Medford Mustangs regroup to secure series win over all Area 4 foes

Published 12:12 pm Tuesday, July 22, 2025

After sluggish opening loss to Central Oregon, Medford rallies to end regular season on high note with walk-off in Game 2

The Medford Mustangs identified a handful of goals prior to this summer’s American Legion AAA baseball season, and accomplished a pair of them during the team’s final four-game series of the regular season.

On Saturday, the Mustangs clinched the Area 4 championship with a hard-fought sweep of the Central Oregon SunWest Generals in Redmond.

On Monday night, Medford was able to lock up series wins against every Area 4 foe — or really nearly everyone the Mustangs have played thus far — with a doubleheader split in their regular-season finales at Harry & David Field.

Brady Patterson is congratulated by Medford Mustangs teammates after scoring his team’s lone run in Game 1 Monday against Central Oregon. (Kris Henry / Rogue Valley Times)

None of those wins against Central Oregon came easy for a weary Medford squad that was essentially playing its ninth and 10th games in a seven-day span Monday night, but the Mustangs will at least get to carry momentum in the upcoming state tournament set to begin Saturday in Portland.

“The biggest thing going into the season was we talked about winning every series that we played in league, so taking that fourth game was big in our minds,” Mustangs manager John King said after the Game 2 triumph Monday. “We knew after Saturday that we were the Area 4 champions and all of that stuff, but we wanted to win every series. Losing that first game tonight meant that we had to win that second game to win every series, and we did it, and to me that’s kind of big because that’s one of our goals that we accomplished that we set out for.”

“We’ve accomplished two goals already this season,” he added, “now we have a couple more that we’re still after, so we’ll see if we can get those ones.”

As the Area 4 champions, Medford (37-6, 12-4 Area 4) will open the state tournament at 4 p.m. Saturday against the Stayton Post 58 Canyon Crushers, who finished runner-up to Corvallis at 9-3 in Area 3 play. The tournament runs through Wednesday at Joe Etzel Field on the University of Portland campus.

“We’ve had a great year,” said King, in his second season at the helm. “We start a new season on Saturday, and you have to win five games before you lose two games. Now, are we satisfied with what we’ve done this year, or do we want to put our names in the book with the past Mustang teams? We can be satisfied because we’ve had a great year, but it’s a whole new year and what do you guys want to do with that new year was kind of the conversation afterwards.”

Medford Mustangs third baseman Sean McFall whips a throw to first baseman Tristan Mallari for an out during Monday’s opening game against Central Oregon at Harry & David Field. (Kris Henry / Rogue Valley Times)

There were plenty of conversations to be had in between Monday’s games after the Mustangs came out lethargic and definitely not on their front foot for an unusual showing that was completely dominated by Central Oregon for an 8-1 win in Game 1.

The visitors scored three times in the first inning, Medford dropped two fly balls, starter Evan Rhoden couldn’t find a rhythm on the mound and the Mustangs were held largely ineffective at the plate by Generals right-hander Griffin Sanchez.

A leadoff walk drawn by Brady Patterson, an advancing groundout by Cade Pettersen and an RBI double by Easton Curtis in the bottom of the seventh inning kept the Mustangs from being shut out for the first time this season.

Rhoden used up 95 pitches against a feisty Generals squad that was able to fight off good pitches and find holes in the defense on others. Central Oregon collected 13 hits in the opener against five by Medford, which only really made its mark after Sanchez began to tire in the late innings.

Macen Baker pitched well in relief, allowing four hits and two runs in three innings for the Mustangs. Medford only struck out twice, but didn’t have much success getting the ball through the infield or having much land in safe territory once the ball was elevated.

Medford Mustangs reliever Macen Baker delivers a pitch during Game 1 of a doubleheader against the Central Valley SunWest Generals at Harry & David Field Monday. (Kris Henry / Rogue Valley Times)

“We’ve shown all year long that we can swing the bats, but Harry & David takes away a lot of hits,” said King. “If you get it in the air at all, it ain’t gonna travel for you, and that was kind of what happened tonight. We pieced a lot of balls, but the wind there just holds ‘em up. Like I told them tonight, when we go up to Portland, maybe the wind won’t be blowing in there and all these balls that we’re piecing will work out for us a little more.”

The Mustangs had a long gathering between games to help hit the reset button, but an error in a second straight inning allowed the Redmond squad to generate three runs in the second inning for an early cushion.

“We haven’t played clean baseball the past couple of games, which is kind of disappointing because we’ve been pretty clean all year defensively,” said King. “We’ve just made some bad, bad mistakes. You’re going to have errors, but some of the ones we had over in Redmond, it was just unbelievable some of the errors we made over there.”

Tristan Mallari towed the line to keep the Generals from there, striking out eight with four walks and four hits allowed in seven innings.

“Tristan threw really, really well tonight,” said King, “and he kept us in the game.”

Medford answered with two runs in the fourth and another in the fifth to tie Game 2, then got some much-needed heroics in the bottom of the eighth inning when Keegan Painter drew a walk, stole second base and then scored on a two-out double to right field by Cade Pettersen.

Medford Mustangs third baseman Sean McFall scoops up a grounder as shortstop Keller Bloodworth watches on during Monday’s opener against Central Oregon. (Kris Henry / Rogue Valley Times)

“We had some opportunities and we just didn’t capitalize with two-out hits,” said King of the scoring flow in Game 2, “but they stuck together and believed in themselves and at the end Cade came up and took a good swing on a ball that they left middle of the plate and he got all of it. That was nice to see, he’s come up big for us this year as a youngster.”

Pettersen finished 3-for-4 — joining Painter and Patterson with RBI efforts — while Kellen Willer was 2-for-4. Sean McFall allowed one hit with two strikeouts in the top of the eighth to position himself for the win.

Central Oregon needed to sweep Monday’s twin bill to earn a tiebreaking edge over Eugene (8-8 Area 4) — which swept last-place Grants Pass on Monday — for the No. 3 playoff spot in Area 4.

The Challengers will face a play-in game Wednesday against the Dallas Dirtbags in a battle of No. 3 seeds hoping to qualify for the state tourney, while Area 4 runner-up Roseburg automatically advanced to state and will open the tourney at 10 a.m. against the Area 2 champion Portland Hillsdale Merchants.

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