Edison relieved to win 'survival game'

ORANGE - By the time Edison left fielder Sean Whiteman came the plate with the bases loaded in the sixth inning, starting pitcher Henry Owens was on the mound in the bullpen getting loose.

Before the game, Edison coach Steve Lambright said that Owens, who pitched a no-hitter Friday in the first-round game against Santiago of Corona, would be available for relief.

Whiteman drew a walk from Orange Lutheran’s Art Vidrio forcing in Timmy Lopes, giving the Chargers the lead and and Owens went from available to closer.

Owens entered in the sixth, pitched two innings in relief for the save as the top-seeded Chargers (25-3) pulled out a 4-3 victory over Orange Lutheran (15-14-1) at Hart Park in Tuesday’s CIF-SS Division 1 second-round playoff game. 

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“It was a survival game,” Lambright said. “Sometimes you have to win ugly. The bottomline is that we’re moving on. You’re not always going to play a great game. Sometimes good teams have just enough.”

The Chargers will visit Moore League champion Lakewood in the quarterfinals Friday. Lakewood defeated Tesoro, 8-0 in another first round game.

Edison’s sixth inning started innocently. The first two batters were retired before Lopes coaxed a walk. Tyler Jones reached on error and A.J. Libunao was hit by a pitch, bringing Whiteman to the plate.

He jumped ahead of the count 3-0, before Vidrio worked the count to 3-2.

“We had him take a pitch (at 3-0) and we had him take another one and the guy through a strike because bases loaded, we’re trying to put pressure on them,” Lambright said. “Then he fouled a ball off and then there was a ball down and in … good read by him and he took the walk and we got the run.”

Jon Torres started the game for Edison and went the first five. He allowed three runs on four hits to get the victory.

“It was a gritty performance,” Owens said of Torres. “He told me before the game that he was nervous because he had never pitched in a playoff game before. I told him my toughest one was my first in the sophomore year, he’ll be ready to go (again), but we have to get by Friday first.

Owens will get the start Friday. He threw just 25 pitches in his two innings of relief. He faced six batters. He struck out the first batter he faced, walked the second, but picked him off first to end the inning. He retired the side in order in the seventh.

“I felt good. I wanted to get ahead of batters and come out there throwing strikes, being a reliever and not a starter,” Owens said. “It is always different being a closer than a starter, you have to go out with every pitch working right away. You don’t have time to go through the lineup get your stuff ready.”

The Chargers scored three runs in the third inning. Eric Snyder scored on an error and Jake Lesinski and Johnathan Brooks had consecutive sacrifice flies.

Orange Lutheran scored two in the bottom of the third and tied the game in the fourth on an RBI double by Nolan Rogers.

Brent Wheatley took the loss for the Lancers, who made four errors. The Chargers made three.

“Hopefully our young guys can learn how important every single pitch of a game is, especially when you get to this time and single elimination … those mistakes just add up,” Orange Lutheran coach Eric Borba said.

“We gave them a lot … that’s a great team, you can’t make mistakes. I thought (Jon) Torres pitched great and then Henry (Owens) comes in and shuts the door.”