Spicy Salama: Menlo School’s fiery Ben Salama hits landmark triple, channels Mason Miller in Knights’ CCS title win ...Middle East

SAN JOSE — Ben Salama isn’t afraid to wear his emotions on his sleeve. 

The Menlo School senior stepped up to the plate to lead off the bottom of the third inning in the CCS Division V championship game against Monterey. He promptly swung and missed on the first two pitches he saw. 

He heard about it from Monterey’s dugout. That was just fine with him.

Salama retorted with a frozen-rope line shot to left center, putting him in position to score Menlo’s fifth run on a double by Fletcher Cahill.

Fast-forward to the seventh inning. Salama was called upon to preserve Menlo’s lead, which had subsequently been trimmed from four runs to one. 

Once again, Salama wasn’t fazed. He promptly retired the side in order on 12 pitches, then led Menlo’s raucous celebration as the Knights secured a 5-4 win and their second consecutive CCS title at Excite Ballpark in San Jose.

“My goal the whole season was to make the last out at Excite,” Salama said. “Throughout the CCS playoffs, I was like, ‘I’m feeling good.’ I’m gonna stay ready. My mentality has always been, ‘I’m ready for whatever else the team needs.’ Because originally, I was a starter at the start of the year. I didn’t really come out of the bullpen. But today, I was like, ‘They call my name, I’m ready.’”

Menlo (21-8) hadn’t called Salama’s name on the mound in a while, as the senior had been struggling with elbow soreness and had not pitched in a game since April 22. 

He had been diligently rehabbing his partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in the meantime, hoping for a shot to get back on the bump. It didn’t come in the first two rounds of the D-V playoffs. 

But when Menlo needed to slam the door shut on a section title, coach David Trujillo knew exactly where to turn. 

“He’s been working his butt off with rehab and getting better and getting healthy and working super hard off the field to get himself ready to show up for his teammates,” Trujillo said of Salama. “And he wanted the ball. He wanted the ball last game in the semis, and then he definitely wanted it today. So we just had to find that moment where it was right for him, and he did what he could have done the majority of the year if he didn’t get a little banged up.”

Salama has a likely future as a starting pitcher at Brandeis University, where he is committed to play starting next year. But much like A’s closer Mason Miller, Salama unexpectedly found himself closing out a big game.

Miller came up as a high-octane starter with Oakland and had early success, throwing seven no-hit innings in his third career start. He switched to the bullpen full-time after spraining his UCL during the 2023 season.

It’s obviously far too early to suggest that Salama’s career could go the same direction. But for one night, he got to feel exactly what Miller does when he closes out a win.

“I’ve always kind of been a fireballer per se,” Salama said. “But especially in a situation where it was a one-inning outing, I was like, ‘Just throw. Don’t second-guess it. Just give them what you got,’ and it was a positive result.”

Despite his dominant inning, Salama was more excited about his hit after the game. Primarily a pitcher, Salama has had to contribute more with the bat this year while his right arm was injured.

And while he’s been a solid contributor, hitting .338, he had surprisingly failed to notch an extra-base hit all season long. Until Thursday. 

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“I’m not really a power hitter at all,” Salama said. “That at bat, specifically, they were just attacking me fastball up, fastball up. And I’ll admit it, my timing was really bad, which resulted in two bad swings and misses.

“The next one, I had a feeling they would come back and try to give me the fastball again after the two previous pitches, and I was able to put a good swing on it. Rounding first base for me, it was just like, ‘Holy cow.’ My job is to hit hard ground balls and get on first base or move guys over. I’m not the centerpiece of the order, but there, I was able to get extra bases, and it was such an awesome experience. For me, that was the equivalent of hitting a no-doubt home run.” 

Menlo had a lot to celebrate on Thursday night. Not only are the Knights CCS champions, they’ll be going back to the CIF NorCal regional tournament for the second year in a row. 

And you can guarantee that Salama has some juice left in him for Menlo’s next NorCal game.

“If he’s in the moment and he’s feeling it, I’m not gonna hold him back unless the umpire says something,” Trujillo said. “He’s got elite stuff, and when you’re fired up, I mean, there’s no stopping that train.”

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