Medina senior has a busy summer competing in national level baseball tournaments

Contributed Photo – Aidan Papaj

Fresh from helping lead Medina High to the state baseball tournament finals in mid June, shortstop/pitcher Aidan Papaj kept sharping his diamond skills over the summer by competing in half a dozen major baseball tournaments in Florida, Alabama and Long Island.

Papaj, who will be starting his senior year at Medina High next month, tuned up for the busy summer on the road by playing locally with the East Coast Pipeline 17U Showcase in the Hilbert College Showcase Tournament. The team won the tournament going 4-0 on the weekend. Papaj played shortstop, pitched and hit 2 home runs in 3 games one of which was a grand slam.

All four weekends in July Papaj played in tournaments down south with the national team of USG/Elev Rawlings out of Texas. He was teammates with players from California, Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and NY to name a few, including the PBR NY Top 2027 Players, Derek and Ryan Yormack, who are already committed to Vanderbilt.

The team got off to a fast start going 4-0 to win the 17U PG Freedom Classic at Fort Myers, Florida.

Next came the PG 17U National Elite Championship at Hoover, Alabama where the team went 2-1 in pool play, won 1st round of playoffs but lost in round of 16 game.

Returning to Fort Myers, the team competed in the PG 17U BCS National Championship which was an invitational tournament. The team went 4-0 in pool play, won 1st 2 rounds of playoffs only to lose in the quarterfinals 6-1 and finished in top 8 of 62 teams.

Next at Jupiter, FL. the team competed in the PG WWBA Florida Invitational. The team went 2-0 in pool play but lost in quarterfinals to the Puerto Rico Scout Team which went on to win the event but again finished in top 8 of 26 teams.

USG Elev8 Rawlings was 15-4 on the summer national circuit. Papaj played 2nd base, shortstop and third base throughout the month of July. His batting average was .258.

Then in mid August Papaj headed out to Long Island for a regional event. He played for USG NY 18U Showcase Team, in the LaSorda Legacy Park All-American Invitational. The team went 4-0 to win the championship as he played shortstop and pitched.

Overall, Papaj played on 3 different teams this summer: 1 local, 1 regional and 1 national. All three of those teams won a tournament that Aidan participated in. His overall team record for the summer was 22-4. He played middle infield at all levels as well.