South End Teen In A League of His Own

Luis Medina might take some lumps for being a freshman on Snowden International High School’s varsity baseball team, but the 15-year-old can do something his upperclassmen teammates can’t: play third base.

“Of all the players I have he’s the closest to a third baseman,” Snowden coach Dan Green said of the South End resident who played nearly every position in South End Youth Baseball. “He’s really a nice and natural kid. At batting practice he’ll play first base, he’ll do anything that you ask him to do."

“Fielding, he catches about everything," Green said. "He has trouble with the throw to first base. We’re working on it.”

The 15-year-old is actually one of six freshman playing for the Newbury Street school, but Medina — who has a .345 batting average including nine RBI with 14 runs scored — has matured the most on the field this season for the Cougars (6-6 overall, 4-4 in the Boston City league).

For Medina, South End Youth Baseball was the perfect training ground to help make the transition to varsity ball.

“That’s where I learned,” said Medina, who played for SEYB’s Expos before they were became the Nationals. “My father taught me a little bit but he didn’t know all the basics. So if it wasn’t for South End [Youth Baseball] I wouldn’t be here right now.

“[SEYB] was a lot of fun. People taught me the routine of how to play the game. The coaches made the game fun. Back then I didn’t like it that much, I didn’t know what it was and they taught me.”

Medina is still involved with SEYB, playing in the older division for the Phillies, which qualified for a statewide tournament in Springfield last year. He gives back to the younger players whenever he can.

“Just the other day I was teaching little kids, five-year-olds, how to swing,” Medina said.

Freshman pitcher Victor Velasquez and freshman infielder Adrian Castro also played SEYB and have helped make Medina more comfortable on the field for Snowden.

 “That made me feel like if they can make it so can I, I wasn’t alone,” Medina said. “It’s not only upperclassmen that are better, you can get there too.

“It’s harder here,” he continued. “There are different teams you’ve never played against, different pitchers; they throw curves.”

Green said Medina battled some nerves at the start of the spring but came on strong as the season continued.

“He’s become more of a leader,” Green said. “I would say he’s probably my steadiest player. He’s been hitting much better over the last seven or eight games, making much more contact.”

With only two seniors on this year’s squad, Green is looking for Medina to step into an even bigger leadership role next year. And even though he’s undersized (5-foot-6-inches and about 170 pounds) Medina has lofty goals of his own: playing Division 1 college baseball and perhaps even Major League Baseball.

“Look at Dustin Pedroia,” he said. “He’s short. I could probably make it like him.”