Eagles persevere, emerge as Red Division's best
Red-hot Edison expecting high seed in GMCT this week
BY SHAWN LAYTON
Staff Writer

EDISON - After a mediocre start to the season, the Edison High School baseball team has rolled off six consecutive wins to grab at least a share of the 2007 Greater Middlesex Conference Red Division title.

The Eagles stayed on track over the weekend with an 8-3 win over East Brunswick.

On a day without his best stuff, Edison pitcher Julian Laguna battled through some rough patches to record the win and improve his record to 3-1 on the season.

"Julian basically got through on his fastball," Edison head coach Vin Abene said. "He had some trouble locating his pitches, but he was able to get the big outs when he needed."

With the score tied at two in the fifth inning, Edison's Kevin Ryan sent one over the wall to put his team up 3-2. After East Brunswick evened the score at three in the bottom half of the sixth, the Eagles responded with a five-run seventh to record their 11th win of the season.

Catcher Cal Costanzo drove in the go-ahead run in the seventh and finished the game with a pair of RBIs. Teammate Stephen Nappe knocked in two with a double in the same inning.

Edison garnered at least a share of the division title by knocking off Piscataway and handing the Chiefs their fourth division loss. The two teams were scheduled to meet for a second time earlier this week. A win by Edison would give the Eagles the title outright.

"We'd prefer to win the division outright, so we're in control of our destiny," Abene said. "We're in a good situation and hopefully we can play well and enter the GMC Tournament on a high note."

In last week's contest, the Eagles handed the Chiefs a 9-3 defeat on a 15-hit offensive barrage. Five Eagles finished the game with two or more hits, with Ryan leading the way with a 3-for-4 performance. Starting pitcher Jared Shukis was 2-for-3 with two RBIs. Teammate Alberto Ruiz went 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs. At the top of the order, Laguna and Costanzo finished with two hits and two runs apiece.

"In our 15-hit attack, we hit eight singles and seven doubles," Abene said. "Everyone in the lineup produced that day. At one point we had seven hits in a row. We just got off to a great hitting start and never really slowed down."

Reliever Shawn Renner recorded the win in five innings of work. When Renner took the hill, the Eagles were down 2-1 after a solid pitching performance from Shukis.

After the Tuesday meeting with Piscataway, the Eagles will play host to JFK today at 3:45 p.m. Like all area teams, Edison entered the week anticipating the Monday seeding meeting for the GMC Tournament.

"We really don't know where we'll end up as far as a seed," Abene said. "We just have to take care of business this week and continue to play hard."