Edison makes it back-to-back Sunset League crowns

The Edison High baseball team is peaking at the right time.

The Chargers on Tuesday earned an outright Sunset League championship by defeating visiting Newport Harbor, 12-2. By winning the title, Edison has won back-to-back league championships for the first time in school history.

The program has won three of the last four Sunset titles.

The Chargers have a shot today at reaching another milestone: a win at Newport Harbor (3:15 p.m.) in the league and regular season finale for both teams would give them a league record of 13-2. No Edison team has ever won that many Sunset games, Edison Coach Steve Lambright said Wednesday.

The Chargers are 18-7 overall.

“We definitely are peaking at the right time,” Lambright said. “You want to play your best baseball in May, and we are doing that. We want to close out the regular season strong and be on a roll heading into CIF next week.”

Junior Henry Owens (10-1) tamed Newport Harbor (5-9 league) with a 17-strikeout, five-hit performance that enabled him to become the school’s record-holder for strikeouts (127) in a single-season.

The old single-season record was 124, Lambright said.

Edison pounded out 15 hits off four Newport pitchers, with juniors Christian Lopes and AJ Libuno each hitting a double.

The Chargers earned a portion of the Sunset title Friday with a 5-3 win over rival Fountain Valley. The win went to senior Nic, Hanson (7-1). Senior Kyle Jones homered and Lopes had three hits.

Edison also defeated the Barons, 12-3, on May 5.

Ocean View

The Seahawks clinched a share of the Golden West League title Tuesday with an 18-2 rout of Saddleback on Senior Day at Ocean View.

All six seniors started the game, including regular starters Matt Larsen (center-field), Kevin Nance (third base), Aaron Delgado (shortstop) and Nick Schulenburg, who normally plays first base but started behind the plate. Alden Mathews started at first base and Kris Lendrum in right field.

Junior Blake Walker picked up the win to run his league record to 6-0. He also was a big contributor on offense with a single, double, run batted in and two runs scored. Walker increased his school-record runs total in a season to 38 (the former record was 32 set in 1993 by Steve Rivera).

Ocean View fell behind, 1-0, but scored four runs in the bottom of the first on a rally started by back-to-back singles by Colton Johnson and Walker.

The Seahawks exploded for nine runs in the third inning, where they hit a pair of doubles and got a three-run home run from Blake Hitchcock (his fifth of the year) and solo home runs from Delgado (his first of the season) and Lendrum.

“It was great to be able to play all of our seniors today,” Ocean View Coach Shane Borowski said. “Guys like Matt, Nick and Kevin, have been leaders for us this year and have given a lot these last four years. All of our seniors are a special bunch and I am going to miss them.

“It was especially great to see Alden and Kris get a start and hit the ball like they did. Those guys haven’t had the playing time I think they would have liked this year, but they stayed positive and helped us out in so many ways. To see Alden hit it off the wall, and Kris and Aaron both hit home runs in their last league start as a Seahawk was really something special.”

Ocean View can win the Golden West title outright at 3:15 p.m. today with a win a Saddleback.

Fountain Valley

In a key Sunset League game Tuesday, the Barons (8-8 league) fell, 6-2, at Esperanza (10-4 league), despite out-hitting the Aztecs, 8-6.

Junior Danny Jimenez hit a fifth-inning home run and seniors Danny Cardenalli and Adam Scott both doubled.

The teams meet again at 3 p.m. today in the league finale for both at Fountain Valley.

Marina

The visiting Vikings scored two runs in the top of the 11th inning Tuesday, then shut down Los Alamitos in the bottom of the frame to come away with an 8-6 Sunset League victory.

Seniors Vinny Ponce and Robert Chavarria and sophomore Trevor Megill all doubled and junior pitcher Lucas Kaplan earned his first win for the Vikings (4-10 league), who host the Griffins at 3:15 p.m. today.

Huntington Beach

The host Oilers picked up an important Sea View League victory Tuesday by defeating second-place Foothill, 9-2. Sophomore LJ Brewster, senior Arturo Duarte and junior Devin King all doubled for Huntington, which squared its league record at 7-7 and dropped the Knights to 9-5.

The Oilers, who moved above .500 on the season (13-12), entered the week tied for fourth place with Woodbridge. They close out league play at 3:15 p.m. today at Foothill.

In an 11-0 win Friday over Woodbridge, Mark Johnson pitched six scoreless innings and Jon Combest and Brandon Herring each had two hits and three RBIs for the Oilers.