GRAND ISLAND — Medina mustered one run off Wellsville’s Tyler Vogel in four innings. That was one more than Vogel allowed in his previous start.
And then the Mustangs caught a break.
Vogel, who threw a no-hitter in the Section V Class B championship game against Batavia Notre Dame, was replaced after one walk in the fifth and the game tied 1-1.
Carter Woodworth started the inning with a line drive and a wild pitch put pinch runner Ryan Pegelow on third base. Another wild pitch scored the eventual game-winning run as part of a seven-run inning to send Medina to the Class B state semifinals in an 8-1 win Saturday.
The Mustangs are slated to face either Section III’s Wheatley or Section X’s Spackenhill in a Class B state semifinal at 1 p.m. Friday at Union-Endicott High School. Medina was making its third Far West Regional appearance in five years and now heads to states for the second time since 2019.
“They stick with it,” Medina coach Chris Goyette said. “And most of the time, if you stick with it, you’re gonna grind that pitcher down, and they’re going to make mistakes and put pressure on the defense. And that’s what eventually happens. A couple pass balls, a couple walks, a couple hits, we got five or six runs on the board. That’s how it works.”
Heading into the contest, Medina had scored four runs in the fifth inning or later in the postseason alone. And through its first three postseason games, including to clinch the section title against Fredonia, the Mustangs outscored their opponents, 16-4.
Medina (19-1) left runners in scoring position twice through the fourth inning, but managed to find better opportunities from that point on. As a result of three wild pitches and a balk, the Mustangs scored four runs off Wellsville miscues.
On top of that, Medina still made plays of their own, with both Woodworth and Aidan Papaj providing RBI singles by making contact over the corner of the plate for line drives. Woodworth had an RBI double to tie the game at 1-1 in the fourth, but Medina’s damage was done with seven singles.
“Definitely a lot of small ball,” said Woodworth, who finished with a game-high four hits. “We always implicate that into practice. But other than that, I’d just say hunting fastballs is the main thing.”
While it took some to provide offense, Medina got another quality outing from junior Brody Fry. Throwing in his second straight game, Fry threw a complete game and retired nine while allowing three runs on seven hits.
The Niagara-Orleans League Player of the Year retired the side twice. Fry also showed off his fielding ability with a diving catch off the mound against Gavin Haggerty for an inning-ending double play in the fifth, one of two such plays in the game.
“(My teammates) always make the plays whenever there’s ground balls,” Fry said. “And, I seem to get a lot of them.”
In the win, Papaj and Christiannsen recorded two hits each for Medina.
Wellsville finished the season with a 21-2 record.