Rogues go from fifth to third in league standings; head coach Kevin Olmstead named coach of the year
MEDFORD — The Medford Rogues finished the 2026 summer season one victory shy of the postseason, but their 28-13 record and third-place league finish marked a significant step forward for a program determined to build on a disappointing 2025 campaign.
In his second season as head coach, Kevin Olmstead guided the Rogues to a 15-10 league record, improving the club from a fifth-place finish the previous summer. Olmstead was named the league’s Coach of the Year, while six Medford players earned all-league recognition.
Catcher Chris Ortiz and infielders Kian Sanchez and Evan Saito received all-league honors among position players.
Pitchers Preston Daniels, Wyatt Green and Herman Luna were also recognized.
Olmstead credited his coaching staff for the turnaround. “First, this award doesn’t happen if I didn’t have the best coaching staff beside me,” Olmstead said. “They exceeded my expectations every single day, and this award is just as much theirs as it is mine.”
The Rogues’ success was especially pronounced at home, where Medford went 26-7 and led the league in attendance. A record number of fans passed through the gates at Harry & David Field, giving the Rogues one of the summer’s strongest home-field advantages. On the road, Medford went 2-6.
The season began with the Rogues establishing themselves at home, winning 11 of their first 12 games there. Medford swept the Redmond Dudes and Fresno A’s in early June before running into its first significant stretch of adversity.
After losing a two-game series to the California Tigers, the Rogues dropped the opening two games of a four-game series against the Solano Mudcats. The response came on Father’s Day.
Herman Luna delivered a complete-game performance as Medford defeated the Mudcats 9-3, providing the spark the Rogues needed. It was only the second complete game by a Medford pitcher in two seasons. The Rogues followed with victories in the doubleheader to split the series and regain their momentum.
The winning continued against the West Coast Kings. Daniel Behrmann delivered a ninth-inning walk-off sacrifice fly in the opener before Medford erupted for a 19-2 victory in the second game, scoring nine runs in the sixth inning and six more in the seventh.
Another dramatic finish followed against the Healdsburg Prune Packers, when Larsen Koester drove in the winning run with a ninth-inning walk-off to give Medford a 7-6 victory.
By July, the Rogues had become one of the summer’s biggest attractions. A two-game series against the Humboldt Crabs drew 2,208 fans to Harry & David Field, and the strong attendance continued over the Fourth of July weekend. Medford defeated the Cal State Peloteros 12-2 and 5-4, with the latter victory coming in extra innings on a walk-off that became one of the season’s memorable moments.
As the summer progressed, the Rogues’ offense continued to develop.
Sanchez, a first-year Rogue from Stanislaus State, emerged as one of the team’s biggest offensive contributors. He hit .410 in exactly 100 at-bats, finishing with 28 runs and 23 RBIs. His average became the highest single-season mark in team history for a player reaching the required number of at-bats. Sanchez will continue his academic and athletic career at the University of California, Berkeley.
“A bunch of guys from all over the country playing baseball together will forever be a great part of this game,” Sanchez said. “To have the cohesiveness that this group had in such a short period of time is something you don’t see often.”
Ortiz, in his final season with the Rogues, provided another steady presence in the lineup and behind the plate. He appeared in 153 plate appearances, batting .317 with 24 runs and 24 RBIs. Beyond his production at the plate, Ortiz became one of the team’s leaders and a trusted presence for the pitching staff.
“The 2026 Rogues will always have a special place in my heart,” Ortiz said. “We really cared about each other, and you could feel it. That’s a special thing.”
The production extended throughout the lineup. Jonathan Walsh hit .291 with 22 runs, 15 RBIs and 10 stolen bases. Jaden Neugebauer hit .292 in 38 games and provided the extra-inning walk-off against the Cal State Peloteros on July 4.
Saito hit .337 while scoring 24 runs and driving in 17 runs, and his 30 stolen bases led the league. He finished just three steals short of Caleb Broughton’s single-season team record of 33, set in 2019.
Behrmann hit .325 with 25 runs, 10 RBIs and 10 stolen bases.
As a team, Medford hit .291 with a .401 on-base percentage and 17 home runs.
The pitching staff also made strides. The Rogues finished with a 4.25 team ERA under first-year pitching coach Nick Burger, who emphasized a strike-one approach that quickly became a defining part of the staff.
Green, a right-hander from Cal State San Bernardino, thrived in the bullpen. He appeared in 15 games and recorded a 4-0 mark while leading the team with 38 strikeouts.
“The 2026 season was beyond special,” Green said. “We were all working towards a goal every day, and I think that brought us all closer together.”
Luna anchored the staff with a 6-2 record and 3.54 ERA over 48⅓ innings. Green finished with a 2.96 ERA in 27⅓ innings, while Daniels posted a 2.33 ERA over 20⅓ innings.
Daniels, a second-year Rogue who joined the club later in the summer, developed into a reliable reliever and earned the start against the Humboldt Crabs in the final game of the regular season.
“The 2026 Rogues were really special because of how close everyone became and how much we competed for each other,” Daniels said. “It was a great group of guys who worked hard, had fun, and made a lot of memories together.”
Then came the final weekend.
Medford entered its final three-game road series against Humboldt in second place in the league after sweeping the West Coast Kings. With a postseason berth within reach, the Rogues needed to finish the job against the Crabs.
Instead, their season came down to the final inning.
Medford led 2-1 entering the bottom of the sixth, but Humboldt scored three times in the inning and added two more runs in the seventh. The Rogues mounted a late push, but the potential tying runs were stranded in the ninth as Humboldt held on for a 6-4 victory.
The loss put Medford in third place.
For a team that had spent much of the summer climbing the standings, the ending was difficult. The Rogues had come within two innings of reaching their goal, only to see their season disappear at Arcata Ballpark.
Yet the final scene said as much about the 2026 Rogues as the final record.
After the last out, players gathered on the field, hugged and celebrated the relationships they had built over the summer. The disappointment of missing the postseason was evident, but so was the connection that had developed within the clubhouse.
The loss may have ended the season, but it did not erase the progress.
From a fifth-place league finish in 2025 to third in 2026, from a 15-10 league record to a 28-13 overall mark, the Rogues established themselves as a legitimate contender. Individual players developed, the offense found its rhythm, the pitching staff improved and fans continued to fill Harry & David Field.
Olmstead repeatedly pointed to that growth during the season, emphasizing how far the players had come from late May to the end of July.
The 2026 Rogues will ultimately be remembered not for the two innings that cost them a postseason berth, but for the months of baseball that put them in position to reach it.
They won 28 games. They packed the stands. They produced all-league players. They gave their fans plenty of memorable moments.
And, perhaps most importantly, they became a team.
For the Medford Rogues, the summer ended one win short of the postseason. But the 2026 club leaves behind a season that will be remembered as one of the most memorable in franchise history — a team united by the motto it adopted along the way:
#MedfordBreedsMen
*stats beased on Prestosports scoring app associated with the PEL