WEST LAWN — When Pat Medley was told Friday’s second-round Mid-Atlantic Regional game would be pushed back a minimum of seven hours, if not another day, it wasn’t any big deal.
Maybe for the rest of his Spring City teammates...
But not for the 19-year-old Medley, who has learned - though painfully - a little patience after sitting around and watching a lot of baseball this summer.
Late last summer, a nagging shoulder injury forced him to give up his spot in the Red Sox’s starting rotation and take over as a regular in right field. Then this past June, in the first full week of the American Legion season, he broke his wrist after avoiding a collision with second baseman Tom Grablewski while attempting to catch a blooper in short right.
In a cast...
And out of the lineup for what amounted to the entire summer.

“It’s been really tough,” Medley said prior to Friday night’s national regional game against host West Lawn. “I come out here everyday and want to play but I have to watch.”
Medley was an integral part of Spring-Ford High School’s run to the District 1-AAAA title and runner-up finish in the state in 2011. He pitched, he hit, and he played defense with the best of them. The shoulder injury cropped up later, and because of it he felt it was best not to even put an effort into making the roster at Bucknell University roster this past spring.
He did play club ball, and he hit the books - finishing his freshman year with a 3.8 grade-point average as a mechanical engineering major.
But baseball was what he was looking forward to when closing up the books in May and heading home.
“I knew I wasn’t going to pitch this summer (because of the shoulder issue),” Medley explained. “But I knew I could play...”
Until breaking his wrist.
Spring City manager Jamie Scheck was as excited as anyone to have Medley back for his fourth season.
In 2010, Scheck moved Medley up from the sixth spot in the order to leadoff, and did Medley ever respond to the challenge. Not only did he get on base with regularity and hit for average, he also roped it - finishing with an unheard 13 triples as well as a pair of home runs in helping the Red Sox to the Pennsylvania American Legion state title.
“We moved him up because (Ricky) Gorrell was there and he was such an aggressive hitter, so we moved him down to third and Medley up to leadoff,” Scheck said.
“Pat is very patient at the plate. But he’s not your atypical leadoff man, either, because he hits for power, too.”
Scheck, and the Red Sox surely have missed Medley’s presence on the field ... but he’s contributed in other ways.
“He’s incredible,” Scheck said. “He just got the cast off a couple weeks ago. When he first did it we were hoping we’d get him back for the state tournament, but we always love having him around. I told him in the beginning if he wanted to take some time off it would be okay, but he said no way he’d do that.
“Pat’s very quite, but he’s a very positive influence on this team. He’ll help our pitchers stretch out, work with them during drills. He’ll also grab a glove and help us with infield and outfield (practice). He’s done everything he could to help us. He’s been there everyday.”
“If I sat around and did nothing I’d get bored,” Medley said. “I’ve just tried to help in any way I could.”