Nothing easy about chance at history
It never has happened before in the long history of Sunset League baseball, annually one of the top baseball leagues in Southern California.
Edison is 13-0 in the Sunset, with two league games remaining this week against third-place Marina, Tuesday at Marina and the other, the Edison Chargers' regular-season finale, at Edison on Thursday.
Edison already clinched the league championship, its third in a row.
"Now, we have a chance to make a little history," Chargers senior center fielder Eric Snyder said.
There are distractions aplenty for Edison.
There is the pressure of the rankings; Edison is No. 1 in the Orange County and CIF-Southern Section Division 1 polls, and No. 2 in Baseball America's national top 25.
The playoffs are only a week away. If Edison beats Marina twice this week, Edison very likely will be Division 1's top-seeded team.
And the Major League Baseball draft is a little more than a month away, with the three-day event starting June 6. Snyder, who signed with UCLA, shortstop Christian Lopes (a USC signee) and pitcher Henry Owens (Miami) are projected to be selected in the early rounds.
Edison coach Steve Lambright said he has not had to remind those three to stay in the present and worry about the future, the draft, when it happens.
"These guys haven't allowed it to be distracting," Lambright said. "They're all so mentally strong."
Edison has outscored league opponents, 90-25, but getting to 13-0 has not been as easy as it looks. There have been plenty of close league victories, too. Five of the Chargers' Sunset triumphs are by two runs or fewer.
"Every game has been a dogfight, actually," Owens said. "It's been hilarious."
The fun just might be getting started for Edison.
THE TOP 25
Elsewhere here can be found the county top 10 poll of five media members. Based on the poll results, here is how this voter would vote for positions 11-25: 11. Dana Hills (16-13-1 overall record); 12. Beckman (18-6); 13. Foothill (16-10); 14. Pacifica (20-6); 15. Fountain Valley (15-9); 16. Los Alamitos (10-13-1); 17. Mission Viejo (16-13); 18. Orange Lutheran (12-12-1); 19. Villa Park (15-12); 20. Canyon (11-16); 21. Marina (15-9-1); 22. San Clemente (13-15); 23. Sonora (17-8); 24. El Modena (14-12); 25. Ocean View (14-10).
THE PLAYOFFS
CIF-SS playoff brackets will be released Monday and available at ocvarsity.com that afternoon. There are seven baseball playoff divisions.
Automatic playoff berths are awarded to teams that finish third or higher in five- and six-team leagues, and to teams that finish fourth or better in seven-team leagues. Third-place teams that do not fit in into the 32-team bracket will be sent to the wild-card round that begins the playoffs May 17.
Fourth-place teams from five- and six-team leagues, and fifth-place teams from seven- and eight-team leagues, can qualify for the playoffs and play in the wild-card round if they have overall records of .500 or better.
The playoff schedule: wild-card round for all divisions, May 17; first round for divisions 2, 4 and 6, May 19; first round for divisions 1, 3 and 5, May 20; second round, May 24; quarterfinals, May 27; semifinals, May 31 (Division 1 semifinals doubleheader at Blair Field in Long Beach); finals for divisions 2 and 3, June 2 at Dodger Stadium; finals for divisions 1 and 4, June 3 at Dodger Stadium; finals for divisions 5, 6 and 7, UC Riverside.
TOP GAMES
If there are ties for a league's final guaranteed playoff berth, there will be league playoff games in those leagues Friday, which is why leagues are going with Tuesday-Thursday scheduling this final week of the regular season. In this week's home-away, two-game series, Tuesday's home team is the visiting team Thursday, and vice versa.
Tuesday: Century, Esperanza (8-2) at Foothill (6-4); Empire, Pacifica (9-1 in league) at Cypress (10-0); Golden West, Orange (8-5) at Westminster (8-3); South Coast, Tesoro (6-4) at El Toro (8-2); and Sunset, Fountain Valley (7-5) at Los Alamitos (6-6-1).
