Chargers shock Marina

Chris Czerniachowski listened to a CD before the big game, but it wasn’t music.

It was a motivational CD by Steve Springer, who played in the big leagues for the Indians and Mets before making the disc “Quality at-bats.”

“In his CD, he said, ‘It doesn’t matter if you go 0-for-5,’ ” said Czerniachowski, a senior at Edison High. “You want to be that last guy up at-bat. You want to be in the hero.”

Czerniachowski paid attention. He ended up with the game-winning walk-off double in the bottom of the seventh, lifting the Chargers to a wild, 4-3 Sunset League victory over Marina at home on Friday afternoon.

Edison (7-1, 3-0 in league) takes over sole possession of first place in league because of the seventh-inning rally.

The Chargers were down, 3-2, entering the inning, but got a runner on with one out. After Marina pitcher Paul Strong recorded his 11th strikeout of the afternoon, Edison third baseman Kyle Jones reached on a single to right.

Edison leadoff man Eric Snyder walked to load the bases, setting up Czerniachowski’s heroics. He took a curveball to the wall in left-center, stunning the Vikings.

“The game was a classic Sunset League battle,” Edison Coach Steve Lambright said. “I told them, there’s no better feeling than leaving a team standing on the field ... I couldn’t be prouder of our team, because they beat a quality club.”

Initially, it looked like the game would belong to Marina (8-2, 2-1). Strong struck out the first nine Chargers batters to start the game, and the Vikings took a 1-0 lead in the fourth when Tyler Rinker’s RBI single scored Chad Lewis.

Edison responded in the bottom of the frame. Josh Lesinski walked with one out, and Donald Sneed’s towering home run to left gave Edison the 2-1 edge.

“I think what got us relaxed was when Sneed hit the home run,” Lambright said.

But Marina, undeterred, scored twice in the top of the sixth. Robert Chavarria had a leadoff single and, two outs later, Lewis also homered to left to again give the Vikings the lead.

Edison had just three hits in the game before its seventh-inning heroics, but got the job done anyway.

Before his two-RBI double, Czerniachowski had been hitless in three at-bats. In the fifth inning, Strong intentionally walked Snyder to face Czerniachowski, who grounded into a fielder’s choice.

“A little bit,” Czerniachowski said when asked if that made him upset. “I went up there and wanted to show them what’s up.”

Arizona-bound Kurt Heyer improved to 3-0 for Edison, giving up eight hits and striking out five.

The Vikings were left to try to regroup, as they next play at Los Alamitos on Tuesday, the same day that Edison plays host to Newport Harbor.

Los Alamitos suffered an upset 3-2 loss to Fountain Valley Friday.

“It’s a heartbreaker,” Marina Coach Paul Renfrow said. “We controlled the game the whole game. We put up eight hits. It’s just one of those things ... We’d gotten [Czerniachowski] out on the curveball, but it was up a little bit. But [Strong] pitched a great game. It’s hard to be critical of him on one pitch.

“It’s disappointing to play that well at their place, do all the right things and you can’t finish it off. They’ve been beating people 11-0, hitting the ball all over the place and [Strong] gave up five hits today ... You’ve just got to put this game aside and get ready to play the next game, let the first round take care of itself.”

Edison Coach Lambright similarly looked at the big picture.

“We did not win the league today,” he said. “We’re 3-0 and we’ve got 12 games ahead of us, but it’s a nice win for their confidence. This game was strictly won on heart and confidence, really.”