1st Step Still a Doozy for Edwards

Freddie Edwards cannot get to first base.

As leadoff batter for Antelope Valley High, Edwards is hitting only .188 (six for 32) and has reached base only 11 times in 38 plate appearances, an on-base percentage of .289.

Edwards’ speed is a terrible thing to waste. For the past three years, as a tailback-defensive back for the school’s football team, Edwards (6-foot-1, 175 pounds) turned on the burners, earning a football scholarship to San Diego State while dazzling crowds and coaches alike.

“Two-thirds of the Earth is covered by water,” Ed t’Sas, the school’s baseball coach, colorfully remarked to a reporter last fall. “And one-third by Freddie Edwards.”

Except, it seems, 360 feet of basepaths. For Edwards, it is the final frontier.

Edwards has walked only three times and has stolen three bases in three attempts. Even though Antelope Valley (4-6-1 overall), the defending Golden League champion, is tied with Quartz Hill for second place with a 3-2 league mark, the Antelopes might have fared better with a little more production out of Edwards. Of the 11 times Edwards has been aboard, he has scored six runs.

“If he gets on, he’s gonna go,” t’Sas said. “But he’s gotta get on.”

Edwards batted .242 last season. He has spent long afternoons taking extra batting practice, experimenting with stance and swing. But Edwards’ bat doesn’t seem to move as quickly as the rest of him.

“With my speed, the idea is to hit the ball on the ground and get on,” Edwards said. “That’s what I try to do, but the ball just carries into the outfield.

“If I can get on first base, I’ll go from first to third. The pitchers worry about me being on the basepaths. But with me not on the basepaths, they have nothing to worry about.”

Tournament of champions: Simi Valley returns to the Colonial Baseball Classic this week in Orlando, Fla., with a first-round game Tuesday against Winter Park (Fla.).

Simi Valley (9-5 including two forfeit losses) will be playing in the annual tournament at Colonial High for the first time since 1988. The Pioneers won the tournament in 1986 and reached the semifinals the following year.

The tournament, in its 13th year, routinely has attracted high-ranking entries from across the nation. This year’s 16-team bracket includes teams from Florida, California, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York and Tennessee. Simi Valley is one of five former tournament champions.

“None of these teams are chopped liver,” said George Kirchgassner, tournament director and Colonial coach. “We’ve got almost anybody who has ever won it here.”

Scyphers, who will lead a Simi Valley entourage of about 50 players, coaches and parents, said the group will spend time between games visiting Walt Disney World, Daytona Beach and Kennedy Space Center.

Coaches and players were scheduled to fly Friday to Atlanta, where they planned to attend Saturday night’s Giants-Braves game, then caravan to Orlando in rental vans today.