Medford saw a short-lived lead vanish in the fifth inning Saturday afternoon and the Mustangs were unable to conjure up the same late-game magic as a day before in suffering a 10-3 loss to the Mid-Valley Southpaws in the opening round of the American Legion AAA state tournament.

A sacrifice fly by Elijah Havey brought home Easton Curtis in the top of the fourth inning and allowed the Mustangs to take a 3-2 lead on the Area 3 champions at Swede Johnson Stadium in Eugene.

Unfortunately for Medford (31-17-3), that would be the high-water mark as Mid-Valley answered immediately with five runs in the bottom of the fourth and wound up scoring the final eight runs of the contest overall to win going away.

Due to the loss, the Mustangs will face an elimination contest at 1 p.m. Sunday against the Grants Pass Nuggets, who lost 6-2 to Area 4 champion and tournament host Eugene in the first round.

Medford has won all six contests against Grants Pass this summer, although two of those were one-run games.

The Southpaws struck first Saturday with a pair of runs in the first inning but the Mustangs were able to counter with two of their own in the third after Tristan Mallari singled home Havey and Dominic Daffron’s two-out single plated Kaleb Long.

Medford was able to break the tie when Curtis led off the fourth inning with a single, stole second base and was put in clear scoring position on a sacrifice bunt by Davis Carr. Havey followed with his sacrifice fly.

In the bottom half of the inning, a walk and two singles allowed Mid-Valley to load the bases. Daffron was able to induce a short flyout to right fielder Jackson Rosenthal for the second out of the inning but couldn’t escape unscathed after Aiden Metzker came through with a two-run single to put the Southpaws on top 4-3.

Drew Rice followed with a single to reload the bases and Bryant Starr provided a crippling three-run triple to the left-center fence.

The Mustangs then had consecutive innings end on double plays turned by Mid-Valley and stranded two of their final 10 baserunners in the seventh when reliever Lukas Hews got Jimmy Morgan to flyout to second base for the game-ender.

Medford outhit Mid-Valley by a 15-13 margin, with Rosenthal going 3-for-3 and the Mustangs getting two hits apiece from Curtis, Long and Mallari.

In Saturday’s other games, Roseburg Dr. Stewart’s won 10-5 over the Stayton Post 58 Canyon Crushers and the Portland Barbers scored an 11-1, five-inning win against the Corvallis Gerding Builders Marketmen.

Medford Mustangs 002 100 0 — 3 13 1

Mid-Valley Southpaws 200 512 x — 10 15 0

Daffron, Sickler (5), Pettersen (6) and Morgan; Rice, Hews (6) and Jenkins. W — Rice. L — Daffron. 2B — MV: Yost. 3B — MV: Starr.

PEL Baseball

MEDFORD ROGUES 9, WEST COAST KINGS 7: Johnny Backus hit a two-run double and Anthony Marnell had two run-scoring singles to highlight a nine-run outburst by Medford in the third inning that carried the Rogues to a Pacific Empire League victory at Harry & David Field.

Caleb Waits and Langan Naylor also had RBI hits in the third inning, while Cody Nitowitz and Bradley Navarro each drew run-scoring walks to help keep the surge going for Medford (26-20, 11-14 PEL).

Cody Ferrante, Navarro and Marnell each had two hits to pace the Rogues, who saw Logan Miller lock down the victory by allowing only one hit with one strikeout in 2 ⅓ innings of scoreless relief pitching.

Medford’s season finale against the West Coast Kings (5-19 PEL) will be at 6:35 p.m. Sunday.

West Coast Kings 410 000 200 — 7 10 1

Medford Rogues 009 000 00x — 9 10 1

Marchetti, Petril (3) and Cortese, Lyall (5); Marton, Stewart (5), Gibbons (7), Miller (7) and Waits. W — Stewart. L — Marchetti. S — Miller. 2B — WC: Damelio, Chance; M: Ferrante, Backus, Graham.