By Kris Henry/Rogue Valley Times
June 4, 2026
Youtube Video of Game Broadcast, click here
A year ago, Jackson Rosenthal was a driving force behind the Medford Mustangs’ ability to win an Area 4 title and qualify for the state tournament.
On Thursday night, the Ashland standout was a prime culprit in bringing about their downfall in a rare matchup between the American Legion AAA teenagers and the collegiate Medford Rogues.
Rosenthal was responsible for the first run of the game after sending a leadoff home run down the right-field line, and later ignited a pivotal four-run frame with a leadoff walk in the fourth inning to help the Rogues register a 5-1 triumph.
“It was definitely weird,” Rosenthal said of facing his former summer teammates. “I like those guys a lot and they’re all my guys, but I’m a competitor at heart, so I’ve just gotta get after it.”
The seven-inning exhibition game brought together the area’s highest level of baseball players, and brought with it another good turnout of fans at Harry & David Field.
On Wednesday, the Rogues took on the Rogue Valley All-Stars — a collection of local men’s league players — in a new exhibition game called “Rowdy Ball,” much to the delight of about 2,000 fans on hand.
Thursday’s all-local showdown had an announced crowd of 957, but none of the theatrics from 24 hours earlier when Rogues players were part of in-game shenanigans, including a hot dog eating contest between representatives of each team that tacked one run on the scoreboard for the winner. Trae Frodge, a former Crater standout, won that for his All-Star bunch, and also hit a towering home run to support a 7-6 triumph by the locals.
Rosenthal wound up reaching safely in all three of his at-bats to have the most fun Thursday — the only Rogues player to accomplish that feat — and used a little local knowledge to make that happen.
When it came time for him to come to the plate, the Hawaii-Pacific University commit was definitely dialed in against Mustangs starter Dominic Daffron. The right-hander tried to sneak an inside fastball past Rosenthal, and, well, that didn’t happen.
“I’ve seen Dom a lot in my life, so I have a good idea of what’s coming,” said Rosenthal, who hit .453 with 52 runs, 53 RBIs and 30 extra-base hits in 44 games last summer for the Mustangs. “I was just looking for something middle-in, and I didn’t miss it.”
Afterward, Daffron could only tip his hat to his former teammate for the solo shot.
“He put a good swing on it,” said Daffron, who spent this past season at Linn-Benton Community College. “He was looking fastball and, obviously, he drilled it, so good for him.”
Beyond that, however, Daffron competed well in what was a season-opening walkthrough for the Mustangs against a Rogues team that carries a true 3-1 record into Friday’s series opener against Redmond.
Daffron struck out one, walked one and allowed all three hits against him in his two-inning stint in a second inning that saw center fielder Cade Pettersen race down a shot to the right-center gap by Logan Macy to strand two baserunners.
“It’s the first time getting out there with new guys and a new team and not everyone is familiar with each other,” said Daffron, “but I think we did a really good job competing.”
Sean McFall ripped a leadoff double in the top of the second inning for the Mustangs’ first hit against Cal State-Northridge’s Forrest Zelmer. After a sacrifice bunt by Pettersen put him 90 feet away from scoring, Zelmer was able to get a strikeout and groundout to end the threat.
Zelmer wound up allowing two hits with four walks and three strikeouts in four innings.
Pettersen smacked a double after a one-out walk drawn by McFall to again put the Mustangs in scoring contention, and an ensuing walk drawn by Grady Sickler loaded the bases. Once again, however, Zelmer squashed the uprising with a strikeout and a groundout.
“These players are good,” said Rogues manager Kevin Olmstead of the 19-and-under Mustangs. “They had a couple guys that swung the bat pretty well today off of really good pitching, so hat’s off to their program and hat’s off to the Mustangs. They’re always super competitive.”
The Rogues broke the game open with a rough fourth inning for the Mustangs that included two walks, one hit batter, two hits and a couple missed cutoff throws that allowed the older and more experienced Rogues players to take extra bases and develop a 5-0 advantage.
“We’re not far off,” said Mustangs manager John King.
The Mustangs finished with four hits, while Diego Gabriel went 2-for-3 with one run and one RBI and Jonathan Walsh was 2-for-4 with one run and two RBIs to help power the Rogues’ seven-hit attack against four Mustangs pitchers (two collegiate freshmen, two high schoolers).
“It was a season opener and a lot of these guys haven’t seen live pitching in a week or so, and some of them a little bit longer,” King said of his team. “We were facing a good arm tonight (in Zelmer), and I liked that we had some competitive at-bats. For the arm that we had, we didn’t strike out a ton, which was good. We put the ball in play, and that’s all you can ask when you’re facing someone like that, because I don’t know if we’ll face anybody as good this year.”
The fact that the Rogues pitchers delivered, and got quality defensive support, was nothing new for Olmstead.
“The pitching and the defense have been stellar so far, knock on wood,” said the second-year manager. “They’ve been killing it. With every wood-bat league, it’s hard to get in a groove offensively, but I don’t want us to peak right now. I want us to continue to struggle — and we’re going to struggle on the basepaths still, too — and we just have to grow into July. Hopefully by July, we will really find it and click so we’re able to compete for the (Pacific Empire League) championship.”
Rosenthal said he believes the Rogues definitely have the ingredients to contend.
“All of the guys are great and we’ve got a great team chemistry,” he said. “I think we’re still sort of getting all the kinks out of playing with each other because we started up pretty quick, but we’ve got a lot of super talented guys and I think we could go really far and make a good run to the playoffs.”