Remembering a record setting Medina strikeout performance

Contributed Photo – Brian Fry in acton on the mound during the 1987 Medina game in which he struck out a school record 18 Wilson batters in the Mustangs 5-0 win.

Friday was a very special day for one senior member of the Medina High varsity baseball squad and also for one of his coaches.

Adam Hoot hurled a masterpiece on the mound striking out 18 Wilson batters as the Mustangs blanked the Lakeman 18-0 at Vets Park.

Hoot’s memorable effort tied the Medina strikeout record that had been set ironically by his pitching coach, Brian Fry.

Hoot also helped himself out at the plate banging out four hits, including a home run, and driving in six runs.

Photo by Cheryl Wertman – Adam Hoot, who not only had a record tying day on the mound also had a big day at the plate banging out four hits and driving in six runs.

Fry set the mark when he ironically struck out 18 Wilson batters in a 5-0 Mustangs victory at Vets Park in 1987.

That day Fry struck out the side in the first, second, third, fifth and seventh innings, a feat that was almost identically matched by Hoot who fanned the side in the first, second, third, fifth and sixth innings.

Fry and his Mustang teammates went on to capture the Niagara-Orleans League championship that season, the second of what turned out to be four straight Medina N-O title campaigns.

Fry earned first team All-Western New York honors both as a junior and senior. In fact in his junior season he struck out what was then a school record tying 17 Starpoint batters in a 2-0 Mustangs victory. That effort tied a record set by John Tierney earlier in that decade.

Fry was drafted by the Cinncinnati Reds and played two seasons of professional baseball with the Reds farm team at Billings, Montana, which was ironically nicknamed the Mustangs.