By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @Gdsullysays
DEPTFORD — Gloucester High baseball coach Greg Galbraith said junior right-hander Russell Medlar typically is a slow starter. But when you are trying to win a game in a tough, emotional atmosphere, it’s always a good bet to stick with a guy nicknamed “Moose.”
Medlar was outstanding on Friday afternoon at Deptford High, allowing just two hits and one run while striking out seven in a complete-game, 4-1 Lions win. The victory was a hard-fought one, as an inspired Spartan team was trying to win for the family of Bobby Shisler, the police officer who was killed in the line of duty a little more than a year ago. Deptford renamed its field “Bobby Shisler Field” prior to taking on Gloucester.
“Earlier in the year, unfortunately we had a situation where a former player, Gage Myers, passed away. We had a pregame ceremony prior to our (Joe Lang Classic) tournament, and the raw emotion you see from high school kids — it’s tough to play on either side. I felt like our guys were going to be a little bit prepared, but still, it’s tough,” Galbraith said. “I told Dave (Prager, Deptford’s head coach) before the game that they knocked it out of the park. The field looks great. I coached against Bobby when he was a player at Deptford and everything that everyone said (in the pregame ceremony) was all on point. I give credit to our upperclassmen for really grinding it out against a tough opponent and in a tough situation.”
Gloucester (13-5, 1-2 Colonial Patriot) carried a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the fifth inning before the Spartans (5-10, 2-5 Tri-County Liberty) tied it up, but the Lions responded right away, getting a two-run single from Jake Zearfoss in the top of the sixth to take the lead for good. The Lions added an insurance run in the top of the seventh on an RBI groundout by Jake Seibert.
The Lions managed just six hits, all singles, but that was plenty of support for Medlar, who was dealing all day. He did walk four batters, but none of them scored.
“I just went out on the mound and trusted my defense behind me. I just wanted to throw strikes, let them hit the ball and trust my defense,” he said. “The fastball/curveball (combination) was working, then I started mixing in my change-up a little bit. And at the end, I threw my slider more. In the last inning, I was pumped, I just wanted to win the game. It was all about just throwing strikes. I said to my coach, ‘this is my game.’”
Galbraith said he worried the 15-minute pregame ceremony honoring Officer Shisler might have an adverse effect on Medlar and contribute to a slow start, but the junior was on cruise control from the start.
“Our starter, Russ, is always a slow starter. He gets better as the game goes on, so I was nervous. He struggled to throw strikes a little bit in the beginning but then he locked in,” Galbraith said. “We had our closer ready and I told our pitching coach to let me know when he gets to 104 pitches because he was at 100 the last time out and I didn’t want to stretch him too much past that. Luckily, he didn’t get over 100 today.”
Cole Judge nearly matched Medlar after coming on in the third inning in relief of Deptford starter Connor Haley, who had to exit due to an injury as he was warming up for the third.
“(Medlar) did a fantastic job. He put us in some difficult counts by attacking the strike zone. He did his job,” Prager said. “Our guys gave it everything they had. We had our ace on the mound (before he got hurt) and Cole came in and still put up a fantastic performance. We hit the ball hard, they just caught it. That’s baseball. A couple things went our way, a couple went their way — it’s just that a few more went their way today.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Gloucester travels to Audubon on Monday at 3:45 p.m. Deptford hosts Highland on Monday at 4 p.m.
