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1 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Searchers find snowboarders who spent the night lost on Mount Ashland ... Potentially dangerous conditions slow fire investigation at Butte Creek Mill ... Snow dusts the Rogue Valley floor ... Searchers find snowboarders who spent the night lost on Mount Ashland ... Potentially dangerous conditions slow fire investigation at Butte Creek Mill ... Snow dusts the Rogue Valley floor ... Odell helps keep Mustangs' tourney hopes alive By DON HUNT MailTribune.com By DON HUNT Posted Aug. 6, 2006 at 2:00 AM Updated Dec 18, 2010 at 11:41 PM By DON HUNT Posted Aug. 6, 2006 at 2:00 AM Updated Dec 18, 2010 at 11:41 PM » Social News Mail Tribune EUGENE & 8212; Ryan Odell took two attributes to the pitching mound Friday: a fastball and guts. The Medford Mustangs right-hander had thrown just 12 innings all summer and he wasn't especially sharp in a consolation bracket game of the American Legion AAA state baseball tournament at Swede Johnson Stadium. When on a day when the Mustangs (42-11) badly needed someone to give them a quality start, Odell obliged, helping them to a 9-5 victory over the East County Knights of Gresham. The win kept alive Medford's hopes of a 10th state title. It meets the only undefeated team left in the tournament, Salem Post 9 today at 7 p.m. in the double-elimination tournament. The championship game is set for — p.m. Sunday. "I knew this team needed me and I gave it everything I had," said Odell, who scattered eight hits and yielded five runs & 8212; three earned & 8212; over seven-plus innings. He also picked off two baserunners. "The only pitch I could control was my fastball," Odell added. "I didn't throw much else. I just leaned on my competiveness." Odell, a first-team all-Southern Oregon Conference pitcher at South Medford High in the spring, developed tendinitis in his pitching elbow, which kept him sidelined for nearly the entire summer. He managed to sneak in one inning three weeks ago and got blasted for four hits and four runs by the Salem Post 9. "I'm really happy for Ryan because he hasn't had a chance to make many contributions for us this summer," Medford manager Sandee Kensinger said. "He's had a sore arm and one of his best friends died in a car wreck. But as of late I've seen a different look in his eye. I had a good feeling about him today. I knew he was going to keep us in the game." East County starting pitcher Greg Bobnick handcuffed Medford early, allowing just one hit over the first 3& 65279;1& 129;& 8222;3 innings while his team was taking a 2-0 lead. But then Logan Boyd, who had the Mustangs' lone early hit, blasted a solo homer over the left-field fence in the bottom of the fourth to make it 2-1. "He (Bobnick) hung a curveball and I turned on it," said Boyd, whose circuit clout was his 17th of the summer. "I can't remember the last time I hit a curveball out. I thought it was a double at first but the wind carried it." Boyd's homer seemed to awaken the Mustangs' slumbering bats. One inning later, after Austan Mason hit an RBI single to give East County a 3-1 lead, Medford combined four of its hits and scored five runs to grab a 6-3 advantage. Jared Adamson drilled a two-run double and Mark Austad added a two-run single to spark the fifth-inning rally. Mustangs assistant coach Brent Watts huddled with the players in the middle of the fifth inning and told them to go with Bobnick's pitchers and not try to pull the ball. "We'd heard that he (Bobnick) threw in the low 80s, but I think he was in the high 80s today," Boyd said. "We weren't getting the barrel of our bats around on him at first. We needed to be more patient." Medford put the game away in the eighth when it scored three more runs on four straight walks and Ben Koziol's two run, seeing-eye single to right field. East County was eliminated from the tournament and finished its season with a 23-13 record. Although the Mustangs committed two errors that led to two unearned runs, they also made three outstanding defensive plays that likely saved a few runs. Boyd's diving catch in centerfield robbed Corey Pursel of a hit in the top of the fourth. In the ninth, third baseman Dustin Smith made a diving stab to steal a hit from Tyler Seymour. On the very next play, Austad made perhaps the play of the day when he snagged a well-hit ball off the bat of Will DeBiccari in deep left field and then crashed into the outfield wall. "I knew that ball was hit deep," Austad said. "I did a drop step, turned and burned. I heard Logan (Boyd) yell 'wall' but I kept my eyes on the ball the whole way. I didn't really even feel it (hitting the wall) because of the adrenaline." Said Kensinger: "Those two outs by Dustin and Mark could easily have gone for doubles. We had a four-run lead, but if those two balls go for hits they've got momentum and who knows what happens after that?" Kensinger said that either Ken Licea or Shasta Bateman, who worked the final two innings Friday, would get the start against Salem Post 9 today. East County..........................001 110 020 & 8212; 5 10 3 Medford...............................000 150 03x & 8212; 9 7 2 Bobnick, D'boy (5), Seymour (6), Bray (7) and DeBiccari; Odell, Bateman (8) and Koziol. W & 8212; Odell (3-1). L & 8212; Bobnick. 2B & 8212; M: Adamson. HR & 8212; M: Boyd (17). By DON HUNT MailTribune.com By DON HUNT Posted Aug. 6, 2006 at 2:00 AM Updated Dec 18, 2010 at 11:41 PM » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. 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