MONTEREY, CA – Finishing off a previously weather-affected series on Saturday, Menlo NCBA Baseball returned to Frank E. Sollecito Ballpark for what ended up being 20.0 innings across two games hosting UC Santa Cruz. Junior Israel Garcia delivered 11 strikeouts in the opening contest which saw the Banana Slugs come back to tie in the seventh then, after the sides exchanged five scoreless frames, UCSC secured a 10-5 victory. The second contest had the Oaks in front early before two separate rallies in the fourth and fifth innings allowed UC Santa Cruz to prevail 6-4.

Game One: UC Santa Cruz 10, Menlo 5 (13)
Though UCSC plated the first run of the day in the first inning, the Oaks quickly countered on run-scoring groundouts from junior Aidan Mitchell and freshman Oscar Reyes in the frame's bottom half and the second respectively.

Outside of Garcia striking out 11 Banana Slugs in his 6.2 innings of work, UC Santa Cruz managed to tie the game 2-2 in the fifth before Menlo retook the lead in the bottom of the sixth on a pair of errors and another Reyes groundout. Garcia was one out away from the 5-2 victory, but an error and a single enabled UC Santa Cruz to tie things up at 5-5 and force extra innings.

Neither of the two teams could scratch across another score until five different UCSC hitters contributed run-producing swings in the 13th inning, helping give the visiting team the 10-5 win down the stretch.

Game Two: UC Santa Cruz 6, Menlo 4
Junior Joseph Salmeron's double put Menlo on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first inning to open the series finale then senior Joshua Smith made the score 2-0 with a run coming in on a groundout.

After an error made it a 2-2 ballgame in the fourth, UC Santa Cruz broke the tie on a double and a single, going ahead 4-2 en route to the 6-4 triumph.

Mitchell, the Oaks' starter in the contest, ended up allowing three runs (none earned) on five hits and two walks with three strikeouts in 5.2 innings. Offensively, senior Billy McKinzey and Salmeron each drove in one run, the latter doing so as part of a 3-for-4 effort. After his two driven in during the first contest, Reyes went 2-for-3 while freshman Ashley Geary-Smith stole two bases.

Season In Review
A truly memorable inaugural season was turned in by Menlo NCBA Baseball in 2026. Guided by Head Coach Richard Kiel, the Oaks began by winning their first four games, sweeping the series with Saint Mary's in the process before adding another series sweep of San Francisco one month later. Standout freshmen Ryan Wilson and Geary-Smith were honored as NCBA Pacific North Region Conference Player and Pitcher of the Week for their contributions against USF.

March ended with the Oaks taking both sides of a doubleheader from Simpson led by the productive on-base work of Salmeron, another conference weekly award winner, and though Menlo would face No. 7 Stanford and No. 1 Santa Clara back to back, the season's biggest highlight came at the end of that stretch when a bases-loaded single by Salmeron sent the Oaks past the Broncos, the nation's top team, 16-15 in the eighth inning on Apr. 18. The first season in the program's history concluded with Menlo at 11-11 overall.