Edison secures playoff berth

FOUNTAIN VALLEY – With two contenders standing in the way of its bid to capture a CIF Southern Section playoff berth, the Edison baseball team rose to the challenges it faced in its past three outings.

Coming off a key two-game sweep last week of Esperanza, visiting Edison secured second place in the Sunset League and the playoff berth that goes with it by shutting out rival Fountain Valley, 1-0, Tuesday.

The Chargers rode the outstanding pitching of freshman Henry Owens who registered his first shutout win.

Owens struck out 10, didn’t surrender a walk and limited the Barons to three hits.

“It was an unbelievable effort,” Edison Coach Steve Lambright said of the way Owens tamed the Barons. “He was incredible. You’ll be hearing about this kid in the future.”

To back Owens’ performance, the Chargers gave him the only run he would need when Eric Snyder doubled, moved to second on Ryan Little’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Kyle Higashioka’s sacrifice fly to center field in the top of the fourth.

The win put Edison at 9-5 in league and 13-13 overall.

Fountain Valley slipped to 7-7 in league and 12-12 overall.

Barons’ pitcher Robert Johnson held the Chargers to five hits.

“Fountain Valley has been playing really, really well as of late, so this is a great win for our team,” Lambright said.

Edison will celebrate Senior Day Thursday when the Chargers and Barons go at it one final time in league play. Senior Bryan Adams will get the start for the 3:15 p.m. game.

In other baseball games involving local prep teams Tuesday:

Golden West League

Orange 10, Ocean View 0

Orange’s big win Tuesday sets up an even bigger game Thursday between the teams.

A win by Ocean View would clinch an outright league title; an Orange win creates a tie for the crown between the Seahawks and Panthers.

Ocean View (11-2) has a one-game lead on Orange heading into Thursday’s showdown.

Ocean View had an eight-game league win streak snapped and suffered its first shutout loss in nearly two months.

Other Tuesday scores:

Sea View League

Woodbridge 7, Huntington Beach 2