Menlo’s varsity baseball team will advance to the third round of the Division V NorCal Championship after an 8-0 shutout over the Redding Christian School at Cartan Field on Tuesday, May 28, and a subsequent 3-2 walkoff win against Oakland Tech on Thursday, May 30.

Tuesday’s vs. Redding

Senior Ryan Schnell started on the mound for Menlo, throwing four scoreless innings and striking out six Lions. Junior Ben Salama and sophomore Jackson Flanagan also pitched, both players throwing scoreless innings. 

The Knights first scored when sophomore Jack Freehill hit a single in the bottom of the first, bringing home junior Luke Rogers. The Knights went on to score two runs in the bottom of the second, thanks to a double from sophomore Chuck Wynn and a single from sophomore Renner Barnett, and scored one run in the bottom of the fourth when Rogers hit a sacrifice fly, bringing in Salama and raising the score to 4-0. The Knights scored the final four runs in the bottom of the sixth from a two-out rally sparked by two walks, a hit from Freehill and several errors by the Lions.

Thursday vs. Oakland Tech

Salama started on the mound for the Knights and threw seven innings, giving up two runs (only one was earned). Although the Bulldogs were leading most of the game, Menlo was able to piece together two runs in the sixth and seventh innings when senior Garret Tran and Freehill scored to tie Oakland Tech at two, forcing the game into extra innings.

With the bases loaded in the bottom of the eight, as Knights coach David Trujillo told Terry Bernal of the San Mateo Daily Journal, he spontaneously decided to have Tran steal home in a two-strike and two-out situation. The plan backfired though, as the pitch was a called third strike and ended the inning.

Although Tran was robbed of a walk off steal in the eight, he ended up getting a walk off single in the ninth that scored Rogers, sealing the victory for Menlo.

Schnell received the win after he closed the game for the Knights. It was just two days after his Tuesday start, but he came in as a reliever in the eighth and pitched two scoreless innings.

The win against the Bulldogs pushed the Knights record up to 23-9 and is their ninth consecutive victory. Menlo will host the No. 2 seed Woodland Christian Cardinals at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 1 in the third round of the DV NorCal Championship.