The Fall 2026 season opened at home on Saturday morning with eight Valencia pitchers taking an inning apiece, and for five innings the Vikings answered everything Maranatha did.

Maranatha struck first with two home runs in the second. Evan Conrad answered right away, leading off the bottom half with a homer to left, and Tyler Lord's single brought Brady Ruffner around to make it 3-2. In the third, Casey Nickson and Cole DeYoung singled, Conrad singled home the tying run, and JT Gurne's sacrifice bunt scored DeYoung for a 4-3 lead.

A solo homer tied it in the fifth. Santino Cascione put Valencia back in front in the bottom half, singling, stealing second and third, and scoring on DeYoung's sacrifice fly. Ruffner had already stolen second and third in the same inning in the fourth, and Steven Genovese had opened the day by striking out the side in the first.

The game turned with two outs in the seventh. A single, a walk, and a two-out error tied it 5-5, and two more singles made it 8-5. Maranatha added a squeeze run in the eighth. Conrad finished 3-for-4 with the home run and two RBIs, and Valencia matched Maranatha with eleven hits. Next up is Chaminade on the road.