Legends’ Wild Week Features Big Bats, Comebacks and Tight Finish in Santa Barbara

The Menlo Park Legends packed a season’s worth of drama into five games from June 23–28, trading slugfests with the San Francisco Seagulls and Sonoma Stompers before running into the Santa Barbara Foresters’ pitching staff over the weekend.

Menlo Park went 2–3 across the stretch, scoring 43 runs while allowing 40, with the offense erupting for double-digit totals in three straight games before being held to seven total runs in two games at Santa Barbara.

The week opened June 23 in San Bruno with one of the wildest games of the season, a 14–11 loss to San Francisco. The Seagulls jumped ahead early, scoring three in the first and four more in the third behind a grand slam from Ethan Lopez, who finished with six RBIs. Menlo Park trailed 14–3 after six innings but nearly completed a stunning comeback. Oliver Hogan powered the rally with a three-run homer in the fifth and a two-run double in the eighth, finishing with two extra-base hits and five RBIs. Jordan Medina added a two-run single in the six-run eighth, but the Legends’ comeback stopped three runs short.

A day later in Palo Alto, Menlo Park answered with a 9–7 win over the Seagulls. The Legends fell behind 2–0, then scored three in the second and two in the third. Hogan again delivered, going 2-for-3 with a double, two RBIs and two runs, while Eric Altmark scored twice and drove in a run. San Francisco threatened with three runs in the sixth, but Colton Parenti shut the door with three scoreless innings, allowing just one hit.

Menlo Park’s loudest offensive performance came June 25 in a 16–8 win over Sonoma. The Legends scored five runs in the third and exploded for 10 runs in the fifth, turning a tight 6–5 game into a runaway. Hogan drove in four, Aaron Louis went 3-for-4 with three RBIs, Ethan Mooser added three hits and three RBIs, and Ryder Kelly scored three times while knocking in two. Kai Maynick steadied the game on the mound, throwing 5.1 innings in relief.

The weekend in Santa Barbara was more difficult. On June 27, the Legends battled but fell 8–6 to the Foresters. Ethan Fillinger tied the game in the third with a two-run homer, and Menlo Park kept chipping away late, scoring in the sixth, eighth and ninth. But four Legends errors helped Santa Barbara score five unearned runs. The Foresters stole 13 bases, putting constant pressure on Menlo Park’s defense.

The finale on June 28 became a pitchers’ duel. Menlo Park scored first in the sixth on Oliver Hogan’s RBI fielder’s choice, but Santa Barbara answered with three in the bottom half and won 3–1. The Legends’ staff held the Foresters to only three hits, with Tyler O’Toole, Noah Klube, Henry Harding and Christian Duarte combining for 10 strikeouts. But Foresters pitching struck out 13 Menlo Park hitters and stranded nine Legends runners.

Hogan was the standout bat of the week, driving in 12 runs across the five games and delivering key extra-base hits in nearly every high-scoring contest. Louis, Mooser, Kelly and Fillinger also had impact moments, while Parenti’s scoreless relief outing highlighted the pitching staff.

The stretch showed both sides of Menlo Park’s identity: an offense capable of overwhelming opponents in bunches, and a team still searching for cleaner defense and consistency against elite pitching.

The Legends now return home looking to build momentum as they begin another important conference stretch. Menlo Park hosts the Alameda Merchants on Tuesday, June 30, before traveling to Hayward for a rematch on Wednesday, July 1. The club then returns to Baylands Park on Thursday, July 2, for another meeting with the San Francisco Seagulls, giving the Legends an immediate opportunity to turn a challenging week into a strong start to July before the CCL All-Star Break on 4th of July weekend.