Mustang Baseball Well-Positioned for State Tourney

Video by Mustang News

– Allison Goldsberry

The Mustang Baseball team notched two more victories on Tuesday and Wednesday. The 15-9 win against Winchester and the 10-7 South Boston victory improved Medford’s record to 14-4 and leaves the team on solid ground as they look to earn a top seed in the state tournament.

“Our goal is to align ourselves for a high seed in the tournament and secure home field advantage. We have instilled a winning culture around this program now. We must work hard to keep it going,” said Head Coach Nick Tucci.

On Tuesday against Winchester senior captain Greg Wilson came into the game in the 6th inning when the game was tied 9-9 and pitched two scoreless innings to earn the win on the mound.

The offensive attack was excellent as the Mustangs pounded out 17 hits as a team, said Coach Tucci. The attack was led by senior captain and catcher Danny Gunn (2-2, walked three times), senior captain Kyle Heath (3-4), Wilson (3-4), Danny Gilchrist (3-4, single, double, homerun), Rob Deluca (2-5) and Chris Salvati (2-4, homerun).

“We won this ballgame the unconventional way today, we slugged our way to victory. I was very happy with our approach at the plate. The guys worked their way into good hitting counts and they put forth some quality at bats as a result,” said Coach Tucci.

Prior to Wednesday’s match-up against South Boston Coach Tucci said he wanted better defense from his team.

“I would like to see us pitch and play defense better against South Boston. We also need to eliminate some of the mental lapses that took place against Winchester,” said Coach Tucci.

A freshman Mustang got the pitching start on Wednesday against Southie. The Mustangs beat South Boston 10-7 behind a solid pitching performance by freshman Cory Devlin. Devlin pitched five innings of solid relief and only allowed two earned runs, enabling the Mustangs to hold onto the lead.

The Mustang bats stayed hot as Gilchrist, Wilson, Deluca, and John Mangiasi all had multiple hit games.

The Mustangs are 14-4 heading into this weekend’s Holovak and Coughlin Tournament in Arlington. Medford will face off against Malden Catholic on Saturday at 1:30 and will play another game to finish off the regular season on Sunday against either Arlington High School or Arlington Catholic.

“This weekend should be a good barometer to see how we stack up against some very solid competition. It should get us ready to compete against our upcoming opponents that we will soon see in the Division 1 MIAA state tournament,” said Coach Tucci.

Tournament seedings should be released early next week.