Rosenthal, Rhoden, Curtis earn tournament honors after Medford goes 6-0 — scoring 86 runs on 87 hits with only 7 earned runs allowed — in Nevada

Keeping a steady tone — and as simple of a breakdown as possible — Medford Mustangs manager John King summed up his baseball team’s performance over the Fourth of July holiday weekend in Nevada as “a good trip.”

Given how the local American Legion AAA Mustangs ran roughshod over just about every team in Reno, one can only imagine what it would take for that value to be raised to “great trip” status.

While their team leader may not be prone to hyperbole — and, mind you, King was extremely pleased with Medford’s 6-0 run in the Reno Fourth of July Classic — the Mustangs provided all the exaggerated statements needed on the scoreboard at McQueen High School.

“We hit the ball pretty well and threw the ball well,” King said Monday in typical easygoing fashion. “All around, we did really well. We went down there and kind of showed what we had, which was good to see. We had a lot of coaches that we played — and some of the coaches that we didn’t play that saw us play — just talk about how this is kind of one of the better teams from us that they’ve seen in a while down there.”

Through games stemming from last Thursday to Sunday’s championship final, the Mustangs racked up a combined 86 runs on 87 hits covering 34 total innings played.

After stacking up double-digit triumphs in each of their first five tournament games, Medford also showed it has what it takes to come up clutch in close contests with Sunday’s 3-1 walk-off victory over Diablo Valley of California.

“We got aggressive, which helped us a lot,” King said of the overall showing in Reno, which boosted the team’s winning streak to seven heading into Thursday’s 2:30 p.m. doubleheader against Southern Oregon Baseball at North Medford High.

It’s not that the Mustangs were previously struggling to score runs — the team had scored in double figures in 10 of their 23 games leading up to the road trip — it’s just there was a belief that the group could be doing even more.

“We were just getting out of the box and running hard right out of the box,” King said of a notable tweak. “We really concentrated on that, because that was one of the things that I felt like we really weren’t doing very well, and we turned a lot of singles into doubles and a lot of bobbled balls by the outfielders into doubles just by being aggressive. I think that kind of set up a lot of the tournament from Thursday through Sunday.”

It also set up the clinching runs Sunday against Diablo Valley, with leadoff hitter Easton Curtis never breaking stride on a two-out hit toward the right-center gap for a double in the bottom of the seventh inning. Curtis slid in safely just ahead of the right fielder’s throw to put the winning run immediately in scoring position.

“That’s the little stuff that’s going to help us beat teams this year,” said King, always with an eye toward the Area 4 gauntlet and another hopeful run at the state tournament.

“I always tell those guys that if we get out being aggressive — even in that situation where we’ve got our 2-3-4 coming up after Easton — I don’t mind him pushing the envelope right there with two outs trying to get into scoring position on a play where they bobble the baseball a little bit,” he added. “If he gets out, we’re going to go into the eighth inning still with a chance.”

It was the first hit in four at-bats Sunday for Curtis, who was 2-for-3 with three runs and five RBIs in Saturday night’s 14-3 win over the Yuba City Stripers. One player from each team during Sunday’s placing games was named to the all-tournament team, and Curtis got that honor for the Mustangs.

The speedy Curtis likely was going to score on anything safely put in play thereafter by Jackson Rosenthal, but the Ashland product went ahead and finished the game with flair by launching the second pitch he saw over the fence in right field for a two-run walk-off home run.

“All we needed was a base hit, but Rosie decided to hit one to the moon,” said King.

Rosenthal finished 2-for-3 with one run and all three of his team’s RBIs against Diablo Valley — his fifth-inning double plated Brady Patterson with the tying run — and was later awarded tournament Most Valuable Player honors after an eye-popping 8-for-13 overall effort included nine runs and 10 RBIs in the five games he saw action.

“Jackson had a great tournament,” said King. “He hit a ton of balls hard. He hit a lot of balls hard where he got out — not that he got out very often — but some of his outs were where he hit a ball Saturday afternoon that probably was hit further than what his home run was and it got caught up against the fence at McQueen High School.”

King said the wind notoriously blows out to right field so the ballpark’s dimensions take that into account for a deep track in right field, but Saturday’s game against the North Valleys Yard Goats was played at 10 a.m. and there was no wind — allowing the center fielder to make a sensational play on the ball at the fence.

Rosenthal raised his batting average to .466 and slugging percentage to .767 with the productive run in Reno, and closed the team-leading gap in RBIs to one between him (34) and Ashland’s Keller Bloodworth (35). Rosenthal also ranks second to Curtis in runs scored with 39 (five behind the North Medford outfielder).

“He’s been locked in for probably about two weeks now,” King said of Rosenthal. “His swing has really been coming along and he’s been working hard in the cages and stuff and, man, he’s hitting the ball really hard right now.”

All of that productivity Sunday went to support another strong outing by South Medford’s Evan Rhoden, who put a cap on the festivities with a complete-game effort that included only four hits allowed with three strikeouts and no walks.

In trying to set up his pitching rotation for the tournament, King said he gave Rhoden the option of which day he wanted to pitch and the immediate answer was Sunday. He got a one-inning stint Friday that served essentially as bullpen work Friday night in relief of Jake Lewis — leaving the ball up a little in the zone to get tagged with one run on two hits — but was right on the mark against Diablo Valley.

“Throughout the weekend he did well to keep himself ready for that game,” said King of the right-hander. “The work that he did from Friday night to Sunday on the side stuff that he does, he looked good. And he’s been really good for us the past three or four starts that he’s had.”

Rhoden sent Diablo Valley down in order until a two-out triple in the fourth, but that runner was negated when he was caught trying to steal home on an alert reaction by Rhoden and the catcher Patterson.

The Oaks pushed a run across in the fifth inning to break a stalemate, but Medford got it back in the bottom half of the frame and was unfortunate not to get more when Sean McFall’s liner up the middle was snared by the shortstop and turned into an inning-ending double play after he touched second base on the bang-bang play.

“It was an opportunity to have a big inning and it just didn’t happen,” said King, “but it didn’t bother Evan at all. He went back out and held us there. He was excited and every inning he’d go in and sit down and stay locked in. I think he was excited for that start against that kind of caliber team. I think it was good for all of us, all around, having that kind of game (Sunday).”

Rhoden moved to 4-1 with a 2.02 ERA after earning the championship win — securing him Most Valuable Pitcher honors for the tournament — and kept in motion what had already been a successful showing by the Medford pitchers in their own right in Reno.

The Mustangs wound up allowing 30 hits with 36 strikeouts and five walks overall in six games, getting innings from nine different players to allow only seven earned runs among their opponent’s 11 overall.

Macen Baker, Grady Sickler, Lewis, Tristan Mallari and Dominic Daffron each recorded tournament wins.

“All the pitchers threw well,” said King. “I know going into Sunday’s game we were at (1.70 ERA) for the tournament, and you can’t ask for anything more than that from those guys.”

Reach sports editor Kris Henry at kris.henry@rv-times.com or 458-488-2035