Chargers Speed Past Poly
What the Edison High baseball team appeared to need was a big hit. Turns out a little one did just fine.
Chris Branan’s squeeze bunt in the sixth inning drove in two runs, propelling Edison to a four-run inning and a 5-0 victory over Riverside Poly Saturday in the Southern Section Division II championship game at Dodger Stadium.
It’s the first baseball section title in school history for Edison (22-8-1), which lost its previous appearances in the finals in 1981 and ’91.
“Small ball,” Branan said. “That’s how we win games. That’s how we’ve been winning them all year.”
Edison has hit only nine home runs this season, relying more on speed and pitching. The Chargers utilized both on Saturday.
The pitching came from David Huff (9-2), who threw a two-hitter with six strikeouts and one walk.
The speed came on the squeeze bunt that broke Poly’s back.
With Edison clinging to a 1-0 lead and one out in the sixth, Branan came to bat with Steve Webber on third and A.J. Martinez on second.
After a timeout to discuss the play, Branan squirted a perfect bunt between Poly pitcher Donnie Murphy and first baseman Brian Valdes.
Webber scored easily and Martinez, who was running with the pitch, blazed around third without stopping--a planned play--and also scored for a 3-0 Edison lead.
“A.J. is the fastest player in California,” Branan said of Martinez, who set a school record with 29 stolen bases this season.
Branan beat out the bunt and was credited with a two-run single on a ball that never left the infield grass. He stole second and later scored on a wild pitch. The Chargers added one more run on a sacrifice fly by Joey Mozeleski.
“They executed perfectly,” Riverside Poly Coach Aaron Moore said. “You can’t defend a squeeze, and they turned it into two runs.”
Early on, the game was tight. Poly starter Rylan Hanks held Edison hitless for four innings, but had to come out because he reached the section limit of 10 innings in a week.
Edison got to reliever Juan Gomez (6-3) right away, with Marcus McCutcheon lining a double to the gap in left-center to score Jared Shwam with one out in the fifth.
The 1-0 lead was all Huff would need. The sophomore left-hander did not allow a hit after the second inning and allowed only two runners past first base. He faced only 24 batters, three over the minimum.
Shwam, Edison’s right fielder, thwarted Poly’s best chance to score when he threw out Kiel Fisher trying to score from second on a single in the second inning.
Huff struck out the next two batters to end the inning.