Tigard scores twice in 9th to edge Medford, secure 3rd Legion AAA state title in 4 years

Not much separated the Medford Mustangs and Tigard Barbers during Wednesday’s championship final at the American Legion AAA state tournament here in Medford.

In as much, that was taken as a slight victory for the hometown team, which struggled mightily in the first tourney meeting between the summer baseball programs on Monday in the double-elimination tournament.

The championship banner, however, went back to the Tigard Barbers after they were able to outlast Medford in a fitting finale that extended into nine innings before the Barbers secured a 4-2 triumph.

The win marked Tigard’s third state title in the past four years, and kept the Mustangs from extending their own record of 18 state championships earned overall.

“After the way that we played them on Monday, I knew that we were better than that,” said Mustangs manager John King, whose team committed seven errors in an 11-3 setback Monday against Tigard. “I’ve told the kids since Day 1 that I think that we have a special team. We had every opportunity to win that game today.”

“But credit to them, that’s a really good team,” he added. “They competed well every game in this tournament.”

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The Area 2 champion Barbers (34-5-1) and Area 4 runner-up Mustangs (29-11) were locked in as qualifiers for the upcoming Northwest Regionals before Wednesday’s final day of play by virtue of Medford serving as the host team for that Aug. 5-9 tournament.

That didn’t stop them from waging an incredible battle on the Harry & David Field diamond, with Medford starting pitcher Jake Lewis countering Washington commit Ben Foglio on the mound every step of the way.

“I’m out of words for what he did today, I am so proud of him,” said Mustangs first baseman Blake Patereau of Lewis. “Every time he’s pitched, I knew that he was going to shove. Today he just came out and showed what he’s made of. That’s what Jake does. He found the zone, worked around it and threw pitches where it was either a groundout or something we could handle. He was just phenomenal.”

Lewis wound up exiting in the ninth inning following a double by Gabriel Coltman, who went 4-for-4 and was named tournament MVP. Beyond that nemesis, the recent South Medford High graduate allowed only two other hits by the Barbers in eight innings with five strikeouts and one walk.

That supported another strong showing in a relief effort Sunday, when Lewis earned the victory after pitching four hitless frames against Corvallis. For his efforts, the right-handed Lewis was named the pitcher of the tournament.

“We all know that (Foglio) is going to (Washington) after next year and he’s a really good pitcher for Clackamas and the Barbers,” said Lewis, “but I felt like I had something to prove here that we can beat these guys and we can compete with these guys.”

“If we really want to show that we can compete in the regionals and not just say that we are going because we are hosting — like we do really belong there — we needed to show that today,” he added. “And I think we proved that tonight, and that they are super beatable, it just fell away from us in the end there.”

For his part, Foglio was equal to his billing as the left-hander from Clackamas High pitched 7 ⅔ innings and allowed seven hits and two runs. The Class of 2027 standout finished with eight strikeouts and one walk.

Even after the Barbers were able to put a pair of runs on the board in the ninth inning — they previously scored twice in the fourth inning — Medford had its chance in the bottom half of the frame to counter.

Easton Douglas was hit by a pitch from reliever Jonny King to open the ninth, then Cooper Berta came in to induce a fielder’s choice groundout by Morgan Austin. Mason Snopl and Freeman Rountree followed with singles to load the bases, but Tigard was able to get out of the inning unscathed when Keegan Painter lined out to center field and leadoff batter Cade Pettersen lofted a flyout to left field.

“We’re one basehit away from tying up the game or we’re a gap shot away from winning it,” said King. “That’s how close we were in this game. For the kids, they’re disappointed, which is good because it tells us that they have drive in them and that they want this. I felt like we put ourselves in a great spot today to do it, it just didn’t work out.”

Medford struck early with a run in the first inning built on a single by Brady Patterson and a two-out double down the left-field line by Patereau, with Patterson flying around the bases to ensure his team an early lead.

“I feel like I’ve been seeing the ball pretty well,” said the Cascade Christian junior-to-be, “and (Foglio) threw me one inside and I just turned on it and it just found a way down the line. It felt good off the bat, and it felt good to be able to score a run like that for us.”

The Barbers countered in the fourth inning by being able to place the ball in the right spots against Lewis. Andrew Ha sent a ball just over the bag into center field, Ryden Nakamura walked and then Coltman fought through a ball on the lower part of his bat for a soft single up the middle to load the bases.

Lewis restored order with a strikeout and a pop out to Painter at second base, but Cal Grandwahl followed with a nice piece of hitting where he was able to pull a shot off the end of the bat just beyond Painter’s range up the middle for a 2-1 edge.

“I think I gave up two runs on two changeups that were off the middle of the bats that just got through,” said Lewis of the scoring series. “That is what we have to eliminate. It’s baseball, we’re not all going to be perfect, but at some points, it’s a little bloop game.”

A one-out double by Rountree, who finished 3-for-4 to pace Medford, opened the door in the fifth inning, and Pettersen came through with just enough on a two-out single to right field to plate the tying run.

The pitching and defense locked in from there, with Foglio escaping the seventh with two Medford runners left on base, until Coltman came through again with a towering double to the right-center warning track to lead off the ninth inning.

“He’s a tough out,” King said of the 2025 Sunset High graduate. “We gave up a couple hits early to him on offspeed pitches, so we thought that we could maybe get him to pop up on some fastballs, but we didn’t. He still hit them, and he hit them hard.”

Austin came on in relief of Lewis, as he did to close out Sunday’s win, and was greeted with consecutive singles by Foglio and Hemsley, the latter plating the go-ahead run. The Mustangs recorded a double play against Gradwahl, but Nolan Foglio didn’t let his team exit the frame without another run courtesy of an RBI single to left field that made it 4-2.

Patereau said the overall experience of the state tournament should be beneficial for the Mustangs as they look forward to the regionals and hopefully another shot at reaching the American Legion World Series.

“I think it will help us a lot,” he said of a state showing that saw Medford win three games against only the two losses to Tigard. “Like we were saying in the huddle, it’s a trial run, but it’s not that it doesn’t mean anything. This meant a lot to us.”

“Obviously, it’s not the ending that we wanted,” he added, “but we know that’s a great baseball team and they can hit the ball well and play good defense. I think that this game just showed us that we are right where we want to be, and that we will be perfectly fine for the regionals. With the way we played today, if we keep doing that at the regionals, we’ll be fine.”