Valencia opened 2026 the way it closed 2025: with Cole DeYoung hitting the game's first Valencia pitch sequence over the left-field fence. Six runs later, the Vikings had batted around at JSerra, and they needed every one in an 8-7 doubleheader-opening win.

The first inning gave Valencia a 6-0 lead on DeYoung's homer, run-scoring singles from Tyler Wertz and Francisco Velazquez Jr., an error, and JT Gurne's two-run double. JSerra answered with four of its own before the inning was done, and starter Tennysen Enneking gave way to Justin Gaisford, who quieted the Lions into the third. Gaisford also tripled and came all the way home on the same play in the second, and Zach Davis singled home a run in the fourth for an 8-4 cushion.

JSerra kept coming: a tag-up run in the fourth off Charles Goodman, then two in the sixth off Jordan Ramos, pitching in his first game on record, to close within 8-7 with runners aboard. That is when Carter Bennett, in the game only to catch, took over: caught-stealings at third base to end the sixth AND kill the seventh's leadoff rally, both throws to Zach Davis.

Brady Ruffner worked around two singles in the seventh, and when Kyle Josing squeezed the final fly ball, Valencia had its fourth straight win, with pitch velocities on record for both sides for the first time this fall.