Edison rolls past Memorial for first baseball title

Published online on Friday, May. 29, 2009

Cliff Rold couldn't help but think back to the first gathering of his first baseball team under the trees behind the backstop at Edison High.

As his current crop of players celebrated by dousing each other with sparkling cider, the 16-year coach called that first team the "foundation" that every player since has built upon, culminating Friday with the end of an 85-year title drought.

The second-seeded Tigers scored a run in every inning while rolling to an 11-6 victory over No. 13 Memorial for the Central Section Division II championship, the school's first baseball title.

"We had a 90-day goal, and every day they came to practice to get a little bit better," Rold said. "Today was supposed to be the best performance of our history."

Rold sure called it.

Edison (22-11) took control with a six-run second inning that featured nothing bigger than a single as the Tigers sent 10 batters to the plate. Max Schuh and Joey Sandoval scored on singles, Nicolas Gonzales on a fielder's choice, Marquise Cooper on a wild pitch, Skippy Ferreria on a sacrifice fly and Kenny Travis on a passed ball.

When you have team speed like the Tigers -- all throughout the lineup -- it doesn't take much to get a run in.

"Our last 10 games, we've been able to jump ahead of people and put pressure on," Rold said. "That's been key to our success."

The Tigers weren't done there.

Cooper doubled in a run in the third and T.J. McDonald hit a solo home run in the fourth as Edison's lead grew to 9-3.

"We knew we had to get stuff done," McDonald said. "We got this far. We just had to finish off strong.

"It's an unbelievable feeling to make history. It's something we can be proud of the rest of our lives."

But Memorial, which has reached the Division II final each of the past five seasons, refused to go quietly. Brennan Jacobsen hit a solo home run in the fourth and Daniel Wittemore added a three-run shot in the fifth as the Panthers (19-15) closed the gap to 9-6.

"I never thought we were out of the game," Memorial coach Pete Dalena said. "We've been in this position so many times this year, and had teams do it to us. But when you get the score back to three, you need to hold them. And they did a good job of closing out the game."

Edison answered back with Ferreria's solo homer in the bottom of the fifth and another solo homer from E.J. Lopez in the sixth.

"I just had to do what I do for my team," Ferreria said. "This was history. We all came to play."

Travis, who relieved Edison starter Kurt Rathjens with one on and no outs in the top of the sixth, worked out of a jam he mostly created to thwart Memorial's final scoring chance.

Travis loaded the bases before getting James Huelscamp to hit into a fielder's choice for the final out.

"That's when the game gets fun," Travis said. "I love it when it's like that. The intensity picks up and everything. I knew I was going to get them out. It was in me. I felt it."

The junior right-hander, who struck out 73 batters in 821/3 innings this season, then worked a perfect seventh to put the finishing touches on Edison's 10th straight victory.