Healdsburg Prune Packers primed to contend for 6th straight summer league title

The Healdsburg Prune Packers opened the 2026 season over the weekend with another display of classic Packers baseball.

Behind their hallmarks of dominant pitching and power hitting, the Packers routed the visiting Stockton Pearls 12-1 in front of a capacity crowd that crammed into historic Recreation Park in Healdsburg on a hot and windy Friday night.

Five Healdsburg pitchers combined to allow just two hits in the opener, while the offense launched three home runs and plated seven runs in a decisive barrage in the seventh inning.

The Packers delivered another sharp performance the next night with a 17-1 victory over the Bay Area Marauders.

It was as good a sign as any that the Packers are set to retain their role as one of, if not the, top collegiate summer league teams on the West Coast, especially considering they're usually just putting their pieces together at the start of the season.

Players trickled in to Sonoma County over the last week from Division I colleges all over the country ahead of their first official practice with the team on Thursday. In his 14th season at the helm, head coach Joey Gomes often expects the first few weeks of summer to be an adjustment period as he and his players get to know one another. That was different this year.

"There was no awkward phase with the guys … kind of tuck your shirt in, cross your T's and dot your I's," Gomes said after Friday's opener. "We only had our first practice yesterday, but everyone was ready to work and compete, and I thought that was unique because normally there's this feeling-out phase and there was none of that at all."

Over his tenure leading the club, Gomes has turned Healdsburg into a premier destination for high-level collegiate players to not just work on their games but also provide an exciting and entertaining product that the local community can rally around. The Packers won their fifth consecutive summer league title last year, defeating the Humboldt Crabs in a tightly contest three-game series that ended with a 9-4 victory in the winner-take-all matchup at Rec Park.

They finished the 2025 season 38-6 overall, bringing their cumulative record over the past five years to an astonishing 204-40.

"What our fans can enjoy is Healdsburg has a winner," Gomes said. "Around here it's real estate, restaurants and wine, but now they have a baseball team to be proud of. We're in the middle of this wonderful time where we're kind of on this run right now. We're trying not to wake up to it because then it's over, but it's a great time be a part of Packer nation."

The goal hasn't changed this summer for the Pack, now in the third year in the still relatively new Pacific Empire League. Formed before the start of the 2024 season, the PEL features the top collegiate summer teams from Northern California to Southern Oregon, most of whom play at historic local venues in front of passionate and loyal local fanbases.

The Marysville Giants are a new addition to the PEL this year, bringing the total to seven teams. All seven feature rosters full of top-flight Division I talent.

Just based on their roster, the Packers are likely to again be the team everyone else in the PEL is chasing. Through years of cultivating relationships with college coaches, and the success of the Packers and their past alumni, Gomes has fielded a team that features players from NCAA Division I schools like Michigan, LSU, Tennessee, South Carolina, Cal, USC and Texas.

"Guys like this, first of all, they have all the options for the summer," Gomes said. "(South Carolina's) Logan Sutter can go play anywhere he wants, same with (Houston's) Caleb Kimble and (LSU's) Jack Ruckert. But not only to do they choose to come here, but the coaching staff of these schools highly recommend that they choose this place because of our staff and this environment."

And, as has become a tradition, the Packers also feature a collection of talented alumni from local high schools, like San Jose State's Jake McCoy (Casa Grande, SRJC), UC Davis' Mason Lerma and Jack Pezzolo (both from Cardinal Newman), Southeast Missouri's Brice Cox (Casa Grande, SRJC), Sacramento State's Raul Valdivia (Cardinal Newman, SRJC) and UC San Diego's Alex Leopard (Analy, SRJC).

"I kind of look at it like what an embarrassment of riches," Gomes added, "but then you get here and the baseball kicks off and no one is in their school uniforms. Everyone's just a guy here and they all have something to work on and something to improve or something to prove. We have a lot of guys who, in subtle conversations, say that they really want to come here and prove that they can do it."

Sutter was a driving force in the opening win, collecting four hits with four RBIs, including a two-run home run and a two-run double. Kimble, meanwhile, pitched four no-hit innings in the start with four strikeouts.

The Packers led 4-1 after six innings on Friday night but blew things open in the seventh, a frame highlighted by Sutter's two-run double and a three-run home run from Michigan's Matthew Ossenfort.

If Friday's win was any indication, it should be another exciting summer in Healdsburg for the Prune Packers.

Healdsburg Prune Packers 2026 roster

Tyler LeRoy, C, Cal

Hideki Prather, C, Cal

Trevian Martinez, C, UCSD

Tommy Brown, C, Arizona State

Justin Lucas, C, Simpson University

Brenden Lewis, INF, Arizona State

Cade Campbell, INF, Cal

Logan Sutter, INF, South Carolina

Jack Ruckert, INF, LSU

Matthew Mansbery, INF, Michigan

Matthew Ossenfort, INF, Michigan

JC Osorio-Agard, INF, San Jose State

Alex Leopard, OF, UC San Diego

William Patrick, OF, LSU

Zane Kelley, OF, San Diego State

Jake McCoy, OF, San Jose State

Will Van Wie, OF, Houston

Dane Morrow, OF, Michigan

Mason Lerma, P, UC Davis

Caleb Kimble, P, Houston

Jack Pezzolo, P, UC Davis

Simon Lemke, P, San Diego State

Ari Bethea, P, Tennessee

Zack Serup, P, Western Kentucky

Chandler Day, P, Tennessee

Take Kreis, P, Cal

Paul Grossman, P, USC

Slade Moore, P, Michigan

Caden Duke, P, San Jose State

Jesse Gutierrez, P, San Jose State

Cooper Rummel, P, Texas

Jadyn Furgason, P, Texas

Brice Cox, P, Southeast Missouri

Brandon Mann, P, Michigan

EJ McGrew, P, San Jose State

Peter Storjohann, P, UC Davis

Jack Paris, P, Texas

Duncan Russell, P, Cal

Aiden Pinn, P, Cal

Aidan Russell, P, San Diego State

Michael Quedens, P, Michigan

Raul Valdivia, P, Sacramento State

Cade Colombara, P, Cal

Jake Sekany, P, USC

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This story was originally published June 7, 2026 at 12:58 PM.