Hanson gets it done for Edison

The skinny on the Edison High baseball team all year has been that the Chargers don’t have much pitching depth behind junior lefty Henry Owens.

Enter Nic Hanson.

Hanson, a senior who didn’t play for Edison a year ago, shut out Los Alamitos, 1-0, last Friday. That helped the Chargers improve to 6-1 in the Sunset League, a game ahead of Esperanza.

Hanson is 4-1 this season, but that was his first career shutout.

“He did a phenomenal job for us,” Edison Coach Steve Lambright said. “I don’t think he’ll be [2009 graduate] Kurt [Heyer], but if he keeps his pitches down and lets his defense help him out, he’ll give us a chance. He’s been a great surprise for us. He loves to compete.”

Junior center fielder Eric Snyder provided the only run, a solo homer in the third.

Earlier in the week, Owens earned an 11-1 victory over the Griffins. Owens is 7-0 and has reached double digits in strikeouts in each start this year.

The Chargers face a struggling Marina squad this week. Lambright said Owens was set to pitch Wednesday’s game at Edison, so Hanson should go Friday at Marina.

“We just felt the way things were setting up, it was very important to get the win in the first game of the series,” Lambright said. “I’d just rather roll Henry out there. We’ll evaluate it week to week.”

Marina

Marina had a tough week, getting swept by surging Esperanza by scores of 5-2 and 6-5. The losses dropped the Vikings to 8-6 and 2-5 in league, tied for last with Fountain Valley.

In the loss Friday, the Vikings rallied for three runs in the seventh but could not get closer, despite having a 14-5 hits advantage over Esperanza. The previous game saw the Vikings again shut down, despite a solo home run from Nick Marshall.

Ocean View

The Seahawks dropped their first Golden West League game Friday, falling to Westminster, 11-7. This came on the heels of a victory over the same Westminster club two days prior, 10-7.

Coach Shane Borowski said Friday’s affair was a crazy game with four lead changes. Junior Blake Hitchcock hit a three-run homer in the fourth to give Ocean View a temporary lead. Then, in the bottom of the sixth, sophomore Colton Johnson’s single to left scored senior Matt Larsen with the go-ahead run. But Westminster scored four times in the seventh and came away with the win.

Ocean View, trying for its seventh league title in eight years, still sits in first in league at 6-1. Orange and Westminster were a game back (5-2) heading into this week. The Seahawks played at Segerstrom on Wednesday and are at home Friday, also against Segerstrom.

Huntington Beach

The Oilers (9-9) had a successful week in the Sea View League last week, taking a pair of games from Trabuco Hills, 14-5 and 10-3. David Vandoornum got the win in the first game and Kevin Klaess in the second. Huntington had a combined 28 hits in the two games. Sean Guite was five for nine with a double, triple and home run.

The Oilers are 3-4 in league and face a good test this week in a Northwood team that’s also 3-4.

“We are taking it day by day, trying to get better each day,” Coach Benji Medure said. “We aren’t concerned with anything other than improving. Winning will take care of itself.”

Fountain Valley

The Barons earned a split of last week’s Sunset League series with Newport Harbor, taking the second game Friday, 6-4.

Sophomore Zac Milan earned the victory in relief for the Barons, who improved to 2-5 in league. They also evened up their overall record at 7-7.

Fountain Valley plays Los Alamitos in continued league action this week.