1-1 tie.

“They had this really great pitcher going and Darren comes up and hits a home run that landed in a swimming pool at this house,” Gingrich said. “Then he comes up in the third and hit another one, this time off a tool shack at another house. We owned that pitcher after that.”

In the second round against Burbank, Brink singled in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth in an 8-7 victory. The next game, he drove in two runs in an 8-5 victory over Long Beach Jordan.

“Darren is the guy we like to have up there in key situations,” Harrell said. “He is such a competitor that he’ll do what it takes to get on.”

But Brink’s most important hit was far from his best.

In the semifinals against Diamond Bar, Edison trailed, 3-0, going into the bottom of the seventh. The Chargers had managed only two weak hits through the first six innings.

But, after Matt Harrell led off with a walk, Brink dumped a 1-1 pitch into left field. Edison scored four runs to advance to the championship game.

After the single, Brink was replaced by a pinch-runner and came off the field holding both fists in the air.

“He came running off the field yelling and that really pumped us up,” Gingrich said. “Darren has that effect on us. He’s an inspiration.”

Brink supplied a lot of that in middle of the season, when the Chargers were struggling. Edison went 1-5 through the first round of league play.

Brink, who had hit .358 as a junior, and Gingrich held an impromptu team meeting.

“We have a lot of young players and we’d been just going through the motions,” Brink said. “We had made a lot of errors and I told them that they had been making too many mental mistakes.”

Said Gingrich: “Darren was a little blunt, but he got the point across.”

Edison has won 10 of 12 games since the meeting.